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.
