Thailand's model of health
financing and its ability to rapidly expand health insurance
coverage to its entire population presents an interesting
case study. Even though... Show More +
it is still a middle-income country
with limited fiscal resources, the country managed to reach
universal health insurance coverage through three main
public schemes: the Universal Coverage Scheme (UCS), the
Social Security Scheme (SSS), and the Civil Servant Medical
Benefit Scheme (CSMBS). The UCS, which is the largest and
most instrumental scheme in the expansion of coverage to the
poor and to those in the informal sector, is the focus of
this report. It describes the nuts and bolts of the UCS as a
key component of the health financing system in Thailand. It
analyzes Thailand's experience in health insurance
coverage expansion within limited fiscal constraints through
various mechanisms to contain costs. It also explores the
two commonly discussed approaches for the universal coverage
movement: the expansion model (starting from covering the
poor and formal sector to universal coverage) and the
comprehensive approach (covering the entire population at
the same time). Show Less -
Type: Working Paper (Numbered Series)
Report#: 75000
Date: January 1, 2013
Author:
Hanvoravongchai, Piya
Public-Private Infrastructure Advisory
Facility (PPIAF) has provided funding Eleven activities in
Thailand. These activities have supported the royal
government of... Show More +
Thailand build capacity within the ministry of
finance to support policy development and market
liberalization in the utility sectors, and assisted in
transforming and reforming the telecommunication sector.
PPIAF has also assisted the government to design and pilot a
rural water supply demonstration project and explore options
for reforming the railway sector. The PPIAF-funded
consultants provided capacity building support and inputs on
a draft holding company law, policy documents, and
corporatization plans for the telephone corporation of
Thailand and communications authority of Thailand. These
activities provided important inputs to the ministry of
finance privatization program and built capacity in the
office of state enterprise to manage the corporatization and
privatization program. Several stakeholder workshops were
held on water, transport and telecommunication sector
regulations and privatization, and regulating and reforming
state-owned enterprises. Show Less -
Type: Brief
Report#: 75883
Date: January 1, 2013
The Thai economy in 2012 rebounded from
the severe floods but continues to be affected by the
slowdown in the global economy. Real GDP in 2012 is
projected to grow by... Show More +
4.7 percent supported by the rebound in
household consumption and greater investments by both the
private and public sectors as part of flood rehabilitation
and the governments consumption-stimulating measures. The
economy is projected to grow by 5 percent in 2013 as
manufacturing production fully recovers and the global
economy sees a modest recovery. Exports in 2013 are
therefore expected to grow by 5.5 percent compared to only
3.6 percent in 2012. Budget deficit will be 2.5 percent of
GDP for FY2013 plus additional off-budget spending for water
resource management projects in FY2013. Public debt is
estimated to be close to 50 percent of GDP in 2013. The
paddy pledging scheme is estimated to cost around 3.5
percent of GDP each year, while the actual losses will be
realized once the rice stocks are sold. The minimum wages
have been raised by 40 percent nation-wide in 2012 and will
be raised to a uniform rate of THB300 per day. Developing
higher skills is imperative for higher incomes, living
standards, and for Thailand to grow sustainably and
inclusively. Thailand can do better in enabling the poor
and vulnerable groups to participate in productive economic
activities by pursuing a coordinated approach between
universal and targeted social policy. Show Less -
Type: Working Paper
Report#: 74575
Date: December 1, 2012
Author:
Bhaopichitr, Kirida ;
Triratanasirikul, Nattaporn ;
Mala, Amornsak
In 2009, buffeted by the great
recession, Thai gross domestic product fell by 2.3 percent.
Using monthly data from the socio-economic surveys of
2007-2010, this paper... Show More +
finds, after controlling for household
variables, that real consumption per capita rose in 2009
relative to 2008 for most groups, including the poor, urban
and rural households, men, women, and children. The losers
were residents of Bangkok, especially those aged 20-29, and
those working in sales and services. During the recession
year of 2009, school enrollment rates did not fall, and
durable goods purchases actually rose; households probably
reduced their savings, and also benefitted from the lower
food prices that prevailed in 2009. A simulation exercise
based on the slowdown in growth of gross domestic product
would have missed these effects, as would models based
solely on readily-available data series. This points to the
importance of country-specific policy analysis, rooted in
timely local evidence, including household survey data. Show Less -
Type: Policy Research Working Paper
Report#: WPS6255
Date: November 1, 2012
Author:
Khandker, Shahidur R. ;
Haughton, Jonathan
The challenge of sustaining economic
growth over the long term is one that only a few countries
have been able to surmount. Slowing momentum in countries
like Malaysia... Show More +
and Thailand has led analysts and policy
makers to consider what it would take to lift them out of
middle-income status, where other countries have arguably
become stuck. The paper examines the role of human capital
formation in the quest to sustain economic growth in these
two countries. It argues that a good education system is
fundamental to equip workers with marketable skills.
