IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jecomi/v8y2019i1p1-d299542.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Effect of Rainfall on Economic Growth in Thailand: A Blessing for Poor Provinces

Author

Listed:
  • Siriklao Sangkhaphan

    (School of Economics, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, 1037 Luoyu Road, Wuhan 430074, China)

  • Yang Shu

    (School of Economics and Trade, Hunan University, 2 Lushan S Rd, Changsha 410008, China)

Abstract

Rainfall is related to economic growth and generally has beneficial impacts on dry and poor areas that are mostly dependent on rainfed agriculture. Thailand is a service-based, upper middle-income country with a tropical climate although rainfall varies regionally. The volume of precipitation in the northern and northeastern regions is rather low while the southern region has the highest rainfall due to its narrow topography running north-south bordering the Andaman Sea to the west and the Gulf of Thailand to the east. The present study explored the effect of rainfall on the growth of the gross provincial product (GPP) by economic sector and subsector using provincial-level panel data from 1995 to 2015. The feasible generalised least squares (FGLS) estimator with fixed effect was used in the regression models. We found that the main impacts of the weather occurred through rainfall and reduced GPP growth at the national level. For the sector level, the results showed that rainfall had a significant negative impact on the agricultural and service sectors while it had a positive but not significant impact on the industrial sector. However, rainfall remains vital in poor regions although it could be detrimental to certain subsectors in those regions. The results confirmed that the positive effects of rainfall mostly affected the economies of poor provinces and suggested that average rainfall could be the key climate effect on economic growth in Thailand.

