Research Works on Economic Growth Quality by Foreign Authors

- The synthesis method is used to synthesize the theories on economic growth quality of domestic and foreign scholars. In the thesis, this method is applied to study the history of concept formation, the nature of the concept, aspects of content, evaluation criteria... of economic growth quality.

The comparative method has been applied to compare the corresponding indicators and achievements of Hanoi with a number of other localities and cities in the country and the world to clarify the current status of Hanoi's economic growth quality in recent times.

The logical and historical methods are commonly used in economic research. In which, the logical method is to examine and study events in general form, in order to outline the nature, inevitable trends, and laws of motion of things. The historical method is a method of examining and presenting the development process of things and phenomena in a continuous and multi-faceted order, in relation to other things and phenomena.

5. New contributions of the Thesis

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- Contribute to clarifying the theoretical basis of economic growth quality, building a system of criteria to evaluate the economic growth quality of a locality such as the capital Hanoi.

- Analyze and evaluate the current status of Hanoi's economic growth quality in recent times.

- Propose viewpoints and solutions to improve the quality of Hanoi's economic growth in the coming time.

6. Structure of the Thesis

In addition to the Introduction, Conclusion, and References, the thesis consists of 4 chapters with the following contents:

Chapter 1: Overview of research on economic growth quality Chapter 2. Theoretical basis and practical experience in improving growth quality

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Chapter 3. Current status of economic growth quality of Hanoi Capital in recent times

Chapter 4. Viewpoints and solutions to improve the quality of Hanoi's economic growth in the coming time.

Chapter 1

OVERVIEW OF RESEARCH ON ECONOMIC GROWTH QUALITY

1.1. Research works on economic growth quality by foreign authors

Economic growth is a dialectical relationship between quantity and quality, however, scholars often only focus on quantity and pay little attention to quality. Moreover, when studying the quantity of economic growth, economists often analyze in depth the factors affecting the growth process, the core issue of which is: what is the fundamental source of economic growth?

To solve that problem, Adam Smith (1723-1790) [25, pp.24-28] pointed out that the only three factors that determine economic growth are labor, capital and natural resources. However, among those three factors, labor (not land or money) is considered the source of all wealth or the basic source of economic growth. David Ricardo (1772-1823) [26, pp.28-30], inheriting Adam Smith's views, Ricardo was the first to discover the limits of economic growth due to increasingly scarce natural resources. According to him, when the demand for food increases (due to the constantly increasing population), less fertile lands will be mobilized for production, leading to increased marginal costs. This process lasts until the investor's rate of return drops too low, causing capitalists to no longer have the motivation to invest further, even gradually withdrawing capital from the production process, so economic growth will gradually decrease and stop.

In terms of the quality of economic growth, the above authors have mentioned the role of capital, labor and land resources, however, their limitation is that they have not mentioned the impact of science and technology. In today's modern economy, based on the application of scientific and technological achievements in agriculture, people can increase production without expanding the area. That is one of the important factors in improving the quality of economic growth.

- JM Keynes (1883-1946) [26, pp. 66-76], author of the demand-side theory, argued that in order to increase economic growth, the government needs to proactively increase budget spending for investment,

especially investing in public projects to increase aggregate demand, opening up the process of economic growth and creating more jobs. From here, Keynes argued that governments need to proactively intervene and manage the economy to maintain sustainable growth [26, p.74]. This point of view opened a period of complete reversal from the traditional view of economic growth of classical theory.

Regarding the quality of economic growth, Keynes's theoretical contribution is to emphasize the role of the government. Accordingly, in addition to the factors contributing to economic growth, the government plays a very important role. A government with appropriate policies can make the economy grow at a high rate without increasing capital, labor or resources... However, Keynes's theory still has some limitations such as the lack of ability to explain long-term growth issues. That limitation has been deeply researched by scientists and developed into post-Keynesian economic theory [26, pp.75-76].

Based on Keynes's theory, governments of countries have used economic policies to limit inflation and unemployment, increasing potential output. However, after a long time, countries tend to overemphasize the role of economic policies, thereby limiting the self-regulation of the market and creating new obstacles to the growth process. In that context, a new school of economics emerged. Economists of this school support the construction of a mixed economy, in which the market directly determines the supply-demand relationship and other basic relationships of the economy, while the State participates in regulation to a certain extent to limit the negative aspects of the market.

The essence of modern economics is the rapprochement between the neoclassical school and Keynesian economics. The outstanding representative of modern economics is PA Samuelson [26, pp.87-93]. If classical and neoclassical economists are passionate about the theory of the “Invisible Hand”, the Keynesian school advocates the theory of the “hand of the state”, then Samuelson advocates that economic development must rely on both “two hands” – that is, both the market and the state. According to him, “running an economy without government or market is like trying to clap with one hand”.

