Why has income inequality in Thailand increased?: An analysis using surveys from 1975 to 1998

This paper identifies the determinants of income inequality in Thailand, which increased between 1975 and 1998. Our regression results strongly suggest the significance of agricultural factors. We also obtain some limited evidence that sectoral factors, financial development, and education level disparities play a roughly equally important role in explaining inequality changes in Thailand.     

Is the development of the agro-processing industry pro-poor?: The case of Thailand

We examine how the development of the agro-processing industry contributed to poverty reduction in Thailand. The effects on farmers’ income are emphasized because most of the poor in Thailand are farmers. The development of the agro-processing industry could improve farmers’ income through two channels: (i) the purchase of agricultural products; and (ii) the employment of the poor farmers at factories. We show that the development of the agro-processing industry, which also played a leading role in the high economic growth of the Thai economy, contributed to poverty reduction through both of the two channels. It was hence pro-poor.     

China's import duty drawback and VAT rebate policies: A general equilibrium analysis

China's duty drawbacks and value-added tax rebates play important roles in promoting exports. Simulations from a CGE model, characterized by a dual production (domestic sales and export processing) and dual import structure (imports used in export processing and for other purposes), confirm our theoretical results on China's exports that (a) such policies are generally export promoting; (b) a small part of the export expansion comes at the expense of a slight decline of the domestic activity through factor re-allocation and input substitution, whereas a larger portion of the expansion is attributed to cheaper access to foreign inputs; (c) export processors use more imported inputs and less domestic inputs; and (d) export intensive sectors are positively affected by these policies, whereas traditional agriculture sector is impacted adversely. These policies generate welfare gains for China.     

The determinants of income inequality in Thailand: A synthetic cohort analysis

This paper presents tests and estimates of the human capital model of income inequality using synthetic cohort data for Thailand: 1992–2011. The model focuses on four primary determinants of income inequality: mean per capita income levels, the variances in years of education, in the number of children, and in the number of earners in the household. All of these factors are important sources of income inequality in Thailand, with relative impacts that differ across demographic groups and types of household structure. An inverted-U relation between mean per capita income levels and inequality is found, reflecting gender differences of the head of household, differences in household composition, and variation in access to finance. Although the human capital model emphasizes education, estimates presented here show other household characteristics, such as number of children and number of earners, can be even more important sources of inequality.     

An empirical study of structural factors and regional growth in China

Based on data of 31 Chinese provinces over the period 1980–2004, the study in this paper presents new evidence on the effects of structural shocks and structural transformation on growth and convergence among the Chinese regions. The division of overall regional growth in labour productivity into three components – growth due to structural shocks, growth due to structural transformation and a ‘residual’ indicating growth due to region-specific changes – provides us with a better framework than the traditional one-sector Solow growth model for attributing growth and convergence to various different sources. Among other findings, the study has shown that during 1990–1999, structural shocks worked to widen the gap between rich regions and poor regions in China, while structural transformation worked to narrow the gap.     

福建省与泰国农产品出口结构相似性分析

首先分别概述了福建省与泰国农产品的出口情况,通过对福建省与泰国农产品出口品种结构的比较研究,并采用Finger-Kreinin出口相似性指数对福建省与泰国农产品出口结构的相似性水平进行量化分析,得出的较高的出口相似性指数表明福建省与泰国农产品的出口结构相似水平较高。接着进一步针对福建省与泰国主要的农产品的出口情况展开比较、分析,并依据此结论对福建省农产品出口提出相应的建议。     

Brothers in distress: Revolving capital flows of Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand

The paper examines hypothesized linkages between external borrowings and capital flights as presented in [Boyce, J. K. (1992). The revolving door? External debt and capital flight: Philippine case study. World Development, 20(3), 335–349]. The results for Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand show that large sums of capital flowed in and out of these economies in a revolving door fashion. The findings suggest the necessity for sound domestic management as well as effective international involvement in capital flows.     

Education,globalization and catch-up: Scandinavia in the Swedish mirror

This paper estimates and analyses wage inequality trends in Portugal, from 1944 to 1984, a period that comprises the Estado Novo dictatorship and the first decade after the transition to democracy. Wage inequality is measured by the gap between skilled and unskilled labour, and reveals a downward trend in most of the period in analysis. We provide an explanation for the observed trends by looking at the influence of domestic and international forces on changes in the relative supply and demand of skilled labour. According to our findings, the skill premium declined due to the combined influence of two major forces: an increase in the relative supply of skilled labour due to the mass emigration of unskilled labour, and the decrease in the relative demand for skills, related to trade-induced changes stemming from the country's increasing openness, which followed the country's unskilled labour comparative advantages. Our findings point to the conclusion that the impact of openness on wage inequality is related to the country's relative level of development among its major trading partners.     

The relationship between an electricity supply ceiling and economic growth: An application of disequilibrium modeling to Taiwan

Using a disequilibrium model, we investigate the relationship between the supply constraint of electricity generation capacity and electricity demand in Taiwan. We find that electricity consumption faced supply constraints in Taiwan between 1959 and 1972, but that generation capacity grew rapidly after 1973, such that economic growth came to be the major determinant of electricity consumption. Our experience in fitting this disequilibrium model suggests that simple causality tests are not a proper means to understand the relationship between electricity consumption and economic growth. Our results also suggest, at least for developing countries, that an electricity supply constraint sometimes plays an important role when investigating the relationship between energy consumption and economic growth.     

