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Contents Introduction

This paper examines relationships between producer concentration, firm ownership, and productivity in Vietnam’s manufacturing enterprises in 2000, 2002, and 2004. Simple calculations indicate that multinational corporations (MNCs) and state-owned enterprises (SOEs) generally had substantially higher labor productivity and lower capital productivity than local, private firms. After controlling for the effects of factor intensities and producer concentration in samples of all manufacturing firms combined, total factor productivity differentials were negative for SOEs in 2000 and positive for MNCs in 2004, but statistically insignificant in other years. When eight broadly defined industry groups are distinguished, results varied markedly, however. SOE-private differentials were usually statistically negative in four industries, while MNC-private differentials were generally insignificant in six. Producer concentration and productivity were usually positively correlated in samples of all manufacturing firms but negatively significant correlations were more common than positively significant correlations at the industry level. Cross section estimates indicate that larger MNC and SOE presence was generally associated with higher productivity in private firms. However, fixed effects panel estimates, which examine the question of how SOE and MNC presence affected changes in private firm productivity over time, suggest that productivity in private firms tended to fall relatively rapidly in industries where SOEs were large, while MNC presence had no significant effect. Producer concentration also had no significant effect if all three years are combined, but varied effects in the two two-year combinations.