Fiscal Decentralisation in Vietnam: a Preliminary Investigation

Fiscal decentralisation is a complex theoretical and practical issue. The literature is currently divided on whether there is a positive or negative relationship between fiscal decentralisation and economic growth, and it appears that this is in large part due to inconsistent measures of fiscal decentralisation. In this paper, fiscal decentralisation in Vietnam will be examined, with a view to developing a fiscal decentralisation index that accounts for both the fiscal autonomy and fiscal importance of subnational governments to compare the degree of fiscal decentralisation in Vietnam with that of a range of other countries. This will facilitate subsequent (and hopefully definitive) investigations of the relationship between fiscal decentralisation and economic growth.Fiscal Decentralisation, Economic Growth, Fiscal Autonomy, Fiscal Importance, Vietnam

Measuring Fiscal Decentralisation: An Entropic Approach

Fiscal decentralisation has attracted attention from government, academic studies, and international institutions with the aims of enhancing economic growth in recent years. One of the difficult issues is to measure satisfactorily the degree of fiscal decentralisation across countries. This study helps resolve the problem by developing the fiscal decentralisation index which accounts for both fiscal autonomy and fiscal importance of subnational governments. While the index is an advance on current practice, it is still not perfect as it assumes there is no dispersion of revenue and expenditure across regions. In response to this weakness, fiscal entropy and fiscal inequality measures are developed using information theory (Theil, 1967). It is shown how fiscal inequality can be decomposed regionally and hierarchically. These ideas are illustrated with Australia data pertaining to federal, state and local levels of governments.Fiscal Decentralisation, Fiscal Autonomy, Fiscal Importance, Australia

Efficient Finite Difference Method for Computing Sensitivities of Biochemical Reactions

Sensitivity analysis of biochemical reactions aims at quantifying the dependence of the reaction dynamics on the reaction rates. The computation of the parameter sensitivities, however, poses many computational challenges when taking stochastic noise into account. This paper proposes a new finite difference method for efficiently computing sensitivities of biochemical reactions. We employ propensity bounds of reactions to couple the simulation of the nominal and perturbed processes. The exactness of the simulation is reserved by applying the rejection-based mechanism. For each simulation step, the nominal and perturbed processes under our coupling strategy are synchronized and often jump together, increasing their positive correlation and hence reducing the variance of the estimator. The distinctive feature of our approach in comparison with existing coupling approaches is that it only needs to maintain a single data structure storing propensity bounds of reactions during the simulation of the nominal and perturbed processes. Our approach allows to computing sensitivities of many reaction rates simultaneously. Moreover, the data structure does not require to be updated frequently, hence improving the computational cost. This feature is especially useful when applied to large reaction networks. We benchmark our method on biological reaction models to prove its applicability and efficiency.Comment: 29 pages with 6 figures, 2 table

Exchange rate volatility and disaggregated manufacturing exports: Evidence from an emerging country

The link between export performance and exchange rate policy has been attracting attention from policymakers, academics, and practitioners for some time, particularly for emerging countries. It has been recently claimed that implementing a policy that devalues the currency in Vietnam is an important factor for enhancing its export performance. However, it is also argued that such a policy could result in the harmful consequence of exchange rate volatility. This study analyzes the link between exchange rate devaluation, volatility, and export performance. The analysis focuses on the manufacturing sector and 10 of its subsectors that were engaged in the export of goods between Vietnam and 26 key export partners during the 2000–2015 period. Potential factors that could affect this relationship, such as the global financial crisis, Vietnam’s participation in the World Trade Organization, or even the export partners’ geographic structures, are also accounted for in the model. The findings confirm that a strategy that depreciates Vietnam’s currency appears to enhance manufacturing exports in the short run, whereas the resulting exchange rate volatility has clear negative effects in the long run. The impact of exchange rate volatility on manufacturing subsectors depends on two factors, namely, (i) the type of export and (ii) the export destination. Policy implications emerging from these conclusions are presented

Multilingual Students\u27 Perceptions of and Experiences with Instructor Feedback Methods in a U.S. First-Year Composition Class

While instructor feedback has generally been recognized as an essential factor in enhancing writing proficiency for multilingual writers, little known research has focused on students’ perceptions of and their experiences with different modes of instructor feedback. In addition, impacts of various feedback methods on students’ writing have remained debatable. This case study seeks to gain an in-depth understanding of the meaning and significance of three instructor feedback methods, namely written, oral, and audio-visual feedback, from students’ perspectives. Furthermore, it offers additional insights into the impacts of these three instructor feedback methods on students’ writing. To be more precise, this study aims to answer two main research questions: (a) What are multilingual students’ attitudes toward instructor feedback methods (i.e., written, oral, and audio-visual feedback)? and (b) How do these instructor feedback methods impact multilingual students’ writing and their writing experiences? In order to answer these questions, qualitative data, including three open-ended questionnaires administered after each specific feedback method is employed, transcriptions of thirty-minute recorded interviews with individual students after the implementation of the three feedback methods, and students’ written artifacts from their three ENG 101 essays, were collected from the two consenting students within one-semester of their first-year composition class at a Midwestern state university. Thematic content analysis of the questionnaire and interview data through the use of NVivo software program were organized into four critical areas: (1) Students’ introduction of their experiences with feedback, (2) Students’ various attitudes toward feedback, (3) Students’ applications of feedback, and (4) Various impacts of feedback. Additionally, the qualitative analysis of students’ written artifacts resulted in three emergent themes, including completely successful revision, considerably successful revision, and little successful revision. The findings show that although the two students perceived the three instructor feedback methods positively, there were not only variations in their perceptions of and experiences with each feedback format, but also different levels of success in their applications of each form of instructor feedback into their revisions. Based on these research results, possible implications are discussed for second language writing instruction and for further studies on the important topic of feedback in writing instruction

HO CHI MINH’S THOUGHTS ABOUT THE INTELLIGENTSIA

Ho Chi Minh’s thoughts about the intelligentsia are one of the basic and significant components in the ideological system. In term of the intelligentsia, Ho Chi Minh began studying the characteristics, role and position in the revolution, construction and development of Vietnam. Ho Chi Minh said that if we desire to construct the country, we have to consider the training, appointment and development of the intelligentsia as the most crucial task. This idea does not only make contribution to the theoretical treasure about the intelligentsia in the world but also has its theoretical and practical meaning for the renewal process in Vietnam.  Article visualizations

HO CHI MINH’S THOUGHTS ABOUT TEACHING METHODS

It can be said that Ho Chi Minh’s thoughts about the teaching methods in an attempt to develop learners' capability are really comprehensive perspectives. In order to develop learners’ capability, Ho Chi Minh advocated to reform teaching methods in accord with each specific condition, as well as outlined the basic direction for human and educational development strategies at present and in the future. Ho Chi Minh’s ideas about innovative teaching methods have been greatly meaningful in reforming the education and training basically and completely.  Article visualizations

Simulator Development - Annual Report Year 3

This document describes the progress of the simulator development with in the third year of the CATNETS project. The refinement of the simulator as well as a detailed guide to conducting simulations is presented. --Grid Computing