It is revealed that e-commerce marketplaces have market power, whereby the prices they offer are far higher than prices ofered by physical retail stores. There is a general belief that goods purchased online are cheaper. This paper examines whether such a belief is valid. According to the characteristics of the consumables market, which could be deemed as monopolistic competition, price diferences for the same products in diferent channels should be insignificant due to their high substitutability. Consumables are selected as representatives in this paper's samples. By collecting 10,080 records of prices and shipping costs from 21 items in seven categories of consumables from the two most popular e-commerce platforms in Thailand - Lazada and Shopee - as well as modern-trade retailers, it is discovered that online prices of those consumables are notably diferent from their respective retail prices in modern-trade retailers. The results reveal that consumables purchased through e-commerce platforms are different from their respective retail prices, being both higher and lower, although it is possible for consumers to find cheaper prices on such platforms. Taking into account shipping costs, prices that include shipping are significantly higher than prices in retail stores. Moreover, shipping costs are different across platforms. Therefore, such belief is just a myth rather than a fact. It is also found that e-commerce platforms have market power through their abilities to control (1) product visibility (only 14.54 percent of 10,080 samples [or only 1,466 samples] matched the sample products), (2) shipping costs, and (3) consumers' usage of platforms' dedicated online applications (applications allow consumers to find cheaper products). Thus, it is imperative to devise suitable regulations on e-commerce platforms. Our findings may support the direction of such regulations in the future.
Rural households in Thailand exhibit significant heterogeneity, necessitating tailored policy approaches to effectively reduce rural poverty. This study employs latent-class clustering and transition matrix analyses to classify and examine the dynamics of livelihood strategies among rural households. Using balanced-panel data from the Townsend Thai Project spanning the years 2000-2017, six distinct strategies are identified, with the three lowest-income strategies comprising 70.53% of the sample. These households share common characteristics, including limited farm diversification, with a primary focus on small-scale rice farming. Additionally, they often operate small businesses and find employment in low-wage jobs. Interestingly, these households demonstrate the highest level of mobility, particularly between low and medium livelihood strategies, throughout the study period. Conversely, households following high-income strategies engage in diverse income sources and possess higher levels of farm assets and education compared to those in poor-strategy households. Rural livelihood strategies exhibit considerable dynamism, with 39.86% of households transitioning to higher-ranked strategies at least once, and 24.15% descending to lower-ranked strategies over time. These transitions align with the prevailing economic context and government policies concerning agricultural price supports and micro-finance access. Policymakers should prioritize initiatives that promote farm diversification, strengthen farming and non-farming community networks, and mitigate fluctuations in farm prices. Moreover, rural development plans should consider tailored policies suitable for each livelihood strategy to enhance the efficiency and sustainability of programs.
Over-the-top (OTT) services for content programming are growing rapidly in Thailand. Services are generally provided in both paid and free ad-supported formats. This research examines the behavior of paying for additional OTT services for content programming. The analysis is divided into two steps: the decision-making process between paid and free formats and an analysis of factors affecting the paid service format. Heckman's two-step estimation is used to solve the problem of systematically selected data, combined with data from a survey of OTT service users in Thailand, which was conducted by the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission in 2019. The results show that several factors lead to a higher likelihood of choosing the free format. Additionally, some factors increase the likelihood of users paying less for the service. The study highlights the importance of non-tariff factors in the decision-making process of users, which can be used as a competitive tool by free ad-supported OTT service providers against paid service providers. Regulatory agencies can use the study's findings to monitor the competition in the OTT service market for content programming in Thailand.
The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has affected every sector of society. Consumer payment behavior is no exception. The purpose of this study is to estimate the causal impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on mobile payment behaviors and to examine factors underpinning such impacts. The behaviors of interest include the volume and the value of mobile payment transactions, the volume of QR code mobile payment transactions, the volume of Prompt Pay transactions, and the variety of mobile payment methods. The analysis is based on a survey, which is designed to recover counterfactual outcomes, of 503 people living in Bangkok between July and August 2021. The findings suggest that the COVID-19 pandemic has significantly increased all types of mobile payment transactions. The results from the logit model indicate that such changes in each mobile payment behavior are determined by different factors. The findings reflect the need to use different strategies to increase mobile payment usage to maximize the efficiency of the electronic payment system in Thailand and to help accelerate the transition to a cashless society.
