Economic Research and Reports
Yuangrat’s 2009 consultant’s report for the Asia Development Bank describes and quantifies the availability of mechanisms to provide social protection to the people of Thailand. It begins with a demographic profile and then provides an overview of the Thai economy, poverty, employment, health and education. Using official data and information provided by a variety of government offices, it seeks to quantify the social protection issues faced by Thailand. The report describes the available programs in place to provide social assistance, social insurance and labor market protection. It calculates Thailand’s Social Protection Index according to an ADB formula that allows comparison with other countries in the region. Finally the report makes recommendations on ways to improve social protection in Thailand. More information on the ADB Social Protection Index along with reports from other countries can be found at the ADB website.
Kingdom of Thailand: Updating and Improving the Social Protection Index (2009)
- Yuangrat Wedel
Thailand’s Creative Industries Contribute 10% of the Nation’s GDP (2009)
- Paul Wedel
This short article provides a concise overview of the impact of industrial clusters in Thailand based on research done at the Kenan Institute Asia in 2009. This study, entitled Economic Contributions of Thailand’s Creative Industries, shows that Thailand’s creative industries make up at least 9.5% of the Thai economy. It shows, however, that many of these industries suffer from weak or incomplete value chains and ineffective protection of their intellectual property rights. The article was originally published in TAB, the magazine of the American Chamber of Commerce in Thailand. The full study is available for download elsewhere.
Economic Contributions of Thailand’s Creative Industries (2009)
- Paul Wedel, FPRI and KIAsia
I wrote this report based on research by the Fiscal Policy Research Institute (FPRI) and the Kenan Institute Asia (K.I.Asia), which seeks to provide a clearer understanding of the creative industries in Thailand and their contribution, both present and potential, to the overall economy.
The 143 page report, completed in 2009, quantifies that contribution through an analysis of the input-output (I-O) tables for the selected industries, outlines the value chains for each of these industries, provides comparative data on creative industries in other countries, assesses the impact of violations of intellectual property rights and offers some initial recommendations for government policy measures to help the government achieve its stated objective of developing a creative economy.
We used a definition of creative industries as those “requiring creativity, skill, and talent, with potential for wealth and job creation through the exploitation of their intellectual property.” We included science and research and development as there are major economic gains to be derived from intellectual property stemming from scientific research and increased cooperation between science and industry.
Comparative Assessment Study of Patent and Trademark Offices in Southeast Asia
- Paul Wedel and KIAsia staff
This work reports on a study conducted by staff of the Kenan Institute Asia (K.I.Asia), in collaboration with Chulalongkorn University’s Intellectual Property Institute and the law firm of Tilleke and Gibbins International Ltd. It updates and expands KIAsia’s earlier “Comparative Assessment Study of Patent Offices in Southeast Asia” under a joint project agreement with the US Patent and Trade Office (USPTO). The study, under Paul’s supervision, focused on the process of trademark and patenting registration across intellectual offices in Southeast Asia, and assessed each office’s operational and administrative capacity. The study includes the following ten countries: Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam.
The overall goal of the study is to help strengthen patenting and trademark registration processes in the region by providing comparable country-specific information in the following areas:
Trademark office performance
Patent and trademark registration procedures,
Recommendations on ways to improve both national and regional intellectual property (IP) processes
This article provides an in-depth look at the Thai business environment in 2001 as the economy was picking up quickly after the 1997 financial crisis. It assesses the measures taken by the Chuan Leekpai government and the impact of the new constitution. It was written with Dr. Dennis Rondinelli, professor of management at UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School. Sadly, Dennis passed away far too soon in 2007.
