Business and Economics Research Group (BERG)
Objectives
The Business and Economics Research Group at Ho Chi Minh City Open University (OU) has been established to achieve the following objectives:
- To enhance and strengthen research capacities for staff and research students at OU by defining selected areas of research in business and economics which are unique to OU.
- To exchange/share research ideas and to conduct joint research with highly regarded scholars from international universities/institutes.
- To increase research’s outputs from highly ranked international journals, including journals/books indexed in SCOPUS and/or ISI and/or Australia’s ABDC Rankings from B and above.
- To provide assistance to research activities in business and economics at OU.
Focused Research Areas
Members of the BERG have been defining and developing research expertise in the following areas:
- Asset pricing (Cost of capital/capital asset pricing models);
- Value at Risk and Distance to Default;
- Fiscal Federalism/Decentralization & Inequality;
- Exchange rate policy; and
- Regional Economics.
Our team
We’re hiring
Dr Duc Vo was awarded a Doctor of Philosophy in Economics in 2008 by the University of Western Australia (UWA), one of the best universities in Australia, the World’s Top 100 Universities. Duc’s PhD study was sponsored by the Australian Government’s prestigious scholarship (the International Postgraduate Research Scholarship) and the UWA’s Postgraduate Awards. Duc was also a recipient of the UQ-VNU scholarship to complete his Masters studies at the University of Queensland (UQ), Australia.
Duc’s research has been published in various high quality peer-reviewed international journals such as The Journal of Economic Surveys [SSCI with Impact Factor of 2.1; ISI Journal Citation Reports @ Ranking: 61/347 (Economics), Scopus (Quarter 1), ranked 34/2080 journals in IDEAS/RePEC]; Journal of the Asia Pacific Economies [SSCI]; International Encyclopaedia of Public Policy; Rivista di diritto Finanziario e Scienza delle Finanze; Emerging Markets Finance and Trade [SSCI and Scopus (Quarter 1)]; Applied Economics Letters [SSCI and Scopus]; Journal Of Asian Economics [Scopus]; Data In Brief; Economic Papers [Scopus]; Economic Systems [SSCI and Scopus with Impact Factor of 1.197] and many others. Duc’s current research interest covers a wide range of topics from cost of capital for regulated businesses to shadow economy; corporate governance; credit rating; and risk management. He has also acted as a reviewer for various international journals as well as Vietnamese journals.
Duc is currently working at the national regulator, the Australian Energy Regulator, in Melbourne. He had been working at the Economic Regulation Authority in Perth, Australia from 2008 to 2016 as the Head, responsible for Research and Modelling Branch. Duc has been recently appointed as an advisor for the Financial Markets and Services Research Centre at Edith Cowan University, Australia. He is an active member of the Asian Business and Organisational Research Group at Edith Cowan University, Australia. Duc is a member of the Scientific Committee, Faculty of International Business, HCMC Banking University, Vietnam. Duc is also the chairman of the “Live for A Reason: Supporting Disadvantaged Kids to Schools” Foundation.
Mr Thach Pham was awarded a Master of Arts in Development Economics in 2015 by the Vietnam-Netherlands Programme with the highest GPA for the entire duration of studies.
Research findings from his thesis entitle “Capital Asset Pricing Models: Beta and What Else?” were presented at various international and highly regarded Vietnamese conferences including the Vietnam International Conference In Finance (VICIF). In particular, Thach’s paper entitled The Economics of Estimating Equity Beta for the ASEAN region was presented at the 5th International Conference on Energy Economics held at UWA Business School, the University of Western Australia, Perth, Australia in February 2016. Thach’s research has been published in various peer reviewed journals including Journal Of Asian Economics; Emerging Markets Finance and Trade; Applied Economics Letters; Data In Brief; International Journal of Economics and Financial Issues and International Journal of Energy Economics and Policy.
Thach’s current research interests are cost of capital, Value at Risk and Distance to Default Modelling on commodities markets.
Mr Anh Vo was awarded a Master of Arts in Development Economics in 2015 by the Vietnam-Netherlands Programme, one of the most highly regarded master programs in Vietnam. His thesis titled “Exchange rate and Trade balance: A new approach using Big Mac Index” was marked as the best thesis from the Program in 2015.
Anh presented findings from his research at various conferences, including the 23th Annual Conference on Pacific Basin Finance, Economics, Accounting, and Management held in Ho Chi Minh City in 2015 and Vietnam International Conference in Finance. He has research papers published in the Journal of Economic Development in January 2016 and Economics Bulletin in 2017.
Anh’s current research interests include international trade, exchange rate policy, regional economics, and financial integration.
