Local economic development in Thailand

Thailand has witnessed very uneven spatial outcomes of economic policies pursued in the country since the 1970s. This partially resulted from top-down, place-based approaches favoring the already prosperous regions. Therefore, in order to bridge the territorial economic divide in the country, an alternative policy framework is needed to promote bottom-up, place-based initiatives led by local governments. As a starting point, we surveyed a stratified sample of local governments in Thailand to document and classify their economic development activities using the taxonomy of similar practices found in other countries. We examined how these practices are shaped by local conditions found in various localities.