Dynamics of Growth,Poverty and Inequality: A Panel Analysis of Regional Data from Thailand and the Philippines*

Using panel data for provinces compiled from household expenditure microdata, the present paper empirically investigates the relationships among growth, poverty and inequality in Thailand and the Philippines. The empirical model avoids the potential bias due to the fact that the entire distribution of individual‐level consumption changes over time and empirical variables for growth, poverty and inequality are often compiled from the consumption distribution. The system generalized method of moments estimation results strongly suggest that inequality reduced the growth rate of per‐capita consumption, and that differences in inequality explain a substantial portion of the Philippine–Thai difference in growth and poverty reduction since the late 1980s.     

Information Technology, Organizational Transformation and Productivity Growth: An Examination of the Brynjolfsson–Hitt Proposition

This study investigates what happened to productivity growth during the Information Technology (IT) revolution in an IT-driven economy, Korea. To this end, we have decomposed the source of productivity growth into technological change, technical efficiency and scale economies using a stochastic frontier function and examined how the composition of productivity growth has changed with different phases of IT developments. We have used panel data that is comprised of 4022 firms from 1996 to 2000. We have found that Korean firms have been quick to embrace organizational restructuring to adapt to a new business environment brought about by IT, which seems to be the major source of the success of Korean firms. We have also found that: (i) there is no substantial difference in productivity gains between IT-producing firms and IT-using firms; (ii) productivity growth is more robust to business cycles in an IT-driven economy than in the traditional economy; and (iii) efficiency improvement attributed to organizational transformation plays a greater role in productivity growth as IT applications become more widespread.     

Modern theories of regulation: An old story. Danish gasworks in the nineteenth century

Abstract

The Great Northern Telegraph Company was established in 1869 and enjoyed a very successful era thanks to a de-facto monopoly on the telegraph lines from Northern Europe to the Far East. After 1945 the Company changed its focus from telegraphy to wireless communication and electronic equipment. This article presents an analysis of the dramatic developments in the decades following the Second World War.

The relationship between the changing strategies and the established structure is analysed using Alfred D.Chandler Jr's well-known Strategy and Structure concept. After 40 years this concept still seems relevant to the understanding of the peculiar capacity for survival and growth demonstrated by old, well-established firms. In the conclusion it is argued that the post-war growth of the Great Northern Telegraph Company was based on several factors. These were the fortune originating from the Company's golden age in the 1910s and the 1920s, the industry investment strategy during and after the Second World War and finally, the changes of the organisational structure in the 1970s, which created the vital correspondence between strategy and structure.     

Technology Transfer from Acquisition FDI and the Absorptive Capacity of Domestic Firms: An Empirical Investigation

This paper seeks to establish the role of absorptive capacity in technology transfer from acquisition FDI in U.K. manufacturing. It finds that the rate of productivity change following a foreign take-over is higher the higher the pre-acquisition productivity level of the acquired firm, indicating the importance of absorptive capacity. However, beyond some critical level of initial productivity, the rate of technology transfer due to foreign acquisition starts to decline. It seems that U.K. acquisition targets that had been operating nearer the domestic technology frontier have less to gain from their association with foreign multinationals.     

Homoclinic bifurcation and global indeterminacy of equilibrium in a two-sector endogenous growth model

This paper considers an endogenous growth model that belongs to the same family as the Lucas model. In the Lucas model an external effect appears in the physical-goods sector, whereas in our model, it appears in the educational sector. In our model, this external effect yields multiple balanced growth paths. Our model undergoes a homoclinic bifurcation and exhibits global indeterminacy of equilibrium.     

An Examination of Labor Productivity Growth and Structural Changes in the Singapore Labor Force*

This paper ?rst examines the sources of growth in the Singapore economy by decomposing real per capita gross domestic product (GDP) growth into two components. It is found that, for the period 1974–1999, labor productivity was a signi?cant source of economic growth in Singapore. Conversely, the contribution of the rate of change in employment ratio was only of secondary importance. On further decomposition, the rate of change in employment ratio was due mainly to rate of change in population age‐structure ratio and rate of change in labor‐force participation rate. Growth patterns of the labor force were examined after it has been segregated according to gender, citizenship and age group independently. Labor productivity growth was highest in the transport, storage and communication sector, while labor productivity growth was lowest in the ?nancial, insurance, real estate and business services sector.     

Productivity and technology in Nepal:: An analysis of foreign and domestic firms

This study uses plant level data from the census of manufacturing establishments to examine the production technology and labor productivity of foreign and domestic firms in Nepal. The results show that the capital intensity in foreign firms is higher than that in domestic firms. The statistical results also imply that foreign firms have higher labor productivity. A simultaneous equation model suggests that foreign firms are technically not more efficient than domestic firms. In fact, analysis indicates that foreign firms are technically less efficient. The foreign firms may have derived their competitiveness from capital intensive technology that is found to be one of the major factors to boost labor productivity.     

Effects of male and female education on economic growth: Some evidence from Asia

We use extreme bounds analysis (EBA) to examine the comparative growth effects of gender disaggregated and level-specific enrolment ratios in a panel of Asian economies. To test our hypotheses, we employ both endogenous and exogenous growth frameworks. The externality effects of education are positive and robust for both males and females and are relatively large and significant at primary, secondary and tertiary levels. The results are suggestive of a gender productivity gap. Asian economies can grow faster by investing more in female education.     

Long-run growth in the OECD: A test of the parallel growth paths hypothesis

A prediction of a class of neoclassical growth models is that countries with similar levels of integration in the world economy will have parallel long-run growth paths. We test this hypothesis for the OECD, using estimates of long-run mean growth rates of per capita output for each country for the period 1870–2005. The results show strong evidence for unconditional β-convergence only in the post-WWII period of 1951–1974. The results serve as a caution against drawing inferences regarding long-run growth patterns from this sample of countries when the time frame includes the post-WWII golden-age period.