IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/umk/journl/v3y2011i1p31-60.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Thaksin’s Legacy: Thaksinomics and Its Impact on Thailand’s National Innovation System and Industrial Upgrading

Author

Listed:
  • Patarapong Intarakumnerd

    (College of Innovation, Thammasat University, Thailand)

Abstract

Thaksin Shinawatra was one of the most powerful prime ministers of Thailand. Undergirded by a set of new policies termed Thaksinomics, great political power, his CEO style of management, and his intention to make Thailand a developed country, his administration could have been a formidable force in transforming Thailand’s weak and fragmented innovation system into a stronger and more coherent one and in laying a long-lasting foundation for the country’s technological and industrial upgrading, as experienced in Japan and the East Asian NIEs. Thaksin’s administration paid much attention to the neglected meso and micro foundations of Thailand’s competiveness. For the first time, Thailand had explicit vertical industrial policies that were tailored to specific sectors and geographical clusters. These policies pushed existing central and regional government agencies to adjust themselves accordingly. Thaksin’s government also induced changes in the roles and behaviours of other actors in the country’s national innovation system. Nonetheless the government, to a large extent, failed to make an enduring impact on industrial and technology upgrading. There are two key factors underlying this failure: (a) deficiencies of Thaksin’s policies and implementation of those policies themselves and (b) resistance to changes by other actors in the national innovation system.