Modern economic theory has some new points compared to previous economic growth theories. According to Samuelson, in addition to physical factors such as capital, land, labor,

The direct factor affecting economic growth, technological progress is increasingly becoming decisive for economic growth rate.

Modern theory also clearly defines the relationship between the factors of production. Samuelson believes that one of the important characteristics of the modern economy is that “modern advanced industrial technology is based on the use of large capital”. Therefore, capital is the basis for promoting the effects of other factors: capital is the basis for creating jobs and having advanced technology. Therefore, in today's economic calculations, the ICOR coefficient is still considered the basis for determining the necessary investment rate in accordance with the economic growth rate.

Modern growth theory also affirms the increasing role of the State in economic regulation. According to Samuelson, in a modern mixed economy, the government has four basic functions: establishing a legal framework, determining macroeconomic stabilization policies, influencing the allocation of resources to improve economic efficiency, and establishing programs that influence income distribution. According to him, the Government needs to create a stable environment for businesses and households to produce and exchange products conveniently.

The above growth theories all try to explain the material factors, or quantitative factors, that determine the economic growth process. In summary, there are four main factors that determine the economic growth rate: human resources, natural resources, large capital accumulation, and technological innovation.

Until the early 1980s, growth based on speed, scale, and quantity was considered the top goal of countries. However, by the early 1990s, the high growth rate in some developing countries had slowed down, and some countries even achieved negative growth rates (Africa)... [72, p.36] The gap between rich and poor was increasing, high economic growth went hand in hand with increasingly depleted resources and environmental degradation... That reality raised a big question mark for scientists. So, is short-term growth unsustainable, not a guarantee for long-term growth? Has the growth process in recent times only focused on breadth, not depth? Has the growth process in recent times not been qualitative...? Since then, in the economic forum, the concept of economic growth quality has begun to appear .

In order to develop the previous concepts, in 2000, Vinod Thomas et al. (Oxford University Press) [90, p.102], in the study “Quality of economic growth,” presented arguments about the quantity and quality of economic growth. When studying sustainable economic growth, the authors did not study it directly, but did it indirectly, starting from the quality aspect of growth. According to the authors, to have sustainable growth, it is necessary to maintain growth in the long term and at the same time pay attention to two aspects of growth, which are quantity and quality. The authors analyzed the factors affecting the quality of growth and illustrated them through analysis and practical data of many countries in the world. According to the authors: “The quality of economic growth is economic growth at a relatively high rate, occurring continuously over a long period of time, while at the same time that growth must ensure equity, social progress and environmental improvement” (Vinod Thomas et al., 2000, p.102).

This definition indicates that an economy that develops towards improving the quality of growth must ensure three basic contents: economic, social and environmental: (1). In terms of the economic aspect, it is economic growth at a high rate and must be maintained continuously in the long term; (2). The social aspect requires that economic growth must directly contribute to the sustainable improvement of social welfare, specifically the distribution of the fruits of development and poverty reduction; (3). The environmental aspect requires that economic growth not only does not degrade but also contributes to improving the quality of the environment. Thus, with this perspective, economic growth is viewed more comprehensively and is raised one step higher than before.

Although the above definition has outlined the characteristics of economic growth, it still has certain limitations. That is, it does not outline the criteria or groups of criteria from which to analyze and evaluate the growth quality of an economy.

This limitation can be supplemented by the studies of some famous economists such as Lucas (1993), Sen (1999), Stigliz (2000). Accordingly, the quality of growth is expressed in the following main criteria: (1). The increasing contribution of total factor productivity (TFP) to ensure the maintenance of long-term growth rate and limit the impact of external factors on the economic development process in

water; (2). The efficiency of using resources such as capital, labor, etc. is increasingly high; (3). The competitiveness of the economy is increasingly high; the stability in economic growth is increasingly sustainable. The economic structure is increasingly developing in a quality and modern direction; (4). Quality economic growth is growth that ensures the implementation of social development goals, improves and enhances people's welfare, reduces the rate and number of people who are hungry and poor; strengthens social democracy, etc. (5). Quality economic growth is economic growth associated with the protection and development of the ecological environment, that is, economic growth goes hand in hand with sustainable development [89, p.67].

The theory of economic growth quality has also received special attention from international organizations. In human development reports, UNDP [63, p.8] for the first time introduced a number of different concepts of growth such as rootless growth, growth without future, etc.

