Reporter: Good afternoon Dr. Nguyen Duc Bao. Could you please briefly introduce your paper recently published in The World Economy to help readers get a general understanding of your research work?

Dr. Nguyen Duc Bao: The paper of "Financial intermediation, trade agreements and international trade" written by Professor Anne-Gaël Vaubourg (University of Poitiers, France) and me was to determine whether favorable effects of financial intermediation for export will be weakened when there is a free trade agreement (RTA) between exporting and importing countries. The evidence demonstrated the existence of such effects when two countries involve in a RTA, as a result, financial intermediation is mitigated in export promotion.

Using a gravity model on a data set of 69 developed and developing countries over the period 1986-2006, we indicated that the trade-promoting role of financial intermediation in the exporting country is mitigated when this country faces low exporting costs, that is when there is a RTA between this country and the importing one. We also establish that this mitigating effect is reduced in financially constrained sectors, for which the role of financial intermediation remains crucial. Finally, we find evidence that the same trade-boosting effect and the same interaction with RTAs prevail for financial intermediation in the importing country.

 

Dr. Nguyen Duc Bao as a lecturer of the Faculty of Political Economy, VNU-UEB

Dr. Nguyen Duc Bao: In my opinion, the article indicates clearly the novelty and originality as the research ideas and methodologies that we presented in it have not been applied in any previous research with a regard to this topic. Readers can refer the following paragraph to get a better understanding of the article: "To our knowledge, this study is one of the first to identify the impacts of the interaction term between a financial intermediation indicator with regional trade agreements on international trade within a panel data gravity model."

 

Dr. Bao’ offers a classroom where he himself as a lecturer and his students exchange knowledge

Reporter: Why did you choose this topic for your research?

Dr. Nguyen Duc Bao: This paper was based on my PhD dissertation which I defended successfully in November 2019 at the University of Bordeaux, France. The initial ideas of the paper derived two years ago and the final revisions of the paper were taken in the first days when I started working for VNU University of Economics and Business. This research demonstrates the intersection between international economics theories and international finance ones. Noticeably, I had a great honor to conduct this research and publish the paper together with my PhD co-instructor, Professor Anne-Gaël Vaubourg.

 “Keep doing research and keep learning, it’s how I choose to dedicate myself” says Dr. Nguyen Duc Bao

Reporter: After studying abroad for a long time, why did you choose VNU University of Economics and Business as your destination? And how do you feel about the working environment at VNU-UEB after having worked for a while?

Dr. Nguyen Duc Bao: Before coming back to Vietnam, I had learnt that VNU-UEB is a highly dynamic, open environment for research, international cooperation and teaching. From the very of beginning, I was provided with greatly helpful support, instructions, experiences in how to integrate into a new workplace by the teachers at the Faculty of Political Economy and the staffs at the University. Moreover, VNU-UEB and VNU are quite similar to the school I had studied in France. The University of Bordeaux is a regional school with a very strong linkage among its faculties and affiliated universities. I look forward to participating into and contributing to VNU-UEB through various studies carried out in collaboration with my colleagues, graduate and undergraduate students at the University.

 “VNU-UEB makes me feels like being in the university I used to study in France”, Nguyen Duc Bao said

Reporter: Could you please share some information about your upcoming orientations in teaching and research at VNU-UEB?

Dr. Nguyen Duc Bao: Firstly, I try my best to complete the tasks assigned by the Faculty of Political Economy and VNU-UEB. I hold a strong hope that I will produce good-quality research products in collaboration with my colleagues in the Faculty of Political Economy and the University which helps to establish a research orientation in long term based on my own professional expertise and with more scientific exchanges, and multidisciplinary research within the VNU ecosystem. In particular, I hope to have opportunities to carry out researches with the international teachers and colleagues whom I have had the opportunity to learn and cooperate with when studying and doing research abroad.

 Dr. Nguyen Duc Bao is not only a lecturer but also an academic mentor for many UEBers

Reporter: To have an article published in a highly prestigious international journal like The World Economy, it must be a long and arduous journey. Could you please share more about the period of time you experienced to make the paper?

Dr. Nguyen Duc Bao: As you know when writing any paper, we cannot know what it will be like in advance. Therefore, I always keep thinking about how can improve my paper, who can guide me through the journey, which colleagues can help me solve problems and not afraid of criticizing. Actually, it takes years for a paper from the conception of very initial ideas of the paper and the completion of the ideas of it to the time it is accepted to be published in an international journal, therefore you must be mindful for it for sure. And now, I can see that VNU-UEB is providing a lot of supports for many aspects of my research and young scientists working here.

Reporter: Thank you Dr. Nguyen Duc Bao for today's interview. I wish you to have more research projects contributing to the domestic science and many innovations in teaching at VNU-UEB.