Thailand, Rural Growth and EmploymentOver the past two decades economic growth in Thailand has proceeded at a high rate, with agriculture continuing to play an important role in the growth process. Non-farm activities have become a major source of income and employment for rural households. The present study has been undertaken to establish the factors explaining the growth in rural non-farm employment and its dependence on agricultural growth, the resulting benefits, and measures to accelerate growth and thereby alleviate rural poverty. The major conclusions are: (1) growth of rural non-farm employment is predominantly linked to agricultural growth; (2) little scope exists for direct measures to generate more rural non-farm employment; (3) judicious investments in physical and social infrastructure should be designed for rural poverty pockets; and (4) the anti-rural bias of agricultural price policies and industrial protection policies have not been offset by specific agricutural or nonagricultural programs in rural areas, distortions to which the primacy of Bangkok must be attributed. Statistical tables are included. |
Contents
AN OVERVIEW | 1 |
RURAL AND METROPOLITAN CONSUMER DEMAND | 3 |
II | 23 |
V | 84 |
58 | 87 |
69 | 110 |
VI | 122 |
5 | 129 |
PROVINCIAL MANUFACTURING ITS CHARACTERISTICS AND THE IMPACT | 137 |
THE IMPACT OF AGRICULTURAL PRICE POLICIES ON THE RURAL ECONOMY | 149 |
APPENDIX A | 158 |
APPENDIX B Estimation of the Efficiency and Distributional Effects | 180 |
142 | |