Ueda Yoko. Local economy and entrepreneurship in Thailand : a case study of Nakhon Ratchasima. Kyoto University Press. 1995, 158p. / 京都大学 / 0048 / 新制・論文博士 / 博士(経済学) / 乙第9679号 / 論経博第214号 / 新制||経||126(附属図書館) / UT51-97-W238 / (主査)教授 渡邉 尚, 教授 今久保 幸生, 教授 上原 一慶 / 学位規則第4条第2項該当 / Doctor of Economics / Kyoto University / DFAM

Agriculture is usually the largest economic sector in developing countries. Typically, most of the countries' population is employed in this sector. The economic growth is dependent upon productivity in agricultural production and its export potential. Increased production and exports from this sector result in foreign exchange earning by which to promote development of the other sectors. Given the importance of agricultural development, this thesis attempts to study the impact of the agricultural sector on Thai economy and to examine some problems concerned with cultivation, production and marketing. The study also concentrates on the development of social overhead capital (i.e., transportation and irrigation systems), which play an important role in stimulating the growth of Thai agriculture. Finally, there are some conclusions and recommendations which may be useful to the government and its agencies concerned with the development of agriculture.

An analysis of Thai government expenditures demonstrates that they expanded rapidly between 1900 and 1969, due primarily to rising prices and the extension of government functions, particularly during the post-war period. In contrast, the war effect had little influence on the growth of expenditures. During the period under study, Thai government expenditures were devoted largely to general, social, and economic services, with emphasis on transportation and communication, defense, agriculture, and education. Current expenditures (for defense, education, etc.) represented a higher percentage of total government expenditures than did capital expenditures (for public construction, social services, etc.). In general, the case of Thailand indicates that levels of government expenditure were higher in conjunction with greater emphasis on economic and social development.

The examination of the performance of Thailand's computer industry, and its contribution to the country's economic growth, are the two major objectives of my research. I study whether the computer industry in Thailand has acquired a comparative advantage. Then, I examine how investment in information technology (IT) has contributed to the growth of total factor productivity for the economy as a whole. The methodology I adopt for measuring the performance the computer industry is based on a number of indices including unit labor cost, revealed comparative advantage, net export index and labor productivity. Estimating the contribution of information technology to the growth of total factor productivity requires two estimation steps. First, I estimate the production function for Thailand where aggregate output depends on human capital, physical capital and labor. Total factor productivity then emerges as the residual of this production function regression. In the second stage, I estimate the effect of investment in IT on total factor productivity, after contributing for its other important determinants. The results suggest that the computer industry in Thailand has indeed acquired a comparative advantage recently. Moreover, an increase investment in information technology significantly influences the growth of total factor productivity in the economy. / Graduation date: 2000

Poverty has been reduced substantially, but most poverty reducing programs have raised other problems out of poverty. This paper outlines the principal causes of poverty in an emerging nation-Thailand. It presents strategies for reducing the level of poverty.

This thesis consists of four independent chapters each of which addresses the relationship between clientelism and social policy in relation to welfare state development from different perspectives. The overarching research question examines whether the adoption of such policies leads to de-clientelisation, and, if so, to what extent. The research extensively draws upon both cross-national data and that from Thailand between 2000-2012 during which populist welfare policies have gained significant influence on political development. Chapter 1 employs a global dataset of developing countries to offer a comparative perspective on the subject and shows that political parties generally trade-off between social policy and their engagement in clientelism. The latter three chapters take Thailand as a case study empirically investigate clientelist mechanisms at different geographic levels. Focusing on the household level, Chapter 2 evaluates the role of patron-client relations in determining access to the Thailand Village Fund based on the Socio-Economic Household Surveys. The provincial level is examined in Chapter 3 which studies economic and political determinants of two types of provincial-level distributive transfers: social policy spending and discretionary spending. Chapter 4 examines the clientelist mechanism at the national level through an assessment of the electoral linkage dynamics by measuring changes in personal votes. The findings show some degree of resilience of clientelist relations as they intervene with social policy allocation, particularly at local level. The global trend contrasts with the case of Thailand where, as in-depth analyses of the latter three chapters have shown, clientelist relations often persist and convert into a new form, for example the southern model of welfare regimes.

