Trade liberalization and export sophistication in Vietnam.

This paper empirically examines the impacts of trade liberalization policy on the sophistication level of Vietnam's exports from 2001 to 2010. The export sophistication measure proposed by Hausmann and co-workers is computed by using the disaggregated trade data. By descriptive analysis, this indicator reveals that Vietnam's export structure was similar to that of Indonesia and the Philippines and then became much more similar to Thailand after Vietnam's accession to World Trade Organization (WTO). In addition, this paper econometrically analyzes the effects of trade liberalization on Vietnam's industry-level export sophistication with the additional consideration of its WTO accession in 2007. This paper suggests that tariff reductions have a positive impact on the sophistication level of Vietnam's industry exports. Trade liberalization has a stronger impact on the nonmanufacturing sectors than on manufacturing sectors. However, the results also imply that the WTO membership does not have any additional effects on Vietnam's industry export sophistication. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]