Malaysia and Thailand have successfully expanded access to
schooling, but the quality of education remains an issue.
Modern education systems should aim to provide
universally-available quality education using the following
policies: prioritize budgets to deliver quality and
universally-available basic education before expanding
higher levels of schooling; provide appropriate incentives
and rewards to teachers; permit school autonomy and ensure
accountability for results; invest in early childhood
development; and consider implementing income-contingent
loan financing schemes to expand higher education. Show Less -
Type: Policy Research Working Paper
Report#: WPS6283
Date: November 1, 2012
Author:
Jimenez, Emmanuel ;
Nguyen, Vy ;
Patrinos, Harry Anthony
This tenth edition of Doing Business
sheds light on how easy or difficult it is for a local
entrepreneur to open and run a small to medium-size business
when complying... Show More +
with relevant regulations. It measures and
tracks changes in regulations affecting eleven areas in the
life cycle of a business: starting a business, dealing with
construction permits, getting electricity, registering
property, getting credit, protecting investors, paying
taxes, trading across borders, enforcing contracts,
resolving insolvency and employing workers. Doing Business
presents quantitative indicators on business regulations and
the protection of property rights that can be compared
across 185 economies, from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe, over
time. The indicators are used to analyze economic outcomes
and identify what reforms have worked, where and why. This
economy profile presents the Doing Business indicators for
Thailand. To allow useful comparison, it also provides data
for other selected economies (comparator economies) for each
indicator. The data in this report are current as of June 1,
2012 (except for the paying taxes indicators, which cover
the period January - December 2011). Show Less -
Type: Working Paper
Report#: 74041
Date: October 23, 2012
This paper quantifies the contributions
of different factors to poverty reduction observed in
Bangladesh, Peru and Thailand over the last decade. In
contrast to methods... Show More +
that focus on aggregate summary
statistics, the method adopted here generates entire
counterfactual distributions to account for the
contributions of demographics and income from labor and
non-labor sources in explaining poverty reduction. The
authors find that the most important contributor was the
growth in labor income, mostly in the form of farm income in
Bangladesh and Thailand and non-farm income in the case of
Peru. This growth in labor incomes was driven by higher
returns to individual and household endowments, pointing to
increases in productivity and real wages as the driving
force behind poverty declines. Lower dependency ratios also
helped to reduce poverty, particularly in Bangladesh.
Non-labor income contributed as well, albeit to a smaller
extent, in the form of international remittances in the case
of Bangladesh and through public and private transfers in
Peru and Thailand. Transfers are more important in
explaining the reduction in extreme compared with moderate poverty. Show Less -
Type: Policy Research Working Paper
Report#: WPS6199
Date: September 1, 2012
Author:
Olivieri, Sergio ;
Saavedra, Jaime ;
Winkler, Hernan ;
Comboni, Maria Gabriela Inchauste
This paper focuses on efficiency and
equity in the financing of health services, and the evolving
role of central and local government in the health sector.
