A Critical Review of Studies on the Social and Economic Impacts of Vietnam’s International Economic Integration

The study by Rama and Sa (2005) focuses on identifying similarities between the findings of the CGE studies. The present study attempts, instead, to focus on differences. Do studies really differ that much? This overall question is addressed by providing a detailed review of assumptions, data, methodology, and results of the CGE models. This overview makes it possible to assess another issue. The results of all the CGE studies tend to be rather aggregate in nature and they treat on issues which no longer appear that essential in the policy making process; i.e. tariffs rather than legal reform and ‘services trade’.