Suggested Citation

  • Patarapong Intarakumnerd, 2011. "Thaksin’s Legacy: Thaksinomics and Its Impact on Thailand’s National Innovation System and Industrial Upgrading," Institutions and Economies (formerly known as International Journal of Institutions and Economies), Faculty of Economics and Administration, University of Malaya, vol. 3(1), pages 31-60, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:umk:journl:v:3:y:2011:i:1:p:31-60
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://ijie.um.edu.my/RePEc/umk/journl/v3i1/Fulltext2.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Lall, Sanjaya & Teubal, Morris, 1998. ""Market-stimulating" technology policies in developing countries: A framework with examples from East Asia," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 26(8), pages 1369-1385, August.
    2. Chang, Ha-Joon, 1993. "The Political Economy of Industrial Policy in Korea," Cambridge Journal of Economics, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 17(2), pages 131-157, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Veerayooth Kanchoochat & Patarapong Intarakumnerd, 2014. "Tigers Trapped: Tracing the Middle-income Trap through the East and Southeast Asian Experience," Competence Centre on Money, Trade, Finance and Development 1404, Hochschule fuer Technik und Wirtschaft, Berlin.
    2. Chia-Chin Chang, 2015. "Influences of knowledge spillover and utilization on the NIS performance: a multi-stage efficiency perspective," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 49(5), pages 1945-1967, September.
    3. María Alejandra Molina, 2011. "A Sectoral System of Innovation Analysis of Technological Upgrading in the Food Processing Sector in Argentina, Brazil and Chile," Institutions and Economies (formerly known as International Journal of Institutions and Economies), Faculty of Economics and Administration, University of Malaya, vol. 3(2), pages 287-325, July.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Ha-Joon Chang & Ali Cheema & L. Mises, 2002. "Conditions For Successful Technology Policy In Developing Countries—Learning Rents, State Structures, And Institutions," Economics of Innovation and New Technology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 11(4-5), pages 369-398.
    2. Giuliani, Elisa & Martinelli, Arianna & Rabellotti, Roberta, 2016. "Is Co-Invention Expediting Technological Catch Up? A Study of Collaboration between Emerging Country Firms and EU Inventors," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 77(C), pages 192-205.
    3. Kim, Jinhee & Lee, Keun, 2022. "Local–global interface as a key factor in the catching up of regional innovation systems: Fast versus slow catching up among Taipei, Shenzhen, and Penang in Asia," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 174(C).
    4. Diogo Ferraz & Fernanda P. S. Falguera & Enzo B. Mariano & Dominik Hartmann, 2021. "Linking Economic Complexity, Diversification, and Industrial Policy with Sustainable Development: A Structured Literature Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(3), pages 1-29, January.
    5. Figueiredo, Paulo N., 2016. "Evolution of the short-fiber technological trajectory in Brazil's pulp and paper industry: The role of firm-level innovative capability-building and indigenous institutions," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 1-14.
    6. Diego Sánchez-Ancochea, 2005. "Capitalismo, desarrollo y Estado. Una revisión crítica de la teoría del Estado de Schumpeter," Revista de Economía Institucional, Universidad Externado de Colombia - Facultad de Economía, vol. 7(13), pages 81-100, July-Dece.
    7. Pablo Bandeira, 2009. "Instituciones y desarrollo económico. Un marco conceptual," Revista de Economía Institucional, Universidad Externado de Colombia - Facultad de Economía, vol. 11(20), pages 355-373, January-J.
    8. Deepak Nayyar, 2006. "Development through Globalization?," WIDER Working Paper Series RP2006-29, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    9. Ginchev Ivan & Guerraggio Angelo & Rocca Matteo, 2002. "On second-order conditions in vector optimization," Economics and Quantitative Methods qf0218, Department of Economics, University of Insubria.
    10. Ochieng, Cosmas Milton Obote, 2007. "Development through Positive Deviance and its Implications for Economic Policy Making and Public Administration in Africa: The Case of Kenyan Agricultural Development, 1930-2005," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 35(3), pages 454-479, March.
    11. Karolien De Bruyne & Wouter Bam & Denis Engelbrecht, 2023. "South Africa's titanium industrial policy: A product space perspective," South African Journal of Economics, Economic Society of South Africa, vol. 91(1), pages 3-27, March.
    12. Berglof, Erik & Cable , Vince, 2018. "Back in Business: Industrial Policy for Emerging Economies in the New Globalization," ADB Economics Working Paper Series 537, Asian Development Bank.
    13. Matthew McCartney, 2017. "Bangladesh 2000-2017: Sustainable Growth, Technology and the Irrelevance of Productivity," Lahore Journal of Economics, Department of Economics, The Lahore School of Economics, vol. 22(Special E), pages 183-198, September.
    14. Regina M. Abrami & Yu Zheng, 2010. "The New Face of Chinese Industrial Policy: Making Sense of Anti-Dumping Cases in the Petrochemical and Steel Industries," Harvard Business School Working Papers 11-042, Harvard Business School.
    15. Hassink Robert, 2002. "Südkoreas Regionalentwicklung im Spannungsfeld zwischen nationaler Wirtschaftsentwicklung, Regionalismus und Regionalpolitik," ZFW – Advances in Economic Geography, De Gruyter, vol. 46(1), pages 213-227, October.
    16. Sébastien Lechevalier & Pauline Debanes & Shin Wonkyu, 2016. "Financialization and industrial policies in Japan and Korea: Evolving complementarities and loss of institutional capabilities," Working Papers halshs-01431783, HAL.
    17. Song, Teresa, 2024. "Why did gender inequality lag GDP per capita and human development growth in Korea over 1976-1996?," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 122006, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    18. Luiz Ricardo Cavalcante & Bruno César Araújo, 2013. "Market Leadership in the Brazilian Automotive Industry: The Case of Marcopolo," Discussion Papers 1906a, Instituto de Pesquisa Econômica Aplicada - IPEA.
    19. Chang, Ha-Joon, 1998. "Korea: The misunderstood crisis," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 26(8), pages 1555-1561, August.
    20. Hafele, Jakob & Le Lannou, Laure-Alizée & Rochowicz, Nils & Kuhls, Sonia & Gräbner-Radkowitsch, Claudius, 2023. "Securing future-fit jobs in the green transformation: A policy framework for industrial policy," ZOE Discussion Papers 10, ZOE. institute for future-fit economies, Bonn.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    - Thaksin; Thaksinomics; national innovation system; industrial and technological upgrading policies; industrial cluster; Thailand;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • O31 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Innovation and Invention: Processes and Incentives
    • O33 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Technological Change: Choices and Consequences; Diffusion Processes
    • O38 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Government Policy
    • L52 - Industrial Organization - - Regulation and Industrial Policy - - - Industrial Policy; Sectoral Planning Methods

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:umk:journl:v:3:y:2011:i:1:p:31-60. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Teoh Wern Jun (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/feaummy.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.