Thang Ngoc Doan

This study examines external energy audits and reported supply‐chain carbon monitoring using 12,154 energy‐monitoring establishments in 37 countries from the 2019‐coded World Bank Enterprise Survey cross‐section. Audit is associated with an 8.1‐percentage‐point higher monitoring probability after establishment, governance, country, and industry controls. The questionnaire limits monitoring to the chain up to establishment output; it does not measure complete Scope 3 accounting or emissions reduction. Positive associations persist under alternative estimators and wild‐cluster inference. Customer requirements, environmental managers, and strategy strengthen the association under false‐discovery and family‐wise corrections. Practice‐index associations remain positive after excluding energy‐management content that may overlap with audit. The decomposition is consistent with the proposed monitoring pathway, while cross‐sectional timing and instrument strength warrant an associational interpretation. These findings clarify how external assessment relates to value‐chain information collection and reported environmental practices.

How does a country’s use of economic sanctions relate to the geographic composition of foreign-bank ownership at home? We combine foreign-bank ownership records, implemented sanction dyads, and macroeconomic data in an unbalanced panel of 2,127 country-years for 132 countries over 1991–2021. Bank geographic complexity is defined as the dispersion of ownership-source countries among foreign banks operating in the sanction-initiating country. Country and year fixed-effects estimates show that trade-sanction initiation, unlike the other five sanction categories, is negatively associated with subsequent ownership-source dispersion after adjustment for multiple testing. The pattern remains under alternative clustering, control for sanction-target breadth, sample-history requirements, outlier exclusion, and a longer lag. However, a significant lead, the absence of a detectable association after 2008, null dynamic-panel estimates, and weak-instrument-robust non-rejection for the external instruments prevent a causal interpretation. The evidence therefore identifies a period-sensitive conditional association between trade-sanction initiation and domestic banking-system composition, while demonstrating why banking surveillance should distinguish ownership reconfiguration from a causal sanction effect. JEL Codes: F36, F51, G21, G28

Global value chains are increasingly exposed to geopolitical tensions, policy uncertainty, and institutional weaknesses, making supply‐chain trade more fragile. Existing studies largely view supply chain finance (SCF) as a tool for easing liquidity constraints, while its role under political and institutional risk remains underexplored. This study examines how SCF‐proxied by factoring activity in source countries‐affects participation in supply‐chain trade, measured by domestic value added embodied in gross exports. Using a gravity framework combined with a Rajan–Zingales identification strategy and a dataset of about 1.76 million country‐pair–industry observations across 75 countries from 1995 to 2020, we find that SCF significantly promotes supply‐chain trade, especially in industries with higher technological dependence on external liquidity. Crucially, the effect is stronger when destination countries face greater political risk, investment risk, or economic uncertainty. This pattern suggests that factoring not only eases cash‐flow constraints but also enables exporters to transfer payment and country risk to financial intermediaries. Even during systemic financial crises, SCF plays a stabilizing role. Overall, the findings highlight SCF as a key mechanism for enhancing resilience in global value chains, rather than merely a source of working capital.

This article examines how holding international quality standard certifications impacts the involvement of Vietnamese enterprises in the global value chain (GVC), drawing on data from the World Bank Enterprise Survey covering the years 2009 to 2023. Our empirical results reveal that having such certifications positively influences Vietnamese businesses’ participation in GVCs. Certification ownership not only enhances a company’s reputation but also strengthens its position within the GVC. Further analysis shows that international standard certifications improve labour productivity, encourage innovation, and reduce financial constraints, thereby boosting a firm’s capacity to engage in the value chain. This study offers valuable insights into the role of international quality certifications in value chain participation and provides practical recommendations for enterprises, along with policy implications for management. JEL Codes: F14, L15, O14

This paper uncovers the nexus between digital capability and digital exports using newly cross-country data from the World Bank Enterprises Survey. Digital export reflects the export of goods directly through electronic means and shipped by mail parcel or courier service. Using the Entropy Balance approach to fix the endogeneity problem, we find that digital capability enhances the probability of digital exports. Moreover, financially constrained firms or SMEs suffer a liability to engage with digital export.

This study explores how energy constraints affect firms’ participation in global value chains (GVCs). Drawing on extensive plant-level data from the World Bank Enterprise Survey, covering the manufacturing sector in 119 countries from 2005 to 2022, the analysis reveals that energy constraints significantly hinder firms’ ability to engage in GVCs. This adverse effect is primarily driven by reduced productivity, increased energy expenses, and diminished investments in machinery. However, the impact is not uniform, varying by time periods, firm sizes, sectors, and regions. Smaller firms and those in energy-intensive industries are particularly vulnerable, while regional differences underscore the role of infrastructure quality and the effectiveness of energy policies. The robustness of the findings is verified using alternative measures and approaches that mitigate potential endogeneity concerns. These insights provide important policy implications aimed at enhancing firms’ participation in GVCs through targeted energy infrastructure and policy improvements.