Townsend Thai Project Institutional Annual Resurvey, 2010 (Rural)

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. More details about the Townsend Thai Project are available at http://cier.uchicago.edu/ .

本项目由宋巴·萨坤塔萨提恩（Khun Sombat Sakuntasathhien）及专业团队主导，在泰国境内开展实施，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协作方包括西北大学的安娜·保尔森（Anna Paulson）、延世大学的李泰正（Tae Joeng Lee），以及佛罗里达大学的迈克尔·宾福德（Michael Binford），整体项目负责人与首席研究员为罗伯特·M·汤森（Robert M. Townsend）。
本项目由美国儿童健康与人类发展研究所-国家科学基金会（NICHD-NSF）资助，最初旨在评估家庭、地方社交网络这类非正式制度，在助力泰国半城市化与农村地区居民提升福利与福祉过程中所发挥的作用。家庭与企业层面的特定冲击所引发的风险，及其潜在的负面直接影响，是本项目的核心研究内容之一；此外，家庭、社会与经济网络在储蓄动员与信贷配置中的中介作用，也被视为关键研究主题。
上述网络并非孤立存在，而是隶属于更宏观的村庄、区域乃至国家级金融体系。因此，本项目同时涵盖对村级金融机构（如生产信贷小组与稻米储蓄互助社），以及国家级金融机构（如商业银行、政府农业信贷机构——农业与农业合作社银行（Bank for Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives, BAAC））的评估。本项目兼具微观与宏观双重研究维度：既旨在评估非正式与正式金融机构及市场，也将构建并评估经济增长、波动与危机的宏观模型，此类宏观模型将以实测得到的微观基础为依据。
1997年的首轮横截面调研共覆盖161家机构。在年度追踪调研中，研究团队会核查机构的存续情况，同时也会纳入新出现的机构，部分机构已停止运营。例如1998年的调研共抽样45家机构。有关汤森泰国项目的更多详情，可访问http://cier.uchicago.edu/ 查询。