A large body of theoretical and empirical literature has confirmed the positive impact of financial depth on economic growth. However, studies investigating financial depth's conditional efect on economic growth are scarce. This paper revisits whether the impact of financial depth on economic growth depends on party ideologies in the context of 46 middle-income countries during the 1996-2020 period. The system GMM approach developed for dynamic panels is applied here. By incorporating partisan theory into the nexus between finance and growth, this paper not only atempts to underline the potential importance of financial depth for economic growth but also show that government ideologies mater. The findings suggest that when right-wing governments are in power, the effect of financial depth on economic growth is positive but statistically insignificant, whereas when left-wing governments are in power, the efect is negative and significant in the long run. Our finding is compatible with the view that expansionary monetary policies lead to a temporary increase in economic activity when left-wing governments are in power.
This study aims to investigate the relationship between financial sector advancement and macroeconomic stability in Pakistan over the period of 1980-2021. By analyzing data from the State Bank of Pakistan, the study focuses on the causal relationship between various factors of financial development in Pakistan and the stability of macroeconomic indicators. The study utilizes a balance of payment to GDP as the dependent variable, while the explanatory variables include M2 to GDP, bank claim on private sector ratio to GDP, equity market capitalization to GDP, national saving to GDP, and inflation. The study applies statistical tests such as the ADF unit root test and the modified causality test to observe the causal association among the long-run dependent and independent variables. The results of the study indicate that financial development has various causal relationships with macroeconomic stability in Pakistan. The findings reveal that financial depth, banking sector development, and the size of the equity market have a unidirectional causal relationship with macroeconomic stability, while the saving ratio and control variable inflation have independent causal relationships with the macroeconomic stability of Pakistan. Additionally, the study finds that the saving ratio has a unidirectional causal connection with banking sector development and unidirectional causality with financial deepening. Furthermore, there exists a bidirectional causal association between banking sector development and macroeconomic stability in Pakistan. Our findings suggest the need to accelerate the financial reforms which were initiated by the government in the late 1980s and to improve the efficiency financial systems and governance to stimulate saving/investment and, consequently, long-term economic growth.
This paper aims to elicit individual discount rates (IDRs) from Thai citizens living in urban and rural areas, using real monetary incentives in a lab-in-the-field setting. This research investigates the differences in the discount rates in two districts with different socioeconomic characteristics. One represents a rural agricultural society governed by a district administrative organization, while the other represents an urban industrialized society governed by a city municipality. The researchers also compare the results from three different elicitation methods and across five time-horizons. This paper provides three main insights. First, the elicited discount rates for people living in a rural society are significantly lower than for those living in an urban society. Second, the discount rates also vary across time horizons, suggesting different risk considerations with respect to those time horizons. Lastly, the paper also addresses an intertemporal experimental design issue that results should be indiferent between elicitation methods and finds procedural invariants between the choice and matching tasks.
A significant impact of institutional quality on sustainable growth has been revealed in recent studies. This study aims to examine the relationship between diferent institutions and their unemployment rates, considering the legal system and property rights index. A novel and robust panel Fourier causality test was conducted to investigate 38 OECD nations for the relationship between their institutional quality and unemployment rates between the years 2000 and 2018. Regardless of stationarity, the adopted method allowed for the endogenous identification of structures, locations, and forms, and the evaluation of causal relationships. In addition, the Fourier method and the trigonometric terms were used for analyzing the structural changes. According to the findings, a unidirectional causal relationship existed between the quality of the legal system and property rights and the unemployment rates in the investigated nations during the relevant period. In addition, bidirectional causality existed between the variables in Germany and the United States. It is therefore recommended to necessarily improve a nation's institutional structure to reduce its unemployment rate. Low unemployment rates would be achieved by improving institutional quality, particularly in developing nations. Therefore, policymakers must focus on formulating policies to reduce unemployment in the long run, considering the legal system and property rights of the nation.
This study aims to explore the behavior of Bangkok Metropolitan Region residents when using transport and to examine the factors affecting their travel. The population comprise commuters residing in the Bangkok Metropolitan Region who use transportation in their daily lives. The data were collected through an online survey conducted between December 2021 and March 2022 from a sample of 618 commuters, selected by convenience sampling. The analysis is divided into three parts. In the first part, we explore commuters' transportation behaviors using descriptive statistics, and in the second and third parts, using a multivariate analysis of variance, we examine the factors that influence travel in the Bangkok Metropolitan Region in terms of private cars use and number of transfers required on public transportation. The findings show that only a small percentage of people used public transport only; most people used private vehicles or both public and private transport. Commuters spent 36.24% of their monthly living costs on transportation. Furthermore, type of residence, whether a commuter took the bus, and income were all significant factors that influenced travel behavior. The results suggest that, in order to increase the number of public transportation users, public transportation charges should be lower than parking fees and vehicle maintenance expenditures, and the operation and amenities of buses must be enhanced to meet the passengers' demands.