This thesis is a collection of three independent essays that applies microeconometrics techniques to empirically study topics in development and labour economics. The first chapter uses evidence from a natural experiment in Bangladesh, where households were treated to different types of transfer, food grains and cash, at different periods in time, to test the effect of these transfers on household consumption behaviour. Using the fixed effect instrumental variable model, the estimation results show that though in-kind transfers did cause households to consume more grain than they would have chosen under equal-value cash transfers, the impact on calorie consumption and children health status is minimal. Households that received cash were able to reallocate their funds more effectively, and chose to spend their extra income on clothing and children's non-food consumption, while at the same time spending no more on vices. The second chapter investigates the dynamics of living standards in Thailand. Income and earnings processes are first modelled after the statistical Galton-Markov process before being extended to follow a more structural permanent earnings model. Empirical estimations of income and earnings persistence in Thailand employ both constructed pseudo-panel data from Thailand's Labour Force Surveys and the Townsend Thai panel data. Galton-Markov estimates found conditional persistence to be low in Thailand. However, quantile regression estimates find that persistence is low at the bottom of the distribution but high at the top, indicating a divergence in earnings as time passes. A study of the covariance structure of earnings finds that total variation in the earnings process is predominantly driven by moderately persistent transitory components following the AR(1) process. The third chapter attempts to empirically fit the power-law distribution and study the dynamics of inequality, especially at the upper end, of the income and consumption distribution in Thailand. We find that using the popular but incorrect method based on the linear regression approach will lead to researchers drawing a wrong conclusion. Regression estimates of the power-law exponent, a, provide strong evidence of power-law fit in Thailand. However, from the implementation of the superior Clauset et al. method, the evidence in support of the power-law fit is much weaker. Estimates of a for both income and consumption suggest that there is low inequality at the top in Thailand but further inspection finds that there is a high level of persistent between-group inequality between the top and bottom ends of the distribution. In addition, following Battistin et al. (2009), we find weak support for Gibrat's law of proportional random growth as the income-generating process in Thailand.

This thesis describes how and what Wattana-dharm Thai [Thai culture] has influenced Thai PR practice through the eyes of Thai PR managers and practitioners. It also provides some background information about the evolution of Thai PR practice to link to the current Thai PR practice. The study employs a qualitative paradigm with in-depth interviews as the main method. Documentary sources are mostly used as a supplement. This thesis provides detailed qualitative data describing how Thai public relations (PR) practitioners operate in Thailand both offline and online. The findings highlighted that Wattana-dharm Thai has a strong influence on Thai PR practice. There are eight main Wattana-dharm Thai aspects that influence Thai PR practice: 1) Relationship orientation (relationships in a Thai style including Bunkhun, Pen-Mitr, and Alum aluay relationships); 2) Community-based orientation; 3) Sanook orientation; 4) Hierarchical structure; 5) Buddhist orientation, 6) Monarchy institution respect; 7) Face and eyes in society; and 8) Form over the content. Thai PR practice has an emphasis on Saang Kwaampratabjai [impression building] through Wattana-dharm Thai. For example, historically, Thais accepted westerners because they did Saang Kwaampratabjai by bringing technology and development to the country. Thais have a positive attitude toward westerners because of this history of impression. Thai PR practitioners also try to use Saang Kwaampratabjai influence the public, such as journalists and opinion leaders by offering incentives altruistically (e.g. Namjai, Bunkhun, etc). Thai PR practice Saang Kwaampratabjai based on Buddhism and their respect of the monarchy. Thai PR place an importance on details of public’s personal information to instigate Saang Kwaampratabjai. For online PR, Thai PR use Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) to support Saang Kwaampratabjai. It would appear that ICTs, in part, are used to promote company’s image rather than having any practical use. Hence, the core of Thai PR is how to practice Saang Kwaampratabjai based solely on personal and social relationship. This thesis aims to fill in the gaps in knowledge relating to PR and culture. It will make a contribution to the academic literature on culture and public relations, not only in the West but globally. This will also provide a framework for Thai PR practitioners to improve and develop their work. This thesis examines culture and PR through the lens of Thai terminology and discourse facilitated by a native inside-out view moderated by the distance obtained by leaving my country for a substantial proportion of the period of the study. This distance allowed me to re-consider many taken-for-granted aspects of my own culture, as well as allowing me to take on board other cultural perspectives available in a Western but international university. Thus this thesis is in part autobiographical, product of my research journey that allowed me to engage with a range of fundamental issues central to cross-cultural living such as hierarchy, religion, political and regal institutional frameworks, and gender.