Market Structures in Thailand and the ASEAN

Abstract

This 2nd issue of the 23rd volume of Applied Economics Journal first considers the overall demand for labor in the ASEAN Economic Community. Sakchai Naknok analyzes the characteristics of labor that is desired in the ASEAN. The results indicate that the desirable characteristics of labor for ASEAN firms include a higher degree of education. Also, firms under the ASEAN free movement of labor desire labor that can speak one of the languages used in the ASEAN. In contrast, firms that are not under the ASEAN free movement of labor desire labor that can speak English. For the case of Thailand, Papar Kananurak and Aeggarchat Sirisankanan study the overall development in an article concerning the connections between public transfer programs and private transfer programs. The empirical results reveal that crowding-out exists, particularly among households in the Northeastern region. To reduce the deadweight loss, a public transfer program should be conducted cautiously and should transfer funds to target groups efficiently. Concerning the domestic tourism demand, Sarun Kamolthip and Udomsak Seenprachawong study the validity of internet-based stated preference data in modeling waterfall recreation site choice. The results indicate that the underlying preference structure of the internet-based stated preference is not statistically different from that of revealed preference data. This finding suggests that internet-based stated preference data are as good as those from in-person interview. Given that telecommunications are essential in our daily lives, there is a study on the network effects in the Thai mobile telecommunications market which exhibits horizontal product differentiation. Thunwar Phansatarn points out that, in the long-run equilibrium, an additional service provider requires an 5-percent increase in service subscribers. Also, an increase in service providers in this market results in a negligible change in the average revenue per subscriber which means that there is no significant change in service tariffs. For the book review, this issue is honored to have Associate Professor Mary Lopez's review on "The Economics of Immigration" which gives insights on various interesting aspects which are collected toward the back of this issue.