This paper examines the effect of firm ownership on labour demand in Vietnamese
manufacturing over the period 2000-09. The core focus of the paper is an econometric
analysis of the determinants of labour demand in a manufacturing firm using firm-level data.
The results show that the labour demand of domestic private firms and FIEs has responded
slowly to wage changes while wholly owned FIEs and joint ventures are found to have higher
employment elasticity with respect to output, compared to domestic firms, in particular in the
export-oriented industries. Interestingly, the impact of firm ownership on labour demand has
been missing after further outward-oriented reforms since 2006.