Dai Tran is pursuing the Ph.D. in Economics at the University of Thai Chamber of Commerce (“UTCC”), Thailand with full merit-based UTCC Graduate Scholarships. Previously, Dai obtained his Master of Business and Commerce with honors at the University of Western Sydney, Australia from which he was also awarded the partial scholarship. Furthermore, prior to graduating as a Bachelor in Corporate Finance at the University of Economics in Ho Chi Minh City, Dai was granted one of the prestigious scholarships of Petrol Vietnam Fertilizers and Chemical Corporation within 2 years. In addition, Dai was also awarded the Advanced Diploma in Accounting and Business by the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (“ACCA”), a professional accountancy body in the United Kingdom with Tuition Fee Scholarship from Smart Train – a platinum tuition provider of ACCA.
Prior to commencement of his Ph.D. programme at UTCC, Dai worked as an external financial auditor at KPMG in Vietnam and Cambodia, where he actively took part in multiple audit engagements for leading financial institutions as well as foreign-directly invested (FDI) organizations in the region. Later on, he assumed the role of accounting specialist in a Vietnamese state-owned enterprise and internal auditor at a French IT company’s subsidiary in Ho Chi Minh City.
Dai has involved in various research projects in finance and economics since his undergraduate programme. He was the runner-up in the “The Young Economist” research competition held by the University of Economics in Ho Chi Minh Chi City two years in a row with two theses: “The impact of capital structure on the efficiency of commercial banks in Vietnam between 2005 and 2010” (2012) and “Asymmetric interest rate pass-through: the role of banks in Vietnam” (2013).
In November 2017, he presented his working paper on “Intellectual capital and Financial Performance: A study of the Thai banking sector” at the “Regional Integration in the Asia-Pacific region: Prospects, Challenges and Implications for Vietnam”- themed international conference held by the Open University in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.
Mr Thang Nguyen was awarded a Bachelor of Science in Information Technology in 2013 by the University of Natural Science. In 2015, Thang enrolled in the Vietnam – The Netherlands Programme for Master of Arts in Development Economics which is jointly organised by the University of Economics Ho Chi Minh City and The International Institute of Social Science, Erasmus Rotterdam University. Thang has recently completed his study at the VNP with a successful completion of his Masters dissertation on “Systematic Risk in the Capital Asset Pricing Model for Australia: A Clinical Death?”
Thang presented findings from his research at various conferences, including the 10th Vietnam Economist Annual Meeting and Vietnam’s Business and Economics Research Conference 2017.
Thang’s current research interest is on Asset Pricing and Development Finance.
Ms Phuong Ho graduated from the University of Economics Ho Chi Minh City and is now pursuing Master of Arts degree in Development Economics at Vietnam – The Netherlands Program.
Phuong has research interests on Aging population and Gender inequality. The research findings for the project entitled “The aging population and economic growth in developing countries: a quantitle approach” were presented at the VBER 2017. Her thesis for Master program focuses on examining Gender wealth gap in the context of Vietnam.
Mr Chi was awarded a Bachelor degree from the University of Economics Ho Chi Minh City with a major on Economics of Planning and Investment. Chi is currently enrolled in the Vietnam – The Netherlands Programme for Master of Art in Development Economics. Chi’s research interests are on Development Finance and Inequality in emerging markets. The findings from his first ever research paper entitled “Exchange Rate Pass-through in the ASEAN Countries: An Application of the SVAR model” were presented at the Vietnam’s Business and Economics Research conference (VBER2017). From this Conference, he was awarded the best presentation award. Chi currently progresses his master thesis on Financial Liberalization and Income Inequality for emerging markets.
Mr Phat Le was awarded a Bachelor degree in International Business from the University of Economics Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. In 2016, he enrolled in the Vietnam – The Netherlands Programme for Master of Arts in Development Economics which is a collaborative postgraduate program operated by the University of Economics Ho Chi Minh City and The International Institute of Social Science from Erasmus Rotterdam University. Phat is working on a research thesis on financial stress testing analysis. His recent research interests are primarily focused on market risk, credit risk, and financial stress testing models. Phat is currently spending his semester at the ISS in the Netherlands.
To whom it may concern,
The Business and Economics Research Group (BERG), Ho Chi Minh City Open University is looking for various positions of Research Assistants/ Research Associates for the following projects: The Economic Impacts of Retirement Ages; Regional Economics; Gender-based Inequality in Income and Wealth (Economics); Market Risk & Credit Risk and Capital Asset Pricing Models (Finance). If you are interested in these positions, please email your expressions of interests (EOI) at vber@ou.edu.vn.
When preparing your EOI, please make sure that the following information is included: (i) personal details and contacts; (ii) education background; (iii) working and research experience (if any); and (iv) extra curricula activities and hobbies.
We reserve the rights to offer by invitation to appropriate candidates. Female students and students with mathematics/ statistics/ non-economic background are strongly encouraged to apply.
We trust the above is of assistance. In the meantime, should you require any further information and clarification in relation to the above positions, please do not hesitate to contact Mr Thach Pham, Research Director, at thach.pn@ou.edu.vn.
We look forward to receiving your application and to welcoming you to our BERG.
Yours faithfully,
Dr Duc Hong Vo
Head, Business and Economics Research Group
HCMC Open University
