Date of Award

Spring 6-14-2026

Document Type

Thesis (Undergraduate)

Department

Economics

First Advisor

Meredith Startz

Second Advisor

Paul Novosad

Third Advisor

Elizabeth Cascio

Abstract

Vietnam has seen rapid economic development, driven in part due to a proliferation of over 300 Special Economic Zones (SEZs) across the country since 1991. This paper exploits the staggered rollout of SEZs across the country to identify the effect of SEZ establishment on local air pollution in Vietnam from 2009 to 2019. I find that establishing an SEZ significantly reduces local PM2.5 concentration, with the largest reduction concentrated in the first years following establishment and attenuating over the longer term. I also find evidence that SEZs shift local firm composition toward higher-technology manufacturing, but zones focusing on dirtier industries exhibit larger pollution reductions. These results challenge the view that growth-focused industrial policy and environmental sustainability are fundamentally in tension and contribute new evidence on SEZs and their environmental effects in the Vietnamese context.

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