This paper studies the cost structures of diferent types of diesels, considering both their private and external costs, to determine which are efficient. Partial equilibrium analysis is employed to analyze the impact on social welfare if the price structures are adjusted to be more efficient. The results show that the current price structure is inefficient and distorted. The current refinery prices do not reflect the private costs for all types of diesels. Today, marketing margins are used as a policy tool to incentivize gas stations to distribute and sell more high-speed diesel (HSD) and high-speed diesel B20 (HSDB20). In addition, the current excise tax rate covers other external costs that are not directly related to fuel consumption. As a result, the actual excise tax rate is much higher than the external cost of fuel consumption. For this reason, and due to price subsidies through the oil fund, HSD and HSDB20 diesel prices are below efficient prices. Our welfare analysis reveals that restructuring diesel prices to be more efficient will increase social welfare. This can be achieved by adjusting the marketing margins to be the same rate on the basis of cost of service and modifying the excise tax to reflect the true cost of externalities associated with fuel consumption, along with a road tax reform. Furthermore, our findings demonstrate that price subsidies cannot promote social welfare even if appropriate subsidy rates are set according to the price gap approach. Reducing the role of oil funds is, therefore, necessary.
In this study, the dynamic relationship between government bond spreads and fiscal indicators is analyzed through different macroeconomic, fiscal, and financial variables with evidence from Turkey. A quarterly time series data set, from 2006:Q1 to 2019:Q3, is used to estimate the vector autoregression (VAR) model. The VAR model is used to determine a possible causal relationship between variables and to identify transmission of a shock in the model. The results show that there is a one-way causality from government bond spreads to fiscal indicators. Additionally, impulse-response functions reveal that the reaction of gross external debt to a shock in bond spreads is statistically more significant vis-a-vis the reaction of the primary budget balance. That is to say, gross external debt is found to be a more appropriate fiscal indicator in providing resiliency to global shocks compared to the primary budget balance for Turkey. The implication for this result in our analyses is that since bond spreads explain changes in fiscal indicators, not vice versa, the Turkish government should reduce external debt to lessen the effect of bond spreads and apply robust policies that would enhance fiscal solvency to create fiscal space to be used as a bulwark against short run shocks.
Due to high returns and different components from other financial assets, cryptocurrencies have gained considerable popularity regardless of their high volatility and risks. Investors may consider investing in safer assets rather than cryptocurrencies. Therefore, this paper studies the role of stablecoins as a safe haven or a hedge against cryptocurrencies. Daily data collection from November 2020 to May 2022 displayed that the stablecoins are fit as hedging assets for cryptocurrency from its decline in yields and the higher volatility. Tether is suitable as a safe-haven asset, while USD Coin and True USD are suitable as diversification assets, and Dai is suitable as both hedging and diversification assets. It is marked that the role of the stablecoin is different for each cryptocurrency. Therefore, it is advisable that investors invest in stablecoins in combination with cryptocurrencies to hedge and diversify their investments.
Access to credit for farmers remains a huge challenge in the Lao PDR. This study aims to identify the determinants of farmers' access to credit. To achieve this goal, this research uses a data set from a country-wide household survey conducted in 2019. The survey took place in six provinces -Attapue, Champasack, Khammouane, Savannakhet, Vientiane, and Xiengkhuang. The current study applies a Logit model to analyze what factors significantly determine farmers' access to credit. The result shows that the age of the household head is concavely related to credit access. Household size is negatively correlated with access to credit. Household income is found to have an insignificant impact on demand for credit while household saving does have a significant impact. The area of agricultural land does matter for access to credit because it is commonly used as collateral. The incidence of natural disasters in the last three years significantly determines households' access to credit.
The state welfare card, commonly known as "the card for the poor ", is a large-scale unconditional cash transfer programme implemented in Thailand since October 2017. However, Thailand saw an increase in the national poverty rate from 7.87 percent to 9.85 percent between 2017 and 2018. This is the fourth increase in poverty incidence in the country in 30 years despite mild economic growth, having no economic crisis, and large-scale cash transfer program. The recent increase in poverty incidence in Thailand calls for beter understanding of this policy and the extent to which it affects poverty. In this context, regression discontinuity method is employed to investigate the causal impacts of Thailand's state welfare programme on monetary poverty. The study finds that the programme does not increase total consumption expenditure, as intended. In addition, the programme causes a decline in food expenditure. The underlying reason for the lack of impact is possibly due to inclusion and exclusion errors. The findings underscore the need to reconsider the programme at both design and implementation stages.
