Technical efficiency of small and medium manufacturing firms in Vietnam: A stochastic meta-frontier analysis

Viet Le, Binh (Benjamin) Vu and Son Nghiem

Economic Analysis and Policy, 2018, vol. 59, issue C, 84-91

Abstract: Small and medium-size enterprises (SMEs) play a vital role in the Vietnamese economy; hence more understanding of their efficiency is of interest for a variety of various stakeholders in Vietnam. This paper estimates technological gaps and identifies factors affecting variations in the technical efficiency of SMEs in Vietnam using firm-level survey data in 2008 in a stochastic meta-frontier framework. We found that, on average, SMEs can increase their current outputs by eight percent using the same quantity of inputs. Firms operating in major cities such as Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City are found to be more efficient and possess better technology. Our evidence indicates that most SMEs in Vietnam use relatively low-level technologies, evidenced by the higher return from labour and raw materials than that from capital.

Keywords: Technical efficiency; Meta-frontier; SMEs; Vietnam (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D24 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (18)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0313592617302151
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:ecanpo:v:59:y:2018:i:c:p:84-91

DOI: 10.1016/j.eap.2018.03.001

Access Statistics for this article

Economic Analysis and Policy is currently edited by Clevo Wilson

More articles in Economic Analysis and Policy from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().