Peer Review History

Original SubmissionJuly 15, 2023
Decision Letter - Ricky Chee Jiun Chia, Editor

PONE-D-23-21666The Effects of Free Trade Agreements on the Stock Market: Evidence from VietnamPLOS ONE

Dear Dr. VU,

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Ricky Chee Jiun Chia

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

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Reviewers' comments:

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Comments to the Author

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Reviewer #1: Partly

Reviewer #2: Partly

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2. Has the statistical analysis been performed appropriately and rigorously?

Reviewer #1: I Don't Know

Reviewer #2: Yes

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Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: No

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Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

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5. Review Comments to the Author

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Reviewer #1: This paper discusses the effects of Free Trade Agreements on the Vietnam stock market. Manuscripts describe, in part, technically sound scientific research and provide data to support conclusions.It is rich in content, but there are still some problems.

Reviewer #2: The manuscript is interesting, although the topic is not new, at least from the perspective of investigating the effects of trade agreements on industries and stock markets. However, it is argued that one of the contributions of this manuscript resides in the analysis of these effects for a developing economy, Vietnam, that has recently signed a free-trade agreement with the EU. The manuscript needs several changes before being published.

1. The Introduction should stress more the originality and contributions to the literature, particularly since the topic is not new.

2. The Literature review needs organisation and structure. As it is, it looks amalgamated and constructed from various paragraphs that do not logically follow one after the other. Also, i encourage the authors to use the literature review to build their research questions and hypotheses, by highlighting the research gap.

3. The methodology is well explained, but the low number of events included in th study (10) might impact the findings.

4. The results need to be better explained, particularly the differences between returns' reaction to each of the 10 events, as well as those between the economic sectors.

5. There is no discussion on the results, the authors do not contrast their findings against other studies.

6. Conclusions need to highlight the implications of the findings, as well as to present the limitations of the study and the directions for future research that might be identified based on the results.

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Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: No

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Attachments
Attachment
Submitted filename: Comments.docx
Revision 1

Dear Professor Hung Do,

On behalf of the co-authors, I would like to thank you in advance for reconsidering and handling our research article. We have made the adjustments to our paper following the reviewers’ comments.

Overall, this research makes the following contributions to the literature. First, we deepen the understanding of informed trading by providing crucial insights into the stock market reaction around the EVFTA announcements on the Vietnam stock market. Second, we contribute to the limited literature on risk structure caused by free trade agreements by providing a comprehensive risk analysis.

In general, our findings are consistent with those of Hanson and Song (1998), who examined the effects of the North American Free Trade Agreement on the U.S. and Mexico stock markets and found mixed reactions to the free trade agreement announcements. The results, however, contradict those of Parinduri and Thangavelu (2012), who examined the effects of the U.S. ad Singapore Free Trade Agreement on the Singapore stock market and found the FTA increased the value of firms. A plausible explanation for this contradiction is the higher degree of uncertainty that EVFTA brings to Vietnamese firms, whereby the EU consists of several countries, and export (import) activities might be far more complicated than trading with a single country.

Regarding the data availability, the data used in this study was collected from Refinitiv Eikon Datastream, hence we are not able to publicly share the data without Refinitiv’s permission. The data request might be sent to Refinitiv for further information.

Sincerely yours,

Tuan Vu

Attachments
Attachment
Submitted filename: Responses to Reviewers.docx
Decision Letter - Ricky Chee Jiun Chia, Editor

The Effects of Free Trade Agreements on the Stock Market: Evidence from Vietnam

PONE-D-23-21666R1

Dear Dr. Tuan Hung Vu,

We’re pleased to inform you that your manuscript has been judged scientifically suitable for publication and will be formally accepted for publication once it meets all outstanding technical requirements.

Within one week, you’ll receive an e-mail detailing the required amendments. When these have been addressed, you’ll receive a formal acceptance letter and your manuscript will be scheduled for publication.

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Kind regards,

Ricky Chee Jiun Chia

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

Additional Editor Comments (optional):

Reviewers' comments:

Formally Accepted
Acceptance Letter - Ricky Chee Jiun Chia, Editor

PONE-D-23-21666R1

The effects of free trade agreements on the stock market: Evidence from Vietnam

Dear Dr. Vu:

I'm pleased to inform you that your manuscript has been deemed suitable for publication in PLOS ONE. Congratulations! Your manuscript is now with our production department.

If your institution or institutions have a press office, please let them know about your upcoming paper now to help maximize its impact. If they'll be preparing press materials, please inform our press team within the next 48 hours. Your manuscript will remain under strict press embargo until 2 pm Eastern Time on the date of publication. For more information please contact onepress@plos.org.

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Thank you for submitting your work to PLOS ONE and supporting open access.

Kind regards,

PLOS ONE Editorial Office Staff

on behalf of

Dr. Ricky Chee Jiun Chia

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

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