The common point of these concepts revolves around only one issue, that is, economic growth must be associated with quality. Economic growth that only focuses on high growth rates in a short period of time, without focusing on productivity, efficiency, competitiveness, etc. is unsustainable economic growth. Economic growth that does not bring better living conditions to the majority of the poor, is not associated with improvements in democracy, and social ethics are degraded is rootless growth. Economic growth that destroys the human living environment is growth without a future... growth needs to be associated with quality, development must be sustainable, focusing on all three elements: economic, social and environmental.

In short , the quality of economic growth has been mentioned by foreign scholars for a long time and the research approach has started from economic growth. Based on that theory, economic growth is considered the top goal for all countries in the development process. For a long time, most countries have focused all their resources on serving economic growth through increasing the accumulation of physical capital assets, attracting foreign direct investment, and exploiting natural resources to serve growth.

However, rapid growth has not always achieved the goals that these countries expected. Growth does not always go hand in hand with poverty reduction, nor does it ensure that poor countries can catch up with rich countries. High economic growth

In the short term, growth does not guarantee long-term sustainability. Since the late 1990s, when studying the sustainability of economic growth, the issue of growth quality has been mentioned more from the perspective that growth needs to be associated with quality.

However, up to now, there are still many different ways of understanding the quality of economic growth in the world. In a narrow sense: Growth quality can be understood within the limits of some aspects: investment efficiency, assessed through the ICOR coefficient; or considered equivalent to the concept of total factor productivity, assessed through the TFP (Total Factor) index. In a broad sense: Growth quality can move towards the connotation of the perspective on sustainable development, focusing on all three economic, social and environmental elements. Moreover, because improving the quality of economic growth is a long process and requires conformity with the specific conditions of each country, there must be a long-term orientation and development solutions suitable to the reality of each country and each economic scope.

1.2. Research works on economic growth quality by Vietnamese authors

In our country, studies on the quality of economic growth have only recently begun. However, the studies have focused on referring to and applying theories and models that have been studied abroad to analyze and evaluate the current state of the quality of economic growth in Vietnam. The content and scope of the studies are quite diverse. In terms of content, some studies comprehensively address all factors affecting the quality of economic growth, while others only address some aspects and factors affecting the quality of economic growth. In terms of scope, besides a few studies that address the quality of the economy nationwide, a fair number of studies only address the quality of growth in a certain industry, a field, or a certain region or locality.

There are many different approaches to studying the quality of Vietnam's economic growth, each approach has its own advantages and disadvantages. However, there are two main approaches as follows: - Approaching the quality of economic growth according to the characteristics of sustainable development. - Another approach approaches and evaluates economic growth based on the analysis of input factors and direct impacts on growth.

form of a general production function. Represents the relationship between output and input factors…

Thus, although the research on the quality of economic growth in our country has not been conducted for long, the number of domestic research projects is considerable. Among them, there are studies with many important contributions, typically the following studies:

Prof. Dr. Tran Tho Dat; MSc. Do Tuyet Nhung in “The role of total factor productivity (TFP) in the quality of economic growth in Vietnam” , Journal of Economics and Development No. 169, July 2011 [23, p.22], pointed out that the quality of growth is expressed in the following main criteria: (1) high total factor productivity (TFP) factor, ensuring the maintenance of long-term growth rate and avoiding external fluctuations; (2) growth must ensure the improvement of economic efficiency and the enhancement of the competitiveness of the economy; (3) growth goes hand in hand with sustainable environmental development; (4) growth supports the ever-innovating democratic institutions, which in turn promotes growth at a higher rate; and (5) growth must achieve the goal of improving social welfare and reducing poverty.

According to the authors, a quality growing economy is demonstrated through the following characteristics: (i) High growth rate and maintained over a long period of time; (ii) Effective development, demonstrated through high and stable labor productivity, appropriate ICOR coefficient and high TFP contribution; (iii) Economic structure shifting towards improving efficiency, consistent with the reality of the economy in each period; (iv) Highly competitive economy; (v) Economic growth goes hand in hand with ensuring harmony in social life; (vi) Economic growth goes hand in hand with protecting the ecological environment; (vii) Effective state management.

Dr. Le Xuan Ba and Dr. Nguyen Thi Tue Anh (2006): In “ Vietnam’s economic growth - 15 years (1991-2005) from the perspective of analyzing the contribution of production factors ”; Science and Technology Publishing House, Hanoi [6], analyzed and evaluated the contribution of production factors such as capital, labor and total factor productivity to Vietnam’s economic growth. This study included the human factor in growth analysis. Measuring the contribution of the human factor will provide a better view of the factors contributing to economic growth. However, including this factor in the growth calculation model will reduce the contribution of total factor productivity TFP [6, p.47]. In a

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