Concentration of land and other wealth in Thailand

FIRST PARAGRAPHS OF BOOK CHAPTER: Until recently, studies of economic inequality in Thailand have focused on income rather than wealth, in part because data for analyzing wealth were not available. There have been several attempts to analyze the distribution of landholding, but these were based on partial data as no national database was available. Recently, this situation has changed in two ways. First, in 2006, the regular Socio-Economic Survey that generates the data for analyzing income distribution also collected data on household ownership of assets for the first time. The same data were also collected in 2007 and 2009. Second, the Land Department has computerized its database on titled landholding, and gave access to this team to analyze this data for the first time. Hence, this chapter presents the first-ever analysis of the distribution of land on a national scale based on the record of land titles, along with a summary of the Socio-Economic Survey's findings on the distribution of wealth, and a review of other information on wealth inequality. The analysis of these new data on the distribution of land and of other assets shows that wealth is extremely concentrated in Thailand, even more so than income. This findng has important implications for taxation policy.

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