Benign growth: Structural transformation and inclusive growth in Thailand

Warr, Peter; Suphannachart, Waleerat

doi:10.35188/unu-wider/2020/803-0

Cited by 5 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 14 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…First were capital-intensive mega-projects such as a high-speed railway service linking Bangkok with major cities, ‘land bridge’ linking the Gulf of Thailand with the Andaman Sea, and ten new electric train lines in Bangkok. Second were redistributive measures including an increase in the minimum wage to 300 baht per day, a farmer's credit-card project, tax cut for first-home and first-car buyers, and a rice-pledging scheme (Warr 2011: 61). Among these, the rice-pledging scheme, or a guaranteed above-market price of 15,000 baht per tonne for unmilled rice, was the most controversial.…”

Section: Elected Governments After 1997mentioning

confidence: 99%

Thailand Trapped: Catch-up Legacies and Contemporary Malaise

Kanchoochat

2018

TRaNS

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

A better understanding of Thailand's contemporary malaise needs a perspective that combines political and economic aspects without losing sight of history. This article applies the concept of path dependence to examine how pre-1997 catch-up industrialisation shaped the post-crisis trajectory. It argues that the catch-up process has left a number of important legacies, especially the symbiotic relationship between the military, banking conglomerates, and technocrats; dominant growth narrative with a focus on macroeconomic stability; and overly centralised and bloated state structures. These legacies have shaped the strategies and legitimacies of today's political actors and rendered the pursuit of growth increasingly contradictory to maintaining order.

show abstract

Section: Elected Governments After 1997mentioning

confidence: 99%

Thailand Trapped: Catch-up Legacies and Contemporary Malaise

Kanchoochat

2018

TRaNS

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Numerous studies suggest that, over the past few decades, income inequality in Thailand has declined, following the growth‐equity trade‐off hypothesized by Simon Kuznets (1966). That is, inequality initially increased in the high growth period between the 1970s and the early 1990s, and then fell during the growth slowdown between the mid‐1990s and the mid‐2010s (Krongkaew & Kakwani, 2003; Jeong, 2008; Warr & Suphannachart, 2020). Based on the Organization for Economic Co‐operation and Development (OECD) equivalence scale, Lekfuangfu et al .…”

Section: An Institutional Approach To Economic Transformationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Siamese Twin Troubles: Structural and Regulatory Transformations in Unequal Thailand

Kanchoochat

2022

Asian Economic Policy Review

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This paper takes an institutional approach to inequality in Thailand by exploring the country's structural and regulatory transformations. It discusses how Thailand's transition from agriculture to industry and services has been impeded by both the demand and supply sides of government subsidies since the 1950s. The relative failure of structural transformation has slowed down economic catch‐up and widened the well‐being gap between those inside and outside the agricultural sector. Furthermore, while regulatory transformation has mitigated state‐led malaise in certain Asian economies, post‐1997 reform in Thailand has incentivized unconventional political actors, such as academics, medical doctors and civil society leaders, to make collective efforts in toppling elected governments in exchange for gaining selection into oversight agencies. The case of Thailand indicates how regulatory reform may create perverse incentives that adversely affect democratization, decentralization, competition, and taxation. Dealing with inequality therefore requires a big push toward progressive structural and regulatory transformations altogether.

show abstract

“…However, given the slowing economic growth in the 2000s, there is growing concern among policymakers and scholars that Thailand is caught in the middleincome trap-an inability to raise the country from middle-income to high-income levels. A number of studies describes that both the quantity and the quality of the workforce are central to the debate on Thailand's miracle economic performance in the past few decades (Coxhead and Plangpraphan 1999;Warr 2005;Warr and Suphannachart 2020). However, expanding the supply of human capital is viewed as an important tool to escape the trap (Jitsuchon 2012;Riedel 2019).…”

Section: Issues and Challengesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Recent Developments in Basic Education in Thailand: Issues and Challenges

Durongkaveroj¹

2022

JSAE

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Over the past few decades, Thailand has made progress in expanding access to basic education, resulting in an increase in literacy rates and narrowing gaps in school attendance between socio-economic groups. This paper surveys recent developments in Thailand's basic education with an emphasis on the learning outcomes of Thai students, the determinants of such outcomes, and the challenges faced by the basic education system. The paper finds that despite the significant amount of resources spent on education and the fact that the quality of the workforce is crucial for the country's current stage of economic development, students' learning outcomes are low and have not improved significantly in either national or international assessments. The performance of junior secondary school students in the national examinations has declined, especially in mathematics and science. While the performance of senior secondary school students has improved slightly over the same period, the mean results for core subjects (mathematics, science, and English) were less than 50. This worrying figure is worsened by inequality in education quality across regions, since the performance of secondary school students is lower in poorer, remote regions. In addition, according to the results of the international assessments, Thai students are performing below the international average in core subjects. The paper argues that such poor learning outcomes are presumably due to two main reasons: the role of small school, and inefficient resource allocation for education in public spending. Key challenges in Thailand's basic education include the need to expand the supply of human capital to avoid the middle-income trap and the aging society. This is a pivotal period in Thailand's economic development. Educational reform is needed to ensure high-quality basic education for all.

show abstract

Benign growth: Structural transformation and inclusive growth in Thailand

Abstract: This study has been prepared within the UNU-WIDER project Developer's dilemma -structural transformation, inequality dynamics, and inclusive growth.

Cited by 5 publications

References 14 publications

Thailand Trapped: Catch-up Legacies and Contemporary Malaise

Thailand Trapped: Catch-up Legacies and Contemporary Malaise

Siamese Twin Troubles: Structural and Regulatory Transformations in Unequal Thailand

Recent Developments in Basic Education in Thailand: Issues and Challenges

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About