Thailand... Show More +
has seen significant improvements in health
outcomes and succeeded in expanding the coverage of health
protection schemes over the last decades. While the
achievements of Thailand's health system are
undeniable, this paper highlights three key challenges: (i)
inequalities in utilization and spending under different
health financing schemes and across geographic areas; (ii)
mounting cost pressures; and (iii) fragmentation of
financing and unresolved issues concerning the respective
roles of central and local governments. This paper shows
that although some of the differences in utilization and
spending across schemes can be explained by the age profile
of members, significant variations remain even after
controlling for differences. It documents large variation in
resources and spending across regions, both for the system
as a whole and within the respective health financing
schemes. In addition, the paper highlights pressures to
increase government health spending that are primarily the
result of rising spending in the Universal Coverage (UC) and
Civil Servant Medical Benefit Scheme (CSMBS) schemes. Cost
pressures are likely to persist due to rising incidence of
chronic disease, population aging, continuing pressure from
health workers for greater compensation, demands for
expanded benefits under the respective schemes, and the
rising expectations of patients. Finally, the paper argues
for a more systematic and decisive approach to
decentralization of prevention and promotion functions,
based on more detailed specification of the roles and
responsibilities of central and local government. It also
suggests that the current approach to primary care
decentralization through voluntary transfer of health
centers has limited potential, and that there is a need to
consider local management of networks of providers that
combine both general hospital and primary care services. Show Less -
Type: Working Paper
Report#: 75680
Date: August 1, 2012
Author:
Lindelow, Magnus ;
Hawkins, Loraine ;
Osornprasop, Sutayut
The Thailand energy efficiency revolving
fund (TEERF) was established by the Government of Thailand
and managed by the Ministry of Energy, Department of
Alternative... Show More +
Energy Development and Efficiency (DEDE). The
objective of the TEERF is to provide access to capital for
energy efficiency projects, increase awareness of energy
efficiency opportunities and improve procedures and
implementation of the projects. The TEERF provides credit
lines to participating Thai banks on a full-recourse basis
and at zero interest rate, with the requirement that the
funds be on-lent to project developers and borrowers at an
interest rate of no more than 4 percent. The TEERF has
successfully funded a number of energy saving projects since
its commencement. The graph shows the total investments in
energy efficiency projects leveraged by loans from the fund
and the projected total financial savings that will be
achieved over the life of the equipment installed in the projects. Show Less -
Type: Brief
Report#: 76099
Date: August 1, 2012
In 1999-2000, electric power generation
in Thailand was dominated by fossil fuel, accounting for
more than 80 percent of total electricity supply. The
removal of Barriers... Show More +
to Biomass Power Generation and
Cogeneration in Thailand (RBBPGC) aims to reduce Green House
Gas (GHG) emission by accelerating the growth of biomass
co-generation and power generation technologies to replace
fossil fuel consumption. The project is supported by Global
Environment Facility (GEF) funds implemented through the
United Nations Development Program (UNDP), with energy for
environment foundation as the executing agency. The
barriers to biomass power generation was identified as lack
of knowledge and skills in developing biomass power
generation projects, limited regulatory framework to
encourage biomass projects, lack of appropriate financing
mechanisms, and uncertainty and lack of knowledge regarding
the biomass technologies. Therefore, to address the lack of
appropriate financing mechanism and to reduce technical
risks associated with new biomass technology, the project
includes a commercial risk guarantee component to facilitate
the implementation of two pilot biomass power plants, the
Gulf Yala green and Roi-Et green. Show Less -
Type: Brief
Report#: 76150
Date: August 1, 2012
Major new investment in generating
capacity will be needed to satisfy Thailands rapid economic
growth. As of 2008, installed capacity was 29.1GW. The
latest power development... Show More +
plan (2008-2021) forecasts an
annual growth rate in demand of 5 percent over the next
decade. To meet this, an additional generation capacity of
30.2GW will be needed by 2021. Despite the governments
alternative energy development plan, most of the increased
power capacity is expected to come from gas-fired and
coal-fired generation. In 2006, the Government of Thailand
created incentives for private sector investment in
renewable energy, setting a supplementary feed-in tariff or
adder for each renewable energy technology. The size and
term of the adder varies by technology. Investments in solar
power have failed to take-off due to the lack of experience
in this sector and because the adder tariff, though
significant, is only for 10 years and provides insufficient
marginal project returns for the risk assumed in these early
solar investments. In this context, International Finance
Corporation (IFC) has used funding from the Clean Technology
Fund (CTF) to support two investments in order to catalyze
the development of private sector solar projects by
establishing a track record of performance for future
investors and developers, and provide demonstrational
information that concessional financing can address some of
the regulatory risk. Show Less -
Type: Brief
Report#: 76167
Date: August 1, 2012
Main barriers preventing the uptake of
sustainable energy lending in Thailand are: 1) the high risk
perception by local financial intermediaries (FIs) towards
this asset... Show More +
class, due to the lack of track record with
sustainable energy lease financing with Thai local
companies; and 2) lack of adequate long term financing to
support Sustainable Energy (SE) because the financing
provided by local FIs is limited in tenor despite the
liquidity in Thailand's financial markets. The project
is part of the Clean Technology Fund (CTF) Thailand
sustainable energy finance program. Under this project,
International Finance Corporation (IFC) agrees to guarantee
sustainable energy leases originated by a leasing company.
