Thuy Duong Phan

High and sustainable growth of gross domestic product with stable inflation is one of the objectives of the most macroeconomic policies both in the world and in Vietnam. Therefore, price stability plays a vital role in assuring GDP growth. In order to stabilize prices, fiscal and monetary policies need to be appropriately managed. The aim of this study is to assess the impact of the monetary and fiscal policies on inflation in Vietnam during the period from 1997 to 2020. This study has applied the vector autoregression (VAR) model along with data gathered from the World Bank and General Statistics Office of Vietnam. The research results indicate that Vietnam’s inflation is positively influenced by a fiscal deficit (2.943), money supply (2.672), government expenditure (8.347), and interest rate (3.187). Among the factors, government expenditure has the biggest influence on inflation. Besides, trade openness (–0.311) also influences inflation, but the effect is negative and negligible. Finally, the policy implications are focused on coordinating fiscal and monetary policies maintaining a moderate level of inflation for economic growth.

Acknowledgment
This article is funded from the funding source of the research: “Solutions to deal with the risk of financial instability from support packages to fight economic recession caused by the covid-19 pandemic” with code B2022-MHN-02 by Vietnam Misnistry of Education and Training.

Type of the article: Research Article

Abstract
This study examines whether the relationship between working capital management and profitability in Vietnam’s listed transportation is nonlinear and influenced by a cash-holding threshold. Using panel data from 88 transportation firms listed on HSX, HNX, and UPCOM during the period 2014–2023, and Hansen’s (1999) threshold regression, the study identifies the threshold point and estimates the model parameters. The empirical results reveal that before reaching the identification threshold, DSO, DPO, and DSI have a noticeably negative impact on ROA (coefficients being –0.004, –0.006, and –0.017, p < 0.01), indicating that lengthening collection, payment, or inventory periods harms profitability under lower liquidity conditions. However, once the identified threshold is exceeded, the effects of DSO, DPO, CCC, and OCC are reversed, suggesting that with sufficient liquidity, more lenient working capital policies can actually support profitability. Meanwhile, control variables such as LEV and CASH demonstrate a substantially positive influence on ROA (LEV: 0.016–0.022; CASH: 0.0904–0.1512, p < 0.01), affirming that prudent debt use and ample liquidity buffers enhance performance, whereas SZ negatively affects ROA (–0.0176 to –0.0219, p < 0.01). The study proposes some practical recommendations for working capital management to enhance the profitability of transportation firms.

Type of the article: Research Article

Abstract
This study examines the impact of investment efficiency on firms’ financial distress risk in ASEAN. Using 30,440 firm-year observations from listed firms in Vietnam, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Singapore, and the Philippines during 2015–2024, financial distress risk is measured by the O-score and Z-score. Listed firms are classified into overinvestment and underin-vestment groups based on the model residuals. Control variables are return on total assets, leverage, firm size, and growth rate. The results obtained using the FGLS estimation method indicate that overinvestment and underinvestment increase financial distress risks for ASEAN firms as measured by the O-score. Overinvestment increases financial risk (coefficient 0.3-0.63), with the most severe impact in Thailand and Malaysia (coefficient 0.95-0.99) and Vietnam (coefficient 0.39). High debt is consistently the biggest risk factor (coefficient >7.1), while profitability is the strongest risk mitigation factor (coefficient <–6.6). By contrast, Z-score results show higher safety for overinvestment and insignificant underinvestment. However, the impact of investment efficiency on financial distress risk, whether linear or non-linear, differs across countries. The results indicate an inverted U-shaped relationship in Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam, while no statistically significant evidence of a non-linear relationship is found for Malaysia and Singapore. In the Philippines and Thailand, the non-linear effect is strong, with investment-deficit coefficients of 1.9416 and 1.6463, respectively, indicating a sharp increase in financial risk in the early stages of investment cuts. These findings provide valuable empirical evidence for firms in mitigating financial distress risk and enhancing sustainable value.