Suggested Citation

  • Siriklao Sangkhaphan & Yang Shu, 2019. "The Effect of Rainfall on Economic Growth in Thailand: A Blessing for Poor Provinces," Economies, MDPI, vol. 8(1), pages 1-17, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jecomi:v:8:y:2019:i:1:p:1-:d:299542
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2227-7099/8/1/1/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2227-7099/8/1/1/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Joshua D. Angrist & Alan B. Krueger, 2001. "Instrumental Variables and the Search for Identification: From Supply and Demand to Natural Experiments," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 15(4), pages 69-85, Fall.
    2. Mariani, Fabio & Pérez-Barahona, Agustín & Raffin, Natacha, 2010. "Life expectancy and the environment," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 34(4), pages 798-815, April.
    3. Benjamin F. Jones & Benjamin A. Olken, 2010. "Climate Shocks and Exports," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 100(2), pages 454-459, May.
    4. Fankhauser, Samuel & S.J. Tol, Richard, 2005. "On climate change and economic growth," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 27(1), pages 1-17, January.
    5. Michael Berlemann & Daniela Wenzel, 2018. "Precipitation and Economic Growth," CESifo Working Paper Series 7258, CESifo.
    6. Fabio Mariani & Agustin Perez Barahona & Natacha Raffin, 2010. "Life expectancy and the environment," PSE-Ecole d'économie de Paris (Postprint) hal-00638730, HAL.
    7. Sirikarn Lertamphainont & Robert Sparrow, 2016. "The Economic Impacts of Extreme Rainfall Events on Farming Households: Evidence from Thailand," PIER Discussion Papers 45, Puey Ungphakorn Institute for Economic Research.
    8. M. Hashem Pesaran, 2007. "A simple panel unit root test in the presence of cross-section dependence," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 22(2), pages 265-312.
    9. Babatunde O. Abidoye & Ayodele F. Odusola, 2015. "Climate Change and Economic Growth in Africa: An Econometric Analysis," Journal of African Economies, Centre for the Study of African Economies, vol. 24(2), pages 277-301.
    10. Paul J. Burke & Andrew Leigh, 2010. "Do Output Contractions Trigger Democratic Change?," American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 2(4), pages 124-157, October.
    11. Alagidede, Paul & Adu, George & Frimpong, Prince Boakye, 2014. "The effect of climate change on economic growth: Evidence from Sub-Saharan Africa," WIDER Working Paper Series 017, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    12. Michael Berlemann & Daniela Wenzel, 2016. "Long-term Growth Effects of Natural Disasters - Empirical Evidence for Droughts," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 36(1), pages 464-476.
    13. Odusola, Ayodele & Abidoye, Babatunde, 2015. "Effects of Temperature and Rainfall Shocks on Economic Growth in Africa," UNDP Africa Research Discussion Papers 267028, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
    14. John Luke Gallup & Jeffrey D. Sachs & Andrew Mellinger, 1999. "Geography and Economic Development," CID Working Papers 1, Center for International Development at Harvard University.
    15. Loayza, Norman V. & Olaberría, Eduardo & Rigolini, Jamele & Christiaensen, Luc, 2012. "Natural Disasters and Growth: Going Beyond the Averages," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 40(7), pages 1317-1336.
    16. Melissa Dell & Benjamin F. Jones & Benjamin A. Olken, 2014. "What Do We Learn from the Weather? The New Climate-Economy Literature," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 52(3), pages 740-798, September.
    17. Gallup, John L. & Sachs, Jeffrey D. & Mellinger, Andrew, "undated". "Geography and Economic Development," Instructional Stata datasets for econometrics geodata, Boston College Department of Economics.
    18. Naeem Akram, 2012. "Is climate change hindering economic growth of Asian economies?," Asia-Pacific Development Journal, United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), vol. 19(2), pages 1-18, December.
    19. Maximilian Auffhammer & Solomon M. Hsiang & Wolfram Schlenker & Adam Sobel, 2013. "Using Weather Data and Climate Model Output in Economic Analyses of Climate Change," Review of Environmental Economics and Policy, Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 7(2), pages 181-198, July.
    20. Paul Alagidede & George Adu & Prince Boakye Frimpong, 2014. "The Effect of Climate Change on Economic Growth: Evidence from Sub-Saharan Africa," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2014-017, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    21. Melissa Dell & Benjamin F. Jones & Benjamin A. Olken, 2009. "Temperature and Income: Reconciling New Cross-Sectional and Panel Estimates," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 99(2), pages 198-204, May.
    22. repec:fth:prinin:455 is not listed on IDEAS
    23. Borgomeo, Edoardo & Vadheim, Bryan & Woldeyes, Firew B. & Alamirew, Tena & Tamru, Seneshaw & Charles, Katrina J. & Kebede, Seifu & Walker, Oliver, 2018. "The Distributional and Multi-Sectoral Impacts of Rainfall Shocks: Evidence From Computable General Equilibrium Modelling for the Awash Basin, Ethiopia," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 146(C), pages 621-632.
    24. Fabio Mariani & Agustin Perez Barahona & Natacha Raffin, 2010. "Life expectancy and the environment," Post-Print hal-00638730, HAL.
    25. Edinaldo Tebaldi & Laura Beaudin, 2016. "Climate change and economic growth in Brazil," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 23(5), pages 377-381, March.
    26. Martin Henseler & Ingmar Schumacher, 2019. "The impact of weather on economic growth and its production factors," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 154(3), pages 417-433, June.
    27. Gallup, John & Sachs, Jeffrey, 1999. "Geography and Economic Development," Harvard Institute for International Development (HIID) Papers 294434, Harvard University, Kennedy School of Government.
    28. Gallup, J.L. & Sachs, J.D. & Mullinger, A., 1999. "Geography and Economic Development," Papers 1, Chicago - Graduate School of Business.
    29. Melissa Dell & Benjamin F. Jones & Benjamin A. Olken, 2012. "Temperature Shocks and Economic Growth: Evidence from the Last Half Century," American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 4(3), pages 66-95, July.
    30. Joshua Angrist & Alan Krueger, 2001. "Instrumental Variables and the Search for Identification: From Supply and Demand to Natural Experiments," Working Papers 834, Princeton University, Department of Economics, Industrial Relations Section..
    31. Cabral, Joseph François, 2014. "Rainfall and economic growth and poverty: Evidence from Senegal and Burkina Faso," AGRODEP working papers 8, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    32. Mariani, Fabio & Pérez-Barahona, Agustín & Raffin, Natacha, 2010. "Life expectancy and the environment," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 34(4), pages 798-815, April.
    33. Edward Miguel & Shanker Satyanath, 2011. "Re-examining Economic Shocks and Civil Conflict," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 3(4), pages 228-232, October.
    34. Melissa Dell & Benjamin F. Jones & Benjamin A. Olken, 2008. "Climate Change and Economic Growth: Evidence from the Last Half Century," NBER Working Papers 14132, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    35. Matteo Lanzafame, 2014. "Temperature, rainfall and economic growth in Africa," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 46(1), pages 1-18, February.
    36. Abidoye, Babatunde & Odusola, Ayodele, 2015. "Climate Change and Economic Growth in Africa: An Econometric Analysis," UNDP Africa Economists Working Papers 307336, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
    37. Salvador Barrios & Luisito Bertinelli & Eric Strobl, 2010. "Trends in Rainfall and Economic Growth in Africa: A Neglected Cause of the African Growth Tragedy," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 92(2), pages 350-366, May.
    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. Majid Khan & Abdul Rashid, 2022. "(A)symmetry effects of climate changes on economic growth: a panel data analysis," International Review of Economics, Springer;Happiness Economics and Interpersonal Relations (HEIRS), vol. 69(4), pages 571-607, December.
    2. Chaitat Jirophat & Pym Manopimoke & Suparit Suwanik, 2022. "The Macroeconomic Effects of Climate Shocks in Thailand," PIER Discussion Papers 188, Puey Ungphakorn Institute for Economic Research.
    3. Chandio, Abbas Ali & Dash, Devi Prasad & Nathaniel, Solomon Prince & Sargani, Ghulam Raza & Jiang, Yuansheng, 2023. "Mitigation pathways towards climate change: Modelling the impact of climatological factors on wheat production in top six regions of China," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 481(C).

