Ngày nhận bài: 04-10-2013 / Ngày duyệt đăng: 29-10-2013
Foreign direct investment (FDI) has become more important for the development process of Vietnam. Over the two decades since the start of renovation policy in 1986, the country has attracted a large amount of FDI capital reaching up to USD 229,913.7 million. This study employedgravity model and the Hausman-Taylor estimator to investigate whether or not the index of countries’ similarity in size induces FDI inflows into Vietnam in the period from 1995 to 2011. This concern hasnot been mentioned on the case of Vietnamelsewhere. The empirical results indicatedthat the index strongly promotes FDI inflows into Vietnam. In other words, Vietnam tends to receive more FDI capital from counterparts that are “similar in terms of endowments and technology levels”. The main finding presented in this research supports the New Theory of FDI in selected emerging economies.