This article assesses, on a province-by-province basis, whether state-owned enterprises (SOEs) are constraining the development of private firms in Vietnam. The analysis suggests the greater the density of SOEs present in a province, the more they enjoy favouritism, the lower is the proportion of bank loans that go to private companies, and the longer it takes for private firms to get access to land. There is also a negative correlation between SOE growth and private sector growth. But most importantly, the greater the density of SOEs in a particular province, the lower the GDP (and GDP per capita) growth recorded by that province. This evidence suggests that SOEs are indeed ‘crowding out’ private companies in Vietnam.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.