Person:
Nguyen, Ha

Development Research Group
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Financial Sector, Private Sector Development, Global Economy
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Last updated July 5, 2023
Biography
Ha Minh Nguyen is an Economist in the Macroeconomics and Growth Team of the Development Research Group. He joined the Bank in July 2009 as a Young Economist after earning a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Maryland, College Park. He also holds a M.A. and B.A. in economics from The University of Adelaide, Australia. His research interests include International Finance and Economic Growth. His current research is on the financial crisis and the real exchange rates.
Citations 37 Scopus

Publication Search Results

Now showing 1 - 4 of 4
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    Demand Collapse or Credit Crunch to Firms? Evidence from the World Bank's Financial Crisis Survey in Eastern Europe
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2013-10) Nguyen, Ha ; Qian, Rong
    While there is a consensus that the 2008-2009 crisis was triggered by financial market disruptions in the United States, there is little agreement on whether the transmission of the crisis and the subsequent prolonged recession are due to credit factors or to a collapse of demand for goods and services. This paper assesses whether the primary effect of the global crisis on Eastern European firms took the form of an adverse demand shock or a credit crunch. Using a unique firm survey conducted by the World Bank in six Eastern European countries during the 2008-2009 financial crisis, the paper shows that the drop in demand for firms' products and services was overwhelmingly reported as the most damaging adverse effect of the crisis. Other "usual suspects," such as rising debt or reduced access to credit, are reported as minor. The paper also finds that the changes in firms' sales and installed capacity are significantly and robustly correlated with the demand sensitivity of the sector in which the firms operate. However, they are not robustly correlated with various proxies for firms' credit needs.
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    Euro Currency Risk and the Geography of Debt Flows to Peripheral European Monetary Union Members
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2016-06) Ersal-Kiziler, Eylem ; Nguyen, Ha
    The pattern of debt flows to peripheral European Monetary Union members seems puzzling: they are mostly indirect and channeled through the large countries of the European Monetary Union. This paper examines to what extent the introduction of the euro and the elimination of the intra-area currency risk can explain this puzzle. A three-country dynamic stochastic general equilibrium framework with endogenous portfolio choice and two currencies is developed. In the equilibrium, the core members of the European Monetary Union emerge as the main group of lenders to the peripheral European Monetary Union members. Outside lenders are pushed from the periphery debt markets because of currency risk. The model generates a pattern of debt flows consistent with the data despite the absence of any exogenous frictions or market segmentations.
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    Resource Misallocation in Turkey
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2016-08) Nguyen, Ha ; Taskin, Temel ; Yilmaz, Ayberk
    This paper examines resource misallocation within narrow industries in Turkey. It finds that resource misallocation in Turkey is substantial. The hypothetical gain from moving to "U.S. efficiency" is 24.5 percent of manufacturing total factor productivity in 2014. The evolution of resource misallocation over time and across disaggregated sectors is also examined. Improvement in allocative efficiency was sizable between 2003 and 2013, but significantly slower after 2007. However, the earlier trend reversed in 2014 and resource misallocation worsened in Turkey's manufacturing. The cross-sector analysis reveals that misallocation is most pronounced in textiles, transport, food, and leather.
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    Courts and Business Registration: Evidence from Serbia
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2018-10) Bruhn, Miriam ; Cho, Caleb ; Marusic, Andreja ; Nguyen, Ha ; Reyes, Jose-Daniel ; Tran, Trang
    This paper studies the effects of a reform in Serbia that transferred business registration from regional courts to a centralized agency. Using administrative data, the analysis employs a difference-in-difference strategy that compares new firms before and after the reform across districts based on the level of distrust in regional courts. The results suggest that the reform increased the number of new firms more in regions with higher initial levels of distrust, by up to 34 percent. The reform also increased the survival rates of new firms. These effects are large compared to those of other types of registration reforms, suggesting that courts can pose significant barriers to new firm creation.