Overview of Financial Inclusion, Regulation, and Education

Financial inclusion is receiving increasing attention for its potential to contribute to economic and financial development while fostering more inclusive growth and greater income equality. Although substantial progress has been made, there is still much to achieve. East Asia, the Pacific, and South Asia combined account for 55% of the world's unbanked adults, mainly in India and the People's Republic of China. This paper surveys the experiences of advanced and emerging economies - Germany, the United Kingdom, Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, and Thailand - to assess factors affecting the ability of low-income households and small firms to access financial services, including financial literacy, financial education programs, and financial regulatory frameworks, and to pinpoint policies that can improve their financial access while maintaining financial stability. The study aims to take a practical, holistic approach to issues related to financial inclusion. For example, innovative methods for promoting financial access, such as mobile phone banking and microfinance, require corresponding innovations in regulatory frameworks, perimeters, and capacity. Moreover, programs in the areas of financial education and consumer protection are needed to enable households and small firms to take full advantage of improvements in financial access

Industrial location behaviour and regional restructuring within the Fifth 'Tiger' Economy: evidence from the Thai electronics industry

The paper investigates the location behaviour of firms in the electronics industry in Thailand. Our approach is to use a logit model in order to analyse how the characteristics of the firms and the regions are related to the location decisions of firms in these sectors. The logit results throw some light on the question of the nature of agglomeration behaviour in a developing economy in which the national spatial industrial structure is dominated by a single primal city. Our conclusions provide tentative support for a product-cycle argument of industrial concentration and dispersion.

Financial Inclusion, Financial Regulation, and Financial Education in Thailand

This paper addresses the issue of financial inclusion in Thailand through the lens of an institutional analysis, which takes into consideration the desired outcomes, the service providers and enabling agencies, and the regulatory context that shape the existing provision of financial inclusion in Thailand. In discussing the achievement of the desired outcomes in terms of financial inclusion, the issues of financial education and financial regulation, which provide the contexts within which the provision of financial products and services occur, are also addressed. Using survey information and other evidence, the paper identifies the gaps between desired and existing outcomes, the gap in unmet demand for financial products and services, the gap in financial education provision, and the weakness of the existing regulatory institutional setting. The paper concludes with policy recommendations for achieving the desired outcomes in terms of financial inclusion within the context of Thailand