Although there has been substantial literature on the economic impact of labour legislation in the world, the number of studies related to Vietnam is, surprisingly, very small. Our article provides the first evidence on the link between labour law and various labour market outcomes using the Vietnamese context. We examine how labour supply, earnings and social protection outcomes adjusted to labour contract reform under the 2012 Labour Code. The study uses three waves of the Vietnam Labour Force Survey to examine both medium-term and short-term impacts of the reform. Difference-in-differences and fixed-effect techniques are utilised. Overall, we find that the law change significantly affected hours worked, work absenteeism, monthly allowance and incidence of bonuses among contracted workers. However, the effects on workers' monthly wages, overtime remuneration and other allowances, and the social protection-related outcomes were not clear in the short run.

This paper aims to quantitatively evaluate the microeconomic consequences of the 4‐percent interest rate subsidy program, the main component of the Vietnamese Government's economic stimulus package in 2009, which was intended to assist recovery from the global economic and financial recession. Our analyses based on the Provincial Competitive Index 2009 survey and accounting data of firms listed on Vietnam's two stock exchanges show that firms that received subsidized loans were more likely to increase labor, to expand investment and to possess optimistic business plans. However, we find evidence that not all business activity generated by the stimulus led to productivity increases: a non‐trivial proportion of subsidized loans were not used to invest in production or expansion, but for speculative activities such as real estate and stock market trading.

There has been very little research into sickness absence in Vietnam. This article reveals how the labor market might adjust to more generous illness benefits offered by the Vietnam Social Insurance Law. In the study, we combined the difference‐in‐differences and matching techniques and used data from four waves of the Vietnam Labor Force Survey. The results indicate that the generosity of the benefits positively links to both the incidence and the duration of sick leave. The article also sheds light on the mechanism underlying the relationship by disaggregating the effects on gender, income, and job tenure groups. The results support current government efforts to enhance the public social insurance system.Key Practitioner Message: • Sickness insurance affects sick leave incidence and duration; • Low‐income workers and female workers are sensitive to sickness benefits reform; • There is a link between job tenure and sick leave.