Industrial Upgrading and Global Recession: Evidence of Hard Disk Drive and Automotive Industries in Thailand

This paper illustrates the upgrading experiences of the automotive and hard disk drive (HDD) industries in Thailand, chosen because of their outstanding export performance in the developing world. An understanding of their upgrading experiences can shed some light on the ongoing debate regarding the relative importance of international production networks (IPNs) and industrial clusters (ICs) and their implications for prudential industrial policy. The impact of the recent global recession is also discussed in this paper. There is evidence of industrial upgrading in both the automotive and HDD industries. Yet one primary policy challenge still remains, that is, the limited role of indigenous suppliers in the multinational enterprise (MNE) production networks. This limited role is, to a certain extent, related to the overall incentive structure. Where these two industries differ is in their mode of networking, that is, whether they are part of an IPN or an IC. In the case of the automotive industry, industrial clustering has been observed and has reached a level where the local content of a locally manufactured vehicle is approaching 100%. In the case of the HDD industry, industrial clustering has naturally occurred and reached a certain level.industrial upgrading; international production networks; industrial clusters; automotive industry; hard disk drive industry; thai manufacturing

Improving flood management planning in Thailand : a case of Chao Phraya river basin

PowerPoint presentationMeeting: SaciWATERs Waters Conference, CCW program, Katmandu, Nepal, 18 June 2013Severe flooding occurred during the 2011 monsoon season in Thailand with floods soon spreading through the provinces ; 65 of Thailand's 76 provinces were declared flood disaster zones. The government’s response largely on “physical infrastructure” paid inadequate attention to the issues of “soft infrastructure” particularly the socio‐economic impact, land‐use patterns and water management institutional arrangements. These are the main focus of the presentation and analysis. Institutions at the national level are broken down in terms of legislation, organizational structure, tasks, and performance. Institutional reforms are the next step

Determinants and implications of the growing scale of livestock farms in four fast-growing developing countries:

"The rapid growth in consumer demand for livestock offers an opportunity to reduce poverty among smallholder livestock farmers in the developing world. These farmers' opportunity may be threatened, however, by competition from larger-scale farms. This report assesses the potential threat, examining various forms of livestock production in Brazil, India, the Philippines, and Thailand. Findings show that the competitiveness of smallholder farms depends on the opportunity cost of family labor and farmers' ability to overcome barriers to the acquisition of production- and market-related information and assets. Pro-poor livestock development depends, therefore, on the strengthening of institutions that will help smallholders overcome the disproportionately high transaction costs in securing quality inputs and obtaining market recognition for quality outputs. These and other findings make this report a useful guide for researchers and others concerned with the opportunities and risks of smallholder livestock farming." from Authors' SummaryDeveloping countries, Economic aspects, Industrialization, Profit efficiency, Environmental externalities, Smallholder competitiveness, Livestock productivity, Livestock Industrialization, Scaling up,

Household projections and housing needs in Thailand

For more about the East-West Center, see http://www.eastwestcenter.org/The objectives of this report are as follows. 1-To predict the number of households and housing requirements at 5-year intervals over the 1985-2015 period. 2-To predict housing needs, assuming various income elasticity of demand for housing and economic growth over the same time periods. 3-To forcast the residential construction expenditures required to meet the future housing requirements. 4-To examine the economic impacts of changes in housing expenditures on the economy by employing a social accounting matrix for Thailand in 1981

Labor supply, demand for children and wage rates of paid employees in Thailand

Photocopy of typescript.Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Hawaii at Manoa, 1979.Bibliography: leaves 145-149.Microfiche.ix, 149 leaves 29 cmThe purpose of this study is to analyze the labor supply behavior of paid employees in Thailand. The family model of labor supply suggests that family size, wage rates and the labor supply behavior of each family member are interrelated. Therefore, a simultaneous equations model is developed, consisting of the husband's and the wife's labor supply functions, their wage functions, their demand for children and an income identity. The model is estimated by a two-stage least squares method. The data utilized cover 1631 working couples selected from the total number of households in the Survey of Labor Force, Round 1 (January-March), 1977, the National Statistical Office, Thailand. This study has demonstrated that R2 can be used to compare the predictive power of two estimation procedures, namely Heckman's and Kosters' models. Although such comparison proves inconclusive, the former is chosen as our estimation method. The labor supply models of married male and married female are separately estimated because (a) the aggregation test shows that the labor supply behavior of married women in Bangkok is significantly different from that in non-Bangkok areas, while the behavior of married men in these two areas is not significantly different, (b) an analysis of variance shows no significant differences in the average weekly hours of men between these two areas, while the mean hours of work of women in Bangkok are shorter than those in non-Bangkok, and (c) the F-tests confirm that most of the total variation in the working hours of women is explained by variation within (an area), while variation between plays a larger role in explaining the total variation of men's working hours. Results of the estimated labor supply of husbands (for the whole nation) show that the substitution and income elasticities are very low. Moreover, the wife's wage rate, household income, the number of children, the family size, and occupational dummy variables are statistically significant. The Neoclassical implication of symmetrical cross-substitution effects and of the implicit assumption that the husband's and the wife's incomes have identical effects on their labor supply cannot be rejected. In the estimated labor supply of married women in both areas, the husband's wage rate, own wage rate, household income, family size, and occupational dummy variables are statistically significant. Moreover, the number of children is also significant in the Bangkok model and so are age and age squared in the non-Bangkok model. When the assumption of equal income effect is maintained, the hypothesis of identical cross-substitution effects is accepted only in the non-Bangkok model of married women's labor supply. However, when this assumption is relaxed, all of the hypotheses concerning equal income effects and the simultaneous test of equal income and symmetrical cross-substitution effects must be rejected in both areas. This implies that the bargaining theory is a more appropriate model to estimate the labor supply of married women in our data set than the Neoclassical model. When the model is specified by bargaining theory, the estimated substitution and (wife's) income elasticities of the wives' labor supply are greater than one (which is consistent with the secondary workers hypothesis), while the husband's income elasticity of wives' labor supply is much smaller than one. Except for the husband's wage rate in the Bangkok model, all of the coefficients in the demand for children equations for the whole country and for Bangkok are statistically significant. These include the couple's wage rate, household income, the couple's education, the wife's age and an age square, the dummy variable of government-private sector employee and the maid dummy variable. However, in the non-Bangkok model, the couple's education and the maid variable are not significant. Therefore, children are normal goods and the opportunity cost of the couple's time has a negative effect on their demand for children. The results of the estimated wage functions of husbands and wives show that the human capital variables, i.e. education and experience, are always significant in every model. College graduates are found to have higher wage rates than non-college graduates. While the wage rates of married women in the government sector in Bangkok are lower than their counterparts in the private sector, the reverse is true in non-Bangkok areas. Finally, the number of children and the hours of work are not found to have any significant effect on wage rates. In conclusion, since paid employees are the only group of workers who fully pay the income tax, knowledge of the income and substitution elasticities of labor supply can be used to determine the effects of a change in the income tax structure or the effects of an introduction of a negative income tax program on the labor supply effort of paid employees