This research aims to discover the impacts of economic and social conditions on depressive disorder in Thailand using provincial level data and in different regions in Thailand. The study uses data from 77 provinces in Thailand from 2015 to 2019. The results of the panel data model show that economic and social factors including economic conditions, poverty, education, technology infrastructure, risky health behavior in terms of drug addiction, and crime problems significantly afect the depressive disorder rate in Thailand. Results from regional levels show that unemployment significantly affects depressive disorder in the southern regions. With regard to social factors, education shows a significant effect on depressive disorder in the northern region, technology infrastructure mainly affects the northern and northeastern regions, risky health behavior in terms of drug addiction significantly affects the northern, central, and southern regions, and crime problems mainly affect the southern region. In conclusion, this study finds that social factors have more efect on the depressive disorder rate than economic factors. Moreover, the depressive disorder rate in the northern region is mainly afected by social factors, in contrast to the other regions.
Crime is a persistent social phenomenon arising from the committing of criminal offenses against the law of the state. Criminals' incentives or motivations for criminal acts are affected by many factors such as the severity of penalties, the chances of geting arrested, level of education, gender, socio-cultural factors, and so on. This research focuses on the correlation between the severity of criminal penalties and the probability of arrest and the seriousness of crime using concepts and processes of economic law. This includes mathematical modeling as well as testing the statistical significance of the models. The results show that it is the severity of legal penalty that reduces property offenses. A person's behavior changes when they feel they may face a high magnitude of criminal penalty. In other words, in judging whether to perform a criminal act towards property, criminals do not consider the probability of arrest but look at the criminal penalty. The Thai legislature will be able to take this conclusion into consideration in order to modify or create appropriate legal measures in the future. One of the most suitable policies is increasing the size of legal penalties in the Thai criminal code. When people perceive severe punishments, they will commit fewer crimes. Increasing the size of legal penalties can be achieved in a number of ways, including increasing the size of fines and requiring longer prison sentences.
This paper aims to examine the importance of locus of control for job performance. We draw on Australian panel data and use the fixed effects panel data analysis technique to estimate the causal effect of locus of control on working people's job performance. Our findings reveal that locus of control positively affects the adaptive performance dimension of job performance. Employees with a more internal locus of control tend to be beter able to adapt to conditions and events in the workplace, leading to beter performance on their jobs.
This article aims to identify the asymmetry and degree of correlation of supply and demand shocks within eight European Union countries over the period 2000Q1-2020Q1. We employ a structural VAR model by decomposing macroeconomic shocks into demand and supply disturbances. We define a transformation matrix from canonical shocks to structural ones with reference to the theoretical AS-AD model by imposing a long-run restriction to verify the long-run demand shock neutrality hypothesis on production. The originality of this research paper lies in the method of shock decomposition. Our results indicating the degree of asymmetry in the European countries are relatively significant. The disparities between member countries continue to grow, and recently a form of heterogeneity has appeared that includes the degree of price flexibility and rigidity. The European Union is experiencing a dichotomy. On the one hand, core countries are correctly aligned and maintain a significantly smaller degree of asymmetry of supply and demand shocks. On the other hand, peripheral countries are characterized by flagrant inequalities that have overwhelmed their local economies. However, the various measures adopted by the European authorities remain limited. We demonstrate that to resist the potential challenges of violent fluctuations, the European authorities must move towards fiscal reforms and carefully coordinate their economic policies.
This research studies how to estimate the demand for goods in the market. This demand related information will be useful for analyzing competition among operators. The estimation method can use market-level data classified by operator. In addition, demand models using this estimation method must consider the problem of price endogeneity and therefore use the Market Share Inversion method. This method will be applied to Thai mobile telecommunications. From the estimation, it is found that the estimates are consistent with the assumptions of the model. The results of the estimation illustrate that the own-price elasticities of demand are greater than one (absolute value), while the cross-price elasticities of demand are varied. The demand-related information is used to estimate the marginal cost, which demonstrates a downward trend, while the market has larger number of users. This implies economies of scale. When calculating the Lerner Index as an alternative measure of market power, an increasing trend was found, indicating a greater dominance of the market of the operator, with very litle change in market structure and tarif, especially for the last ten years. The results of the study can be used for studies of market dominance in Thai mobile telecommunications along with the market share. Regulators can propose various actions to reduce the market power of operators, which is beneficial for the market.
Cryptocurrencies have created opportunities and challenges in investment as well as providing higher returns than other financial assets. Despite the unclear role and risks of cryptocurrencies, the opportunities they offer have attracted a number of investors to the crypto market. This study, thus, aims to analyze the dynamic relationship of volatilities and hedging between cryptocurrencies and other financial assets using Dynamic Conditional Correlation Generalized Autoregressive Conditional Heteroskedasticity (DCC-GARCH). The daily data span from August 2016 to December 2021. The result for volatilities showed a low dynamic correlation between cryptocurrencies and other financial assets and the ability to hedge minimal risk. Hence, investors should diversify the risk in their portfolios by investing in cryptocurrencies together with other financial assets without compromising the expected return.
