Townsend Thai Project Big North (Household) Survey, 2004

This is the first baseline household survey for northern regions in 2004. Two additional provinces (Phrae and Phetchabun) from the north were added to the Townsend Thai Project annual survey. The Townsend Thai Project is carried out in Thailand under the direction of Khun Sombat Sakuntasathhien and dedicated staff. The project is administered in the United States at the National Opinion Research Center and the University of Chicago. Survey design and research collaborators include Anna Paulson of Northwestern University, Tae Joeng Lee of Yonse University, and Michael Binford of the University of Florida. Robert M. Townsend is overall project director and principal investi gator. The initial purpose of the NICHD-NSF funded project was to evaluate the role of informal institutions such as the family and local networks in helping to support the welfare and well-being of individuals in semi-urban and rural areas of Thailand. Risk, and the potentially adverse and direct consequences of household- and firm-specific shocks is a key part of project. The mediating role of the family and social and economic networks in the mobilization of savings and allocation of credit was also deemed essential. These networks are not viewed in isolation but rather are part of the larger village, regional, and national level financial system. Thus the project includes an evaluation of village-level financial institutions, such as Production Credit Groups and rice banks, and national-level financial institutions such as commercial banks and the government agricultural bank, the Bank for Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives (BAAC). Indeed, the project has both micro and macro aspects. It seeks to evaluate informal and formal financial institutions and markets and to construct and evaluate macro models of growth, fluctuations, and crisis. The macro models are based on the measured micro- underpinnings. Household Resampling. Every effort is made to resurvey previously interviewed households. In l998 we successfully reinterviewed 95.32% of the l997 target, previously- surveyed population. In l999 we re surveyd 97% of the l997 target. Most of the attrition is to due to the household having moved out of the village, though a handful have refused to be interviewed, and a third cause is death of the head. If in any year we are short of the target 15 households per village, we include random replacements, for the purpose of constructing village average variables, for example. More details about the Townsend Thai Project are available at http://cier.uchicago.edu