'Professor Krongkaew is one of Thailands best known academic economists, and he has brought together an impressive number of authorities on the modern Thai economy. The resulting book should be of great value to anyone wanting an authoritative and comprehensive overview of recent developments in one of Asias most dynamic economies.' - Anne Booth, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London The book is divided into 4 parts. Part 1 gives an overview of Thai industrialization and the roles of agriculture, manufactured exports, direct foreign investment and tourism as major contributors to recent fast economic growth. Part 2 analyses the impact of industrialization on government finance, monetary policy, urbanisation, and household welfare. Part 3 further investigates impact on political development, social values, the environment, and education, health and science and technology. Part 4 looks at a future role of Thailand as a newly industrialized country in Asia.

This title was first published in 2000: Since 1998, there have been many diagnoses, studies and theories attempting to explain the East Asian economic crisis and the impact on major economic and financial sectors. This text aims to fill a gap in the literature by examining the effects on small and medium-sized enterprises. From early 1998, unemployment figures in the region rose rapidly although large enterprises were not as yet engaged in corporate restructuring. Registered small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and microenterprises were a major source of this unemployment, especially among unskilled and seasonal workers. This volume covers the debate in five ways. An introductory chapter presents an overview of the SME international experience both in OECD and developing economies. Part I looks at the economic and social contribution of SMEs in Thailand before and after the 1997-1998 crisis and Part II reviews government policy and SME promotion initiatives. Part III explores the assumption that local SMEs linked to large firms have been more resilient, while the concluding chapter suggests a range of policies which have been derived from experiences in places other than Thailand.

Why do some small, developing countries industrialize and others don’t? What factors account for different economic performance among states that are vulnerable to external shocks, crony capitalism, and political instability? This book argues that the answer lies in the structuring of state power, specifically the way different sets of governing elites – political leaders and economic technocrats – are embedded in political organisations and state institutions, and the way these elites relate to each other in the economic development policy process. Conducting a comparative historical analysis of Thailand and the Philippines, the book argues that the institutional settings of governing elites influence economic outcomes. In Thailand, political power traditionally connects to state institutions in ways that has limited the impact of political turnovers and global downturns - conducive to long-term industrial activities. In contrast, Philippine state power derives from family networks that merge social and political power, suited to fast-moving, short-term commercial interests. In focusing on this political and institutional story, the author analyses the current development dilemmas of countries, weighed down by historical legacies of unstable regimes, dependency, and social conflict, and how they are likely to develop in the future.

This book focuses on how the state has become entangled in the processes through which workers have been organized, reorganized and disorganized as social and political actors in different historical periods.

Competitiveness of a country requires continuous upgrading and, sometimes, major transformation. Thailand is at the crossroad. It can no longer pursue a strategy based on low-cost advantages, but its capability achievements are still too low to become an advanced economy. This book points out weaknesses of Thailand's national innovation system or education and suggests how the country should develop new capabilities to survive and prosper in the globalized and fiercely competitive world. It will be useful to researchers and students who want to learn more about Thailand and emerging countries, and also to policy-makers and executives involved in economic and industrial development. Co-published with IRASEC (Research Institute on Contemporary Southeast Asia), Bangkok

The world financial crisis of 1997-99 was the most important international economic event since the oil shocks of the 1970s and the associated debt crisis of the 1980s. What were its political causes and consequences? In particular, how did interest group coalitions and political institutions affect pre-crisis economic policies and post-crisis responses? This book focuses on how policymaking coalitions are formed and how political institutions mediate the pressure of rival coalitions. This approach is applied to 13 countries drawn from the main crisis-affected regions of the world economy East Asia, Southeast Asia, Latin America and Eastern Europe."

Why have Taiwan, rich parts of China, and Thailand boomed famously, while the Philippines has long remained stagnant both economically and politically? Do booms abet democracy? Does the rise of middle “classes” promise future liberalization? Why has Philippine democracy brought no boom and barely served the Filipino people?This book, unlike most previous studies, shows that both the roots and results of growth are largely political rather than economic. Specifically, it pays attention to local, not just national, power networks that caused or prevented growth in the four places under consideration. Violence has been common in these polities, along with money. Elections have contributed to socio-political problems that are also obvious in Leninist or junta regimes, because elections are surprisingly easy to buy with corrupt money from government contracts. Liberals should pay more serious theoretical attention to the effects of money on justice, and Western political science should focus more clearly on the ways non-state local power affects elections. By considering the effects on fair justice of local money and power (largely from small- and medium-sized firms that emerge after agrarian reforms), this book asks democrats to face squarely the extent to which electoral procedures fail to help ordinary citizens. Students and scholars of Asia will all need this book — as will students of the West whose methods have become parochial.

The Regional Handbooks of Economic Development series provides accessible overviews of countries within their larger domestic and international contexts, focusing on the relations among regions as they meet the challenges of the twenty first century. The series allows the non-specialist student to explore a wide range of complex factors-social and political as well as economic-that affect the growth of developing regions in Asia, Europe, and South America. Each Handbook provides an overview chapter discussing the region's economic conditions within an historical and political context, as well as 20 or more chapter-length essays written by recognized experts, which analyze the key issues affecting a region's economy: its population, natural resources, foreign trade, labor problems, and economic inequalities, and other vital factors. In addition, the volumes offer useful support materials, including a series of appendices that include a detailed chronology of events in the region, a glossary of terms, biographical entries on key personalities, an annotated bibliography of further reading, and a comprehensive analytical index.

First published in 2010. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Based on intensive ethnographic fieldwork in Thailand, Textures of Struggle focuses on the experiences of Thai women who are employed at textile factories and examines how the all-encompassing nature of wage work speaks to issues of worker accommodation and resistance within various factory settings. Why are some women less tolerant of their working conditions than others? How is it that women who have similar levels of education, come from the same socioeconomic background, and enter the same occupation, nevertheless emerge with different experiences and reactions to their wage employment? Women in the Thai apparel industry, Piya Pangsapa finds, have very different experiences of labor "militancy" and "non-militancy." Through interviews with women at two kinds of factories—one linked to the global economy through local capital investment and another through transnational capital—Pangsapa examines issues of worker consciousness with a focus on the process by which women become activists. She explores the different degrees of control and coercion employed by factory managers and shows how women were able to overcome conditions of adversity by relying on the close personal ties they developed with each other. Textures of Struggle reveals what it is like for women to feel powerlessness and passivity in Thai sweatshops but also shows how they are equally able to resist and rebel.