Village and Larger Economies: The Theory and Measurement of the Townsend Thai Project
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jep.30.4.199.pdf
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667.25 KB
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Adobe PDF
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Author(s)
Townsend, Robert
Date Issued
November 2016
Journal
Journal of Economic Perspectives
Publisher
American Economic Association
Citation
Townsend, Robert M. “Village and Larger Economies: The Theory and Measurement of the Townsend Thai Project.” Journal of Economic Perspectives 30, no. 4 (November 2016): 199–220. © 2016 American Economic Association
Version
Final published version
Abstract
I have spent close to 20 years cataloging transactions between households in Thai villages, along with a research team. Just this past summer, we documented a number of ways in which even relatively poor villages have money markets not dissimilar in some ways from New York financial markets, with borrowing and repayment passing along links in credit chains. In another project, we have been looking at month-by-month school attendance, grade level completion, and graduation for children in these villages, following them from birth to graduation. The Townsend Thai project is a theory-based data collection endeavor, measuring and mapping village and larger economies into general equilibrium frameworks. This paper reviews a number of findings, implications, applications, and lessons learned, and considers next steps.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Economics
Terms of Use
Article is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use.
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DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1257/JEP.30.4.199
