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PurposeThe coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has been negatively affecting international trade between countries; however, there is a lack of empirical studies on developing countries such as Vietnam. This article aims to investigate how the COVID-19 cases and related deaths and policy response by Vietnam and trading partners to the pandemic affect Vietnam's export activities.Design/methodology/approachThe authors use the monthly trade data from the General Department of Vietnam Customs and employ the Poisson pseudo-maximum-likelihood (PPML) estimator to empirically investigate the effects of COVID-19 and policy response to the pandemic on Vietnam's exports at aggregate and sectoral levels over a 33-month period.FindingsIn the first year of the pandemic (January–December 2020) as well as the whole study period (January 2019–September 2021), trading partners' COVID-19 burden adversely affected Vietnam's aggregate exports, and the effect of COVID-19 deaths is significantly larger than that of COVID-19 cases. In the first year of the pandemic, estimates show a negative effect of Vietnam's COVID-19 cases on its exports, while no evidence reveals the impact of Vietnam's COVID-19 deaths. However, during the entire study period, there are remarkable adverse effects of Vietnam's COVID-19 deaths on its exports. The effect of the COVID-19 burden in Vietnam and in its trading partners differs significantly across major subsectors. In the first year, there is a positive role of government response to the pandemic by Vietnam and its trading partners in Vietnam's aggregate exports, while in the whole study period, only a positive effect of Vietnam's government response is found. Economic support and free trade agreements (FTAs) have a positive effect on Vietnam's exports. In the first year of the pandemic, Vietnam's export losses due to COVID-19 outweighed its export gains from the pandemic. However, Vietnam's exports have significantly improved over the nine months of 2021.Research limitations/implicationsEfforts should aim to reduce the number of COVID-19 deaths rather than focus on reducing the number of COVID-19 cases. The application of stringency measures by both exporters and importers should be minimized, or at least those measures need to be combined with health methods, such as testing policy and contact tracing, short-term investment in healthcare and especially investments in vaccines. In addition, economic support, particularly debt relief, needs to be widely applied to assist firms, especially those involved in international trade. The expansion of FTA networks and diversifying export destinations may be helpful in maintaining production networks and export activities.Practical implicationsIn the long-term period, the application of stringency measures by both exporters and importers should be minimized, or at least those measures need to be combined with health methods such as testing policy and contact tracing, short-term investment in healthcare and especially investments in vaccines. In addition, economic assistance, particularly debt relief, needs to be widely applied to assist firms, especially those involved in international trade activities.Originality/valueTo the best of the authors’ knowledge, the paper is among the first studies empirically investigating the impacts of COVID-19 and policy response to the pandemic on aggregate and sectoral exports from Vietnam. The paper also measures the absolute value of export gain and export loss due to the pandemic between Vietnam and trading countries.

Using the analysis framework of gravity model, the purpose of this study is to investigate determinants of creative goods exports from Vietnam—a developing country to the world. Over the years, Vietnam has rapidly enlarged creative goods exports to the globe, with a high concentration on developed economies and design sector. We found Vietnam’s creative goods exports, at aggregate level, are principally positively affected by economic scale and market development of both Vietnam and trading partners as well as trading partners’ higher education. There is the heterogeneity among the parameter estimations in different types of creative sector and different sub-sectors of design industry. We found Vietnam is subject to export-agglomeration economies in the creative sector but its impacts are not the same among the all creative sectors intra and inter. Vietnam’s creative exports, at both aggregate and sectoral levels, are negatively impacted by cultural distance, except performing arts. In future, there is a significant room for enhancing Vietnam’s creative goods exports to external countries. Nevertheless, it would need Vietnam to implement appropriate policies with the focus on increasing access to foreign markets; fostering the establishment of industrial zones; improving higher educational institutions; and promoting linkages between local suppliers and foreign enterprises.

Our paper contributes to existing literature by empirically investigate the trade structure and trade performance between Korea and ASEAN. Overall, trade activities between Korea and almost major ASEAN economies have significantly focused on capital goods, medium and high technology goods, while the remaining ASEAN countries’ exports over Korea have been mainly primary and low technology goods. There has been a higher complementarity in between Korea’s exports and ASEAN’s imports compared with between ASEAN’s exports and Korea’s imports. Estimation results show that ASEAN’s GDP and income have larger impacts than those of Korea on aggregate trade flows as well as sectoral level between two sides. Additionally, geographical conditions are critical factors impeding Korea-ASEAN trade. Meanwhile, other factors in the estimation model have mixed impacts on components of Korea-ASEAN trade structure. Finally, there is a significant room for Korea’s trade expansion with ASEAN, particularly new and less developed members in future.

