Does the education level of the CEO and CFO affect the profitability of real estate and construction companies? Evidence from Vietnam

This article aims to determine the level and trend of the impact of the educational level of CEOs and CFOs on the profitability of real estate and construction companies in Vietnam. Because Vietnam is an emerging economy, insights into the profitability of this market will be lessons learned for other economies with similar characteristics. This quantitative study is based on secondary data collected from audited financial statements, annual reports of 123 Vietnamese real estate and construction companies, and macroeconomic data. Pool OLS, Fixed effect and Random effect regression models and the Hausman test are used to find the appropriate model. The study uses GLS regression to overcome heteroscedasticity and autocorrelation and uses the generalized method of moments (GMM) to overcome endogeneity. We find that the profitability of listed construction and real estate companies with highly educated CEOs is no higher than that of other companies. Furthermore, companies whose CFOs have master's or doctorate degrees are less likely to be profitable. Other findings confirm the heterogeneous effects of operating efficiency, economic growth rate, and financial leverage on different profitability measures. The study also proves that company age, firm size, net working capital, liquidity ratio and inflation rate do not affect profitability.