About BERG

BUSINESS AND ECONOMICS RESEARCH GROUP (BERG)

Objectives

The BERG at Ho Chi Minh City Open University (OU) has been set up to achieve the following objectives:

– To enhance and strengthen research capacities for staff and research students at OU by developing and defining selected areas of research in business and economics which are unique to OU.

– To exchange/share research ideas and to conduct co-operative 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

The following areas of research are recommended. Other areas of research are welcome at all times.

  • 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

Dr Duc Vo, MAICD
PhD (UWA); M.Econ St. (UQ); M.Fin (VNU)
B.Econ. (Hons I) (UEH); BS (Eng) (USSH)

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 (UK); Journal of the Asia Pacific Economies (Australia); International Encyclopaedia of Public Policy (USA); International Journal of Economics and Law (Italy); Economic Papers (Australia); Applied Economics Letters (UK); Journal Of Asian Economics (Netherlands); Data In Brief (Netherlands); Economic Systems 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 an editor 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.

Thach Pham
M.Econ. (UEH-ISS)
B.Econ. (UEH)

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 Applied Economics Letters, Journal Of Asian Economics (Netherlands), Data In Brief (Netherlands) and International Journal of Economics and Financial Issues.

Thach’s current research interests are cost of capital, Value at Risk and Distance to Default Modelling on commodities markets.

Anh Vo
M.Econ. (UEH-ISS)

B.Econ. (UEH)

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.