Using monthly inward foreign direct investment (FDI) data for the period from January 2020 to September 2021, our study aims to investigate how the COVID-19 burden (cases and deaths) and policy responses of Vietnam and 40 investment partners affected Vietnam’s FDI attraction. Estimates for the baseline models as well as for different types of income levels show that Vietnam’s COVID-19 burden negatively affects its inward FDI, while no evidence reveals the effect of investment partners’ COVID-19 burden. We find that Vietnam’s COVID-19 cases negatively affect its inward FDI from the European region, while no evidence reveals an effect from the Asian region. When including policy responses in the estimation, we find a disadvantageous impact of investment partners’ COVID-19 cases and deaths as well as Vietnam’s COVID-19 deaths on Vietnam’s inward FDI. In general, the effects of COVID-19 cases are significantly lower than those of COVID-19 deaths. Estimates show that stringent measures in Vietnam and investment partners negatively affect FDI flows into Vietnam, while containment and health measures have a positive effect. The study suggests that efforts should focus on reducing the number of COVID-19 deaths rather than the number of COVID-19 cases, minimizing the application of stringency measures by Vietnam and investment partners, applying health methods, and expanding trade agreements networks.

Taiwan and Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) do not have any diplomatic ties, but they have enjoyed significantly economic benefits, especially bilateral investment and trade cooperation. Over the period 2000–2017, trade between Taiwan and ASEAN had significantly focused on manufactured goods embodied with high-skill and technology-intensive content. Using gravity model with a PPML (Poisson pseudo-maximum-likelihood) estimator, this article explores determinants of bilateral trade flows between them at both aggregate and sectoral levels. We found that economic scale and per capital income of ASEAN have much stronger effects than those of Taiwan at both aggregate trade and the degree of manufacturing. Results also show that bilateral trade between Taiwan and ASEAN has been efficiently performed over recent decades, except for cases of Myanmar and Cambodia. Hence, a dynamic approach should be taken by both sides to promote bilateral trade relations in future.

By employing the gravity model using the Poisson pseudo-maximum-likelihood estimator, the air of this study was to investigate the determinants of Vietnam’s world seafood exports from 2000-2018 at both the aggregate and sub-sectoral level. In recent decades, Vietnam has rapidly increased its seafood exports to the global market, with a concentration on its exports to the United States, Japan, China, and South Korea. Its seafood export subsectors have been diversified among fish products (fresh, chilled, or frozen), crustaceans, mollusks, aquatic invertebrate products, aquatic fish, and invertebrates (prepared or persevered) products. The estimations show that Vietnam’s seafood exports (at both aggregate and subsector level) are determined by the size of the importing partners’ economies and income levels. At the aggregate level, Association of Southeast Asian Nations, the European Union, and North America were found to promote Vietnam’s seafood exports. At the subsector level, we found that North America had a positive link with Vietnam’s export of fish (fresh, chilled, or frozen), while there was a negative nexus between many regions with respect to the export of crustaceans, mollusks and aquatic invertebrates, as well as aquatic fish and invertebrates (prepared or persevered). To promote Vietnam’s seafood exports to the world market at the aggregate level, the country should enhance its establishment of preferential trade agreements with certain target markets, while at the subsector level, Vietnam should have a dynamic approach regarding the selection of its export destinations.

This study, by employing an augmented gravity model under the Poisson pseudo-maximum-likelihood (PPML) estimation, aims to scrutinise the determinants and potential of seafood exports from Vietnam—a transitional and emerging economy to the global market over the period of 2000–2018 at both aggregate and sectoral levels. With remarkable growth over the years, Vietnam has become the largest seafood exporter in Southeast Asia. The country’s seafood exports have been diversified in terms of export structure and export markets. The estimation results show that the size of economies and market development from importers are the main factors that are driving Vietnam’s total seafood exports. At the sectoral level, the magnitude of the effects of income per capita significantly differs among the subsectors of seafood. We find that the impacts of factors such as region, access to the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the free trade agreement (FTA) establishment on Vietnam’s seafood exports are heterogeneous. We found that there is still room for the expansion of Vietnam’s seafood exports to some market destinations. This article suggests a dynamic strategy to increase Vietnam’s seafood exports in the coming years. JEL Codes: F1, F14, Q1