Bank structure, efficiency and risk management in Vietnam

The purpose of this thesis is to examine the feature of the Vietnamese banking system in terms of bank structure, bank efficiency and risk management. We extend the structural, nonstructural and efficiency models to make them applicable to Vietnam. Findings from these models explain the performance and level of efficiency of the whole banking system, state owned commercial banks (SOCBs) and non-state owned commercial banks (non-SOCBs). At the theoretical level, this thesis investigates the development of Vietnamese banking in four stages: (1) the period prior to 1986; (2) 1986-1995; (3) 1996-2005; (4) 2006 until now. We also put an emphasis on the Vietnamese crises in 1997 and 2008. Through such investigations, we are able to incorporate a number of financial fundamentals to the bank structure and efficiency models that capture the features of the Vietnamese banking system. Moreover, we construct a large data set of 48 Vietnamese commercial banks in the period from 1999 to 2009. This time span covers both the post 1997 Asian and 2008 Global crises, which allows us to estimate the impacts of financial crises on the banking system. At the empirical level, this thesis provides, for the first time, a comprehensive application of the extended structural (Structure-Conduct-Performance (SCP) and Efficiency Hypothesis (EH)) and non-structural (Panzar-Rosse) models. In the non-structural model, we employ models using current and lagged input prices, both with and without assets. Moreover, both equilibrium and disequilibrium approaches are used to examine the bank structure. This is the first time the semi-parametric model is applied through the two-stage procedure for the Vietnamese banking system. In addition, it is also the first study that carries out a survey of risk management using a questionnaire

Risk management of the Vietnamese banking system: A market research survey

The purpose of this paper is to examine risk management of the Vietnamese banking system. This is the first such study of the Vietnamese banking system. To be able to carry out a comparative analysis and provide policy recommendations for risk management, we carry out an original survey of Vietnamese commercial banks using a questionnaire. 42% of the interviewees are General/Deputy General Directors and 58% are Heads/Deputies of a risk management department. The Kruskal-Wallis, Pearson chi-square and other tests are employed to examine the relationship between risk management and bank efficiency. The survey results indicate that there is a difference between banks in terms of risk area identification, risk intensification methods prioritised, risk monitoring methods, efficiency improvement suggestions, awareness of other banks’ risk management systems and credit risk analysis

Performance of the banking sector of a developing country: a non-structural model using the disequilibrium approach

Based on the non-structural model – disequilibrium approach (Goddard and Wilson, 2009), this paper presents an empirical assessment of the degree of competition within the Vietnamese banking system from 1999 to 2009. We examine a greater number of environmental covariates and different dependent variables compared to previous applications of this model. Moreover, we use lagged input prices (to avoid endogeneity) and exclude assets (to avoid specification bias) in our models. The results indicate that the Vietnamese banking system operates in a monopolistic environment

Learning to be Researchers: A Study of Pedagogical Students in Hanoi, Vietnam

Doing research in colleges and universities is an essential activity since it may provide students a good basis to become professional researcher and teacher in the future. However, few students in Vietnam can recognize the importance of research activities or possess an adequate background of knowledge to participate in these activities, and additionally, the obligatory course of Research Methodology offered in many universities cannot bring enough understanding in doing research to students. This study, thus, aims at investigating the effects of Research Methodology courses in both of their good and bad sides) on students at a pedagogical university. The study also attempts to survey the attitude of those students toward the activity of doing research and the impact of the attitude on their process of learning to be researcher

Investigation of Ultrasonic Pulse Velocity Reduction in Reinforced Concrete Members Exposed to High Temperature

Nowadays, the fire resistance of reinforced concrete members is generally defined by material characteristics at elevated temperatures and temperature functions. However, the influence of steel reinforcement in concrete members exposed to high temperatures on the ultrasonic pulse velocity (UPV) measurements has still been limited. In this paper, the quality of concrete and steel reinforcement/concrete interface was assessed under high temperatures using UPV measurements. The specimens were classified into four categories: the control tested cubes without rebar; tested cubes with plain and ribbed steel rebars. Tested cubes with dimensions of 100x100x100 mm were cast and cured for 28 days at room temperature (20oC). After drying all specimens at 105oC for 48 hours, these cubes were subjected to four different temperature levels ranging from 150oC to 400oC for 4 hours before being cooled to room temperature. According to the measured values of UPV, the higher the temperature attained in specimens, the greater the following changes occurred in concrete: (i) the degradation within the concrete; (ii) the debonding of steel reinforcements in concrete