    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. David Castells-Quintana & Maria del Pilar Lopez-Uribe & Tom McDermott, 2015. "Climate change and the geographical and institutional drivers of economic development," GRI Working Papers 198, Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment.
    2. Lopez-Uribe, Maria del Pilar & Castells-Quintana, David & McDermott, Thomas K. J., 2017. "Geography, institutions and development: a review ofthe long-run impacts of climate change," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 65147, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    3. Melissa Dell & Benjamin F. Jones & Benjamin A. Olken, 2014. "What Do We Learn from the Weather? The New Climate-Economy Literature," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 52(3), pages 740-798, September.
    4. Richard S J Tol, 2018. "The Economic Impacts of Climate Change," Review of Environmental Economics and Policy, Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 12(1), pages 4-25.
    5. Kahn, Matthew E. & Mohaddes, Kamiar & Ng, Ryan N.C. & Pesaran, M. Hashem & Raissi, Mehdi & Yang, Jui-Chung, 2021. "Long-term macroeconomic effects of climate change: A cross-country analysis," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 104(C).
    6. Martin Henseler & Ingmar Schumacher, 2019. "The impact of weather on economic growth and its production factors," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 154(3), pages 417-433, June.
    7. Letta, Marco & Montalbano, Pierluigi & Tol, Richard S.J., 2018. "Temperature shocks, short-term growth and poverty thresholds: Evidence from rural Tanzania," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 112(C), pages 13-32.
    8. James Fenske & Namrata Kala, 2012. "Climate, ecosystem resilience and the slave trade," CSAE Working Paper Series 2012-23, Centre for the Study of African Economies, University of Oxford.
    9. Michael Berlemann & Daniela Wenzel, 2018. "Precipitation and Economic Growth," CESifo Working Paper Series 7258, CESifo.
    10. Majid Khan & Abdul Rashid, 2022. "(A)symmetry effects of climate changes on economic growth: a panel data analysis," International Review of Economics, Springer;Happiness Economics and Interpersonal Relations (HEIRS), vol. 69(4), pages 571-607, December.
    11. Marco Letta & Richard S. J. Tol, 2019. "Weather, Climate and Total Factor Productivity," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 73(1), pages 283-305, May.
    12. Mateo Salazar, 2017. "The Effects of Climate on Output per Worker: Evidence from the Manufacturing Industry in Colombia," Revista Desarrollo y Sociedad, Universidad de los Andes,Facultad de Economía, CEDE, vol. 79(2), August.
    13. Li, Chengzheng & Xiang, Xunyong & Gu, Haiying, 2015. "Climate shocks and international trade: Evidence from China," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 135(C), pages 55-57.
    14. Kalkuhl, Matthias & Wenz, Leonie, 2020. "The impact of climate conditions on economic production. Evidence from a global panel of regions," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 103(C).
    15. Siriklao Sangkhaphan & Yang Shu, 2020. "Impact of seasonal rainfall on economic growth in Thailand," Advances in Management and Applied Economics, SCIENPRESS Ltd, vol. 10(2), pages 1-2.
    16. Mbaye, Linguere Mously & Zimmermann, Klaus F., 2016. "Natural Disasters and Human Mobility," International Review of Environmental and Resource Economics, now publishers, vol. 10(1), pages 37-56, November.
    17. Esra KADANALI & Omer YALCINKAYA, 2020. "Effects of Climate Change on Economic Growth: Evidence from 20 Biggest Economies of the World," Journal for Economic Forecasting, Institute for Economic Forecasting, vol. 0(3), pages 93-118, September.
    18. Richard S. J. Tol, 2021. "The Economic Impact of Climate in the Long Run," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Anil Markandya & Dirk Rübbelke (ed.), CLIMATE AND DEVELOPMENT, chapter 1, pages 3-36, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    19. Anton, Sorin Gabriel, 2021. "The impact of temperature increase on firm profitability. Empirical evidence from the European energy and gas sectors," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 295(C).
    20. Li Chen & Bin Jiang & Chuan Wang, 2023. "Climate change and urban total factor productivity: evidence from capital cities and municipalities in China," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 65(1), pages 401-441, July.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    rainfall; economic growth; economic sector; economic subsector; panel data; the FGLS estimator; JEL Classification: O44; O47; Q54;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • O44 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Growth and Aggregate Productivity - - - Environment and Growth
    • O47 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Growth and Aggregate Productivity - - - Empirical Studies of Economic Growth; Aggregate Productivity; Cross-Country Output Convergence
    • Q54 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Climate; Natural Disasters and their Management; Global Warming

    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:gam:jecomi:v:8:y:2019:i:1:p:1-:d:299542. 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: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    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.