The portfolio is expected to target mostly energy efficiency
projects, but it may also include small-scale renewable
energy projects. Show Less -
Type: Brief
Report#: 76171
Date: August 1, 2012
This paper explores the possibility that
universal health coverage may inadvertently result in
distorted labor market choices, with workers preferring
informal employment... Show More +
over formal employment, leading to
negative effects on investment and growth, as well as
reduced protection against non-health risks and the income
risks associated with ill health. It explores this
hypothesis in the context of the Thai universal coverage
scheme, which was rolled out in four waves over a 12-month
period starting in April 2001. It identifies the effects of
universal coverage through the staggered rollout, and gains
statistical power by using no less than 68 consecutive labor
force surveys, each containing an average of 62,000
respondents. The analysis finds that universal coverage
appears to have encouraged employment especially among
married women, to have reduced formal-sector employment
among married men but not among other groups, and to have
increased informal-sector employment especially among
married women. The largest positive informal-sector
employment effects are found in the agricultural sector. Show Less -
Type: Policy Research Working Paper
Report#: WPS6116
Date: July 1, 2012
Author:
Manachotphong, Wanwiphang ;
Wagstaff, Adam
This paper exploits the staggered
rollout of Thailands universal health coverage scheme to
estimate its impacts on whether individuals report
themselves as being too... Show More +
ill to work. The statistical power
comes from the fact that there is an average of 62,000
respondents in the labor force survey at each survey date
and no less than 68 survey dates, most of which are just one
month apart. The analysis finds that universal coverage
reduced the likelihood of people reporting themselves to be
too sick to work: the authors estimate the effect to be
-0.004 one year after universal coverage and -0.007 three
years after. The estimated effects are much larger among
those age 65 and over. Universal coverage had a much larger
effect on health (about four times larger) than the Village
Fund scheme, which provided free credit to rural households
through a subsidized microcredit scheme and which was rolled
out around the same time as universal coverage. Show Less -
Type: Policy Research Working Paper
Report#: WPS6119
Date: July 1, 2012
Author:
Manachotphong, Wanwiphang ;
Wagstaff, Adam
The Thailand Village Fund is the
second-largest microcredit scheme in the world. Nearly
80,000 elected local Village Fund committees administer
loans that reach 30 percent... Show More +
of all households. The value of
Village Fund loans has remained steady since 2006, even
without new infusions of government funds, and loans go
disproportionately to the poor. Based mainly on a
custom-built survey of more than 3,000 Village Funds
conducted in 2010, this paper evaluates the performance of
Village Funds, which it argues are best modeled as
altruistic, and do not appear to be subject to elite
capture. As expected, profit rates are difficult to model,
but the regression analysis shows that loan recovery rates,
total lending, credit ratings, and the proportion of loans
going to the poor are all higher when a Village Fund borrows
additional funds from a formal bank and on-lends to
households, as was done by one in five Village Funds. An
economic analysis suggests that Village Fund benefits exceed
the costs. Most Village Funds are social rather than
financial intermediaries; they have little incentive to take
risks or to innovate, which explains why Village Fund
lending has not kept pace with the growth of the Thai economy. Show Less -
Type: Policy Research Working Paper
Report#: WPS5998
Date: March 1, 2012
Author:
Khandker, Shahidur R. ;
Rukumnuaykit, Pungpond ;
Haughton, Jonathan ;
Boonperm, Jirawan
The crash of global financial markets in
2008 caused a ripple effect on economic demand and growth
worldwide. Export-oriented economies were hit particularly
hard, and... Show More +
many governments stepped in quickly with
broad-ranging stimulus programs to lessen the effects on
households of rising unemployment and falling income. To
better understand the role that stimulus policy might play
in softening the effects of these shocks, this paper
examines recent nationally-representative data from
Thailand, an export-dependent economy where a large-scale
stimulus program was introduced in 2009. Using monthly data
spanning 2006-2010, the paper uses sub-province-level
community panel data to examine the effects of major
components of the stimulus on household consumption, income,
borrowing, and debt repaid. To address simultaneity of
changes in government spending and household outcomes, the
analysis estimates a dynamic panel regression, instrumenting
the stimulus effect with second-order lagged outcome
variables, and estimating the model using the Generalized
Method of Moments. The results suggest that household
participation in these programs helped smooth consumption.
