Unequal Thailand
Concentration of wealth, land and market power among a few families.
Summary
The reference has not verified this book in detail; the summary states only what the title, author and subject establish.
Phongpaichit and Baker edited a collection of studies on inequality in Thailand, with chapters by Thai and international researchers examining income, wealth, land, education and political power.
The reference has not verified each chapter. What the volume establishes as a whole is a documented account of one of the more unequal societies in Asia. The contributions measure the concentration of income and, more unusually, of wealth and land ownership, which most inequality research cannot do because the data does not exist. Thailand's land registry and its corporate ownership records permitted more direct measurement than is typical.
The editors' framing connects economic concentration to political conflict. Thailand's recurring instability since 2006 has divided along lines of region and class, with the rural north and northeast against the Bangkok establishment, and the volume argues that the distribution of income, land and access to education underlies that division rather than being incidental to it. Chapters also cover the concentration of business ownership among a small number of families, the tax system's low reliance on income and property taxation, and the education system's role in transmitting advantage.
Phongpaichit and Baker have written extensively on Thai political economy, including the Thaksin biography and the general history also in this reference, and their position is critical of the royalist and military establishment.
Readers should consult the table of contents to identify the chapters relevant to their purpose.
Key takeaways 6
- Thailand ranks among the most unequal societies in Asia on income, and more so on wealth and land ownership.
- Land and corporate ownership records permitted more direct measurement of wealth concentration than is possible in most countries.
- Business ownership is concentrated among a small number of families whose position spans multiple sectors.
- Low reliance on income and property taxation limits the state's capacity to fund services that would broaden opportunity.
- Regional disparity between Bangkok and the north and northeast is the economic basis of the country's political division.
- The education system transmits advantage rather than offsetting it, which perpetuates the distribution across generations.
Who should read it
Analysts and investors working on Thailand who need documented measurement of economic concentration and its political consequences.
About Pasuk Phongpaichit
Emeritus professor of economics at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok; writes on Thailand's economy, politics, corruption and inequality.
The Thailand books track one economy through a credit-fuelled boom, the 1997 devaluation and the political conflict that followed, measuring the informal economy and the business-political networks instead of assuming them away. Anyone underwriting Southeast Asian exposure finds here the local mechanics linking capital, patronage and policy.
Where it sits in the reference 3
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