1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910780548603321

Autore

Feeny David <1948->

Titolo

The political economy of productivity : Thai agricultural development, 1880-1975 / / David Feeny

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Vancouver : , : University of British Columbia Press, , 1982

ISBN

1-283-22670-7

9786613226709

0-7748-5776-5

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (ix, 238 pages)

Collana

Asian studies monographs ; ; 3

Disciplina

338.1/09593

Soggetti

Agriculture - Economic aspects - Thailand - History

Thailand Economic conditions

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

"... an extensively revised version of a doctoral thesis submitted to the Department of Economics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison."--Prelim.

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliography and index.

Nota di contenuto

Front Matter -- Contents -- Tables -- Acknowledgements -- Introduction -- A Theory of Technical and Institutional Change -- Economic Change in Thailand, 1880 to 1940 -- The Technology of Rice Production, 1880-1940 -- Institutional Change: Irrigation Policy -- From Property Rights in Man to Property Rights in Land -- Technical and Institutional Change in Thai Agriculture, 1880 to 1940 -- Post-World War II Thai Agricultural Development -- Economic Data -- A General Equilibrium Model with Two Goods and Three Factors -- Explanations of the Yield Decline in the Central Plain, 1920-21 to 1941 -- Notes -- Selected Bibliography -- Index

Sommario/riassunto

The economic history of Thailand between 1880 and 1975 contrasts sharply with the development experiences of other Third World countries. Between the opening of trade in 1850 and 1941, when war halted economic activity, Thailand became a major exporter of rice in the world market. Although conditions for further growth seemed highly favourable, Thailand's rapid integration into the world economy failed to improve living standards, and rice yields actually declined. In examining the causes of the underdevelopment of Thai agriculture over the last 100 years, Feeny introduces supply and demand models of



technical and institutional change to analyse why the rice export boom did not result in more development. This book, much of which is based on primary research in the Thai National Archives, is one of the few quantitative economic histories of a less developed country.