This increase in monthly consumption was not supported from
household receipts from the government stimulus, but more
likely through a reallocation of consumption and savings
that included greater debt repayment. The paper typically
finds stronger effects in urban compared with rural areas. Show Less -
Type: Policy Research Working Paper
Report#: WPS6016
Date: March 1, 2012
Author:
Khandker, Shahidur R. ;
Haughton, Jonathan ;
Jitsuchon, Somchai ;
Koolwal, Gayatri B.
The services sector is a substantial and
growing component of the Thai economy, accounting for nearly
half of aggregate production and forty percent of national
employment.... Show More +
Although government policies in emerging
economies tend to focus on the growth of manufacturing, the
service-producing industries in Thailand have been the
dominant source of new job creation in recent years,
expanding by 2.6 million jobs between 2000 and 2005 compared
to just 1.6 million in the industrial sector. This report
has three primary purposes. First, review the methodology
for computing productivity and apply that methodology to
various levels of the Thai economy. Second, construct
measures of productivity performance in greater detail for
four services industries that can be then be used for
benchmarking purposes against other countries. Finally,
examine the procedures for measuring output and productivity
in the services sector and suggest areas that are in need of improvement. Show Less -
Type: Working Paper
Report#: 66280
Date: January 1, 2012
Doing business sheds light on how easy
or difficult it is for a local entrepreneur to open and run
a small to medium-size business when complying with relevant
regulations.... Show More +
It measures and tracks changes in regulations
affecting 10 areas in the life cycle of a business: starting
a business, dealing with construction permits, getting
electricity, registering property, getting credit,
protecting investors, paying taxes, trading across borders,
enforcing contracts and resolving insolvency. In a series of
annual reports doing business presents quantitative
indicators on business regulations and the protection of
property rights that can be compared across 183 economies,
from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe, over time. This economy
profile presents the doing business indicators for Thailand.
To allow useful comparison, it also provides data for other
selected economies (comparator economies) for each
indicator. The data in this report are current as of June 1,
2011 (except for the paying taxes indicators, which cover
the period January-December 2010). Show Less -
Type: Working Paper
Report#: 65487
Date: January 1, 2012
In Thailand, enhancing workforce skills
and promoting innovation is part of the country's
strategy to facilitate the transformation toward a more
knowledge-intensive... Show More +
and creative economy generating good
jobs. This report provides valuable insight for Thailand to
develop the skills necessary to boost ideas-led growth and
equity. The report draws on findings from employer surveys,
analyses Thailand's skills development performance from
the lifecycle perspective, and outlines possible strategies
to meet the emerging challenges in matching labor force
skills with Thailand's development objectives. In
particular, the report highlights possible approaches for
consideration while implementing the skills agenda outlined
in the eleventh national economic and social development
plan. This report will contribute to a constructive
discussion and informed decisions that will help the
equitable and sustained growth of Thailand's economy. Show Less -
Type: City Development Strategy (CDS)
Report#: 67204
Date: January 1, 2012
Thailand has received international
recognition for its successful interventions to reduce the
transmission of HIV among sex workers and is looked upon as
a role model... Show More +
for HIV education and awareness campaigns that
include the extensive promotion and wide acceptance of
condoms as an HIV prevention strategy. Thailand has the most
progressive and comprehensive antiretroviral program in the
region with a reported coverage of over 80 percent of
eligible individuals. Thailand should build on this
remarkable track record in HIV/AIDS prevention and respond
responsibly to address the HIV epidemic among injecting drug
users (IDUs). Adopting a comprehensive harm reduction
approach to deal with IDUs could have a major impact on
reducing HIV transmission as well as engaging drug users
into better healthcare and effective drug treatment. This
will require strong leadership in key government ministries
and related agencies. Given the current challenges in
introducing comprehensive harm reduction interventions
nationwide, Thailand should consider establishing a
demonstration site covering a selected area with high
prevalence of IDUs, with a state-of-the-art harm reduction
center of excellence providing comprehensive harm reduction
interventions. This will be an important first step to help
reduce HIV transmission among IDUs as well as to develop
standardized harm reduction program and training for
healthcare professionals and community workers. Show Less -
Type: Brief
Report#: 68257
Date: January 1, 2012
