Jobs, Wages and Napoleon Dynamite: The Hard Data on Thailand's Economy [Season 4, Episode 36]

It's an extra-long show this week as Greg interviews
Jessica Vechbanyongratana, a professor
at the faculty of Economics at Chulalongkorn University, about
the numbers that make up Thailand's economy. 


Beginning with Thailand's notable jump up the list of
countries with the biggest inequality gap, Jessica explains the
methodologies and data that led to the change - although as she
mentions, depending on what data you look at during what year,
Thailand may not necessarily be any more unequal than a country
like the United States.


Next, they tackle the question of the minimum wage and the
average monthly income of residents of Bangkok vs other areas of
Thailand, with Greg drawing an interesting analogy between that
and Napoleon Dynamite (you see, Bangkok
- like Napoleon Dynamite - tends to
throw a bomb into many predictive models).


The two also cover how teaching is considered a really good
job in Thailand, how Jessica's students are usually overly
optimistic about the wages they'll earn upon graduation, and
finish with an addendum - recorded just the other night - on the
devastating effect the Coronavirus is having on Thailand.


And don't miss our patron Thomas' sweet DJ
sets on Twitch