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

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  • 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
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    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.
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    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.

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    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

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