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Chronicles from the Field: The Townsend Thai Project
"The book is a fascinating read from beginning to end, giving a detailed account of the design and implementation of the survey. Interestingly, the reader follows the survey from village to village with profiles of certain employees who played vital parts in the ongoing success of the project." -- Joanna Lenihan, London School of Economics Review of Books
"A new book Chronicles from the Field: The Townsend Thai Project provides a behind-the-scenes look at putting together one of the most impressive data collection projects in development - Rob Townsend’s Thai data, which has conducted monthly surveys on a panel of Thai households for over 150 consecutive months, as well as annual surveys." -- David McKenzie, The World Bank
Running since 1997 and continuing today, the Townsend Thai Project has tracked millions of observations about the economic activities of households and institutions in rural and urban Thailand. The project represents one of the most extensive datasets in the developing world.
"Chronicles from the Field" offers an account of the design and implementation of this unique panel data survey. It tells the story not only of the origins and operations of the project but also of the challenges and rewards that come from a search to understand the process of a country's economic development. The book explains the technical details of data collection and survey instruments but emphasizes the human side of the project, describing the culture shock felt by city-dwelling survey enumerators in rural villages, the "surprising, eye-opening, and inspiring" responses to survey questions, and the never-ending resourcefulness of the survey team.
The text is supplemented by an epilogue on research findings and policy recommendations and an appendix that contains a list and abstracts of published and working papers, organized by topic, using data from the project. Social and economic policies are too often skewed by political considerations. The Townsend Thai Project offers another basis for policy: accurate measurement based on thoroughly collected data. From this, a clear template emerges for understanding poverty and alleviating it.
MIT Press interview with the author, Professor Townsend, about this book and the Townsend Thai Project.
"A new book Chronicles from the Field: The Townsend Thai Project provides a behind-the-scenes look at putting together one of the most impressive data collection projects in development - Rob Townsend’s Thai data, which has conducted monthly surveys on a panel of Thai households for over 150 consecutive months, as well as annual surveys." -- David McKenzie, The World Bank
Running since 1997 and continuing today, the Townsend Thai Project has tracked millions of observations about the economic activities of households and institutions in rural and urban Thailand. The project represents one of the most extensive datasets in the developing world.
"Chronicles from the Field" offers an account of the design and implementation of this unique panel data survey. It tells the story not only of the origins and operations of the project but also of the challenges and rewards that come from a search to understand the process of a country's economic development. The book explains the technical details of data collection and survey instruments but emphasizes the human side of the project, describing the culture shock felt by city-dwelling survey enumerators in rural villages, the "surprising, eye-opening, and inspiring" responses to survey questions, and the never-ending resourcefulness of the survey team.
The text is supplemented by an epilogue on research findings and policy recommendations and an appendix that contains a list and abstracts of published and working papers, organized by topic, using data from the project. Social and economic policies are too often skewed by political considerations. The Townsend Thai Project offers another basis for policy: accurate measurement based on thoroughly collected data. From this, a clear template emerges for understanding poverty and alleviating it.
MIT Press interview with the author, Professor Townsend, about this book and the Townsend Thai Project.
135 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2013
12 people want to read
About the author
Robert M. Townsend
11 books3 followersRobert M. Townsend is the Elizabeth & James Killian Professor of Economics at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
He is the author of Chronicles from the Field (2013) with Sombat Sakuntasathien and Rob Jordan; Financial Systems in Developing Economies (2011); Households as Corporate Firms (2010) with Krislert Samphantharak; The Medieval Village Economy (1993); Financial Structure and Economic Organization (1990); and numerous professional articles.
A theorist, macroeconomist, and development economist, Townsend analyzes the role and impact of economic organization and financial systems through applied general equilibrium models, contract theory and the use of micro data.
He is known for his seminal work on costly state verification, the revelation principle, optimal multi-period contracts, decentralization of economies with private information, models of money with spatially separated agents, forecasting the forecasts of others and insurance and credit in developing countries.
He is the author of Chronicles from the Field (2013) with Sombat Sakuntasathien and Rob Jordan; Financial Systems in Developing Economies (2011); Households as Corporate Firms (2010) with Krislert Samphantharak; The Medieval Village Economy (1993); Financial Structure and Economic Organization (1990); and numerous professional articles.
A theorist, macroeconomist, and development economist, Townsend analyzes the role and impact of economic organization and financial systems through applied general equilibrium models, contract theory and the use of micro data.
He is known for his seminal work on costly state verification, the revelation principle, optimal multi-period contracts, decentralization of economies with private information, models of money with spatially separated agents, forecasting the forecasts of others and insurance and credit in developing countries.
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