Molecular phylogeny of Annonaceae species from Binh Chau-Phuoc Buu Nature Reserve based on two chloroplast gene regions

In this study, based on molecular biology techniques, the matK and trnL-F regions of ten Annonaceae species grown in Binh Chau-Phuoc Buu Nature Reserve, Vietnam were successfully amplified and sequenced for the first time. Along with other highly homologous DNA sequences from the GenBank database, the molecular phylogeny of ten studied species was also established. By using the alignment tool of NCBI database, the percentage of identity among sequences of studied species was also presented. The study aims to partially contribute to the further understanding of the evolutionary relationships among Annonaceae species

Rewarding Properties of Social Defeat

Conditioned place preference (CPP) is a classical conditioning paradigm used to evaluate the rewarding or aversive properties of a stimulus. A stimulus can be an audio, visual, or sensory prompt but can also be stimuli associated with behaviors. Environments associated with sexual and aggressive encounters can become rewarding to both male and female Syrian hamsters regardless of social status. However, we have observed that individually-housed, non-aggressive hamsters find social interaction without aggression or sexual behaviors rewarding. Therefore, we expanded upon our previous experiments using CPP to test the hypothesis that group-housed, male hamsters (n=12) can develop a preference for a negative social experience such as social defeat. The CPP paradigm consisted of an initial preference test (15 min X 2), a conditioning phase (10 min X 5 days), and a final preference test (15 min). The hamster was placed into a CPP apparatus containing two main testing chambers, black and white, connected by a neutral, clear chamber. The pretest was conducted to establish a baseline for comparison to the posttest to determine changes in the amount of time spent in either (black/white) chamber. An individually-housed male (n=11) was paired with a group-housed male in their non-preferred chamber for conditioning. The order of placement in the chambers was alternated daily. Control animals (n=5) were used to evaluate effects of habituation across conditioning trials. The result of our experiment showed that group- housed animals developed a CPP for social defeat. We observed that the preference scores increased from 0.34 (± 0.01) to 0.41 (± 0.04), p = .08 and the difference scores decreased from 243.67 (± 21.72) to 171.25 (± 60.34), p \u3c .05. There were no significant differences between pretest and posttest scores for controls for both preference scores and for difference scores from pretest to posttest. The results of this experiment suggest that that our subjects developed a CPP for social defeat and that their response may have been influenced by the type of social defeat. We believe that an escapable defeat with different aggressors’ parings, as was conducted in our experiment, produced social interaction with novelty but with lower stress levels, leading the animals to develop a CPP for social defeat. The hamster’s reactions to the experiment conducted suggest that their response may have been influenced by the type of social defeat that was experienced. There are two types of social defeat models: inescapable and escapable. An inescapable defeat implies that an animal cannot avoid its aggressor whereas an escapable defeat implies that the animal can. Animals exposed to an inescapable defeat have been found to produce generalized aversion and avoidance towards not only a familiar aggressor but a novel, non-aggressive aggressor with the avoidance greater with the familiar aggressor than the unfamiliar; whereas, animals exposed to an escapable defeat only produce avoidance towards its previous aggressor. However, our previous and current research indicates that all Syrian hamsters regardless of social (aggressive/submissive) and housing (group/individual) status all formed a CPP for social behavior, albeit social aggression or social defeat. Our CPP experiment paradigm, similar to that of an inescapable defeat model in that the animal can avoid its aggressors, perhaps produced a positive CPP for social defeat because the hamsters found the controllability of the defeat with novel aggressors across the conditioning trials to be stimulating. While, the hamsters displayed a CPP for social defeat they were not completely resilient and demonstrated higher vigilance to their surroundings as evidenced by the increased duration in the neutral chamber following social defeat. The hamsters’ behaviors suggest that the conducted experiment produced a combination of mild social defeat with novel interactions that produced less aversion and perhaps lower generalized anxiety which was sufficient to develop a CPP for social defeat