Publication Code: PO2
by Ammar Siamwalla
The four papers collected in this volume traces Thai economic history, both in the long term and over the past ten years. They have been arranged, not in the chronological order of their writing, but in terms of the sequence of the subject matter. But they have a history of their own. The first paper, originally published in mid-1996 in a volume celebrating the Golden Jubilee of His Majesty's reign, gave the long view of the Thai economy. The second was originally prepared as background material for the famous World Bank's study of the East Asian miracle, and was written in 1992, and discussed the institutional bases for Thai macroeconomic stability. The third paper was first written in June 1997, and later modified in September 1997, to take account of the flotation of the baht in July. The final paper traces the origins of the present crisis and brings the history to the point where the International Monetary Fund was invited to rescue the Thai economy from its predicament. It was first presented as the Gibson Memorial Lecture at Queen's University, Ontario, Canada.
It is a sobering experience to be reading now one's own writing during the heady days of the Thai boom, celebrating our capacity for managing economic stability. Nevertheless, the writers of these pieces have decided to retain the material substantially as originally written except for some minor editorial changes. We feel that retaining the original flavor of the pieces would add to, rather than detract from, the reader's sense of the history of the times.
December 1997