1. Full name: Pham Minh Thai                                          2. Sex: Male

3. Date of birth: 26.09.1980                                               4. Place of birth: Thai Nguyen

5. Admission decision number: 206/QĐ-ĐHKT                       Dated: 05th February, 2013

6. Changes in academic process: Decision number 3762/QĐ-ĐHKT dated 31st August, 2015 on permitting students to extend for 2 more years in the training program

7. Official thesis title: Determinants of labor market participation and occupational choices among Vietnamese youth.

8. Major: Political Economics                             9. Code: 62.31.01.02

10. Supervisors:            1. Assoc. Prof. Dr. Nguyen Duc Thanh

                                    2. Dr. Lê Kim Sa

11. Summary of the new findings of the thesis:

- Qualitative interview results show that impacts of the minimum wage regime on employment, income, and labor market participation of young workers is not significant among all three interviewing groups including enterprises, household businesses and workers in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. 

- The performance of formal employment service centers in Viet Nam is not high so that it can have a significant impact on the labor market participation of workers in general, especially for young workers.

- There is a significant upward trend in the education level of young people entering the labor market. However, there is still a remarkable mismatch between qualification of the workers and the jobs that they are doing.

- The rate of young waged workers is rapidly increasing, yet the proportion of young workers who do not have social insurance remains high, and such rate is slightly decreased.

- Agglomeration index and component indicators of provincial competitiveness index (PCI) have a significant impact on labor market participation and occupational choice of young workers in Viet Nam. Specifically, estimated results from econometric models show that market entry index, informal cost index, provincial dynamic index and sector concentration index are the factors that increase the labor market participation of young people in Vietnam. In contrast, factors that reduce the probability of labor market participation of young workers are provincial transparency index and urbanization indicator.

12. Practical applicability, if any:

13. Further research directions, if any:

14. Thesis-related publications:

Tuyen Quang Tran,  Anh Lan Tran, Thai Minh Pham, and Huong Van Vu (2018), “Local governance and occupational choice among young people: First evidence from Vietnam”, Children and Youth Services Review, Vol. 86, 21–31.

Pham Minh Thai and Nguyen Thu Huong (2016) “Vietnam Youth Employment Characteristics 2010-2014”. The Asia Pacific Review, No. 479, October 2016, pp 14-19, ISSN 0868-3808.

Pham Minh Thai (2014), “The Labor Movement in the Context of a More Volatile Economy”. Economic Studies No 9 (436), September, 2014. ISSN 0866 - 7489.

Pham Minh Thai (2014) “Determinants of occupation attainment in Vietnam: Evidences from Vietnam Labor Force Survey 2010”, chapter 10 in “Some Economics Issues of Vietnam in the Process of Integration” edited by Vu Minh Long. Publisher Hanoi National University, pp. 313-343, 2013.