Townsend Thai Project Institutional Annual Resurvey, 1999

The 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 investigator. 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 c redit 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. 161 institutions were surveyed in the initial l997 cross-section survey. In the annual resurveys we checked to see if an institution was pre-existing, but new institutions were added as well. Some i nstitutions had failed. For example in l998, 45 institutions were sampled in total.

本项目由Somboon Sakuntasathien先生与专业团队主导，在泰国境内开展，美方管理机构为芝加哥大学全国民意研究中心（National Opinion Research Center）。本项目的调查设计与研究合作者包括西北大学安娜·保尔森（Anna Paulson）、延世大学（Yonsei University）李泰正（Tae Joeng Lee）以及佛罗里达大学迈克尔·宾福德（Michael Binford），罗伯特·M·汤森（Robert M. Townsend）为项目总负责人与首席研究员。本项目由美国国立儿童健康与人类发展研究所-美国国家科学基金会（NICHD-NSF）资助，初始研究目标为评估家庭、地方网络等非正式制度，在助力泰国半城市化与农村地区个体维系福利与福祉方面的作用；家庭与企业特有冲击所引发的风险，及其可能带来的负面直接后果，是本项目的核心研究内容之一，而家庭与社会经济网络在储蓄动员及信贷配置中的中介作用，同样被视作关键研究环节。上述网络并非孤立存在，而是更大范围的村级、区域级乃至国家级金融体系的组成部分，因此本项目同时涵盖村级金融机构（如生产信贷小组、稻米银行）与国家级金融机构的评估工作，后者包括商业银行以及政府农业信贷机构——泰国农业与农业合作社银行（Bank for Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives, BAAC）。本项目兼具微观与宏观研究维度：既旨在评估非正式与正式金融机构及市场，也将构建并评估增长、波动与危机相关的宏观模型，且该宏观模型将基于实测的微观基础构建。1997年的初始横截面调查（cross-section survey）共覆盖161家机构，在后续年度追踪调查中，研究团队会核查机构是否仍存续，同时也会纳入新设立的机构，部分原有机构已停止运营；例如1998年，本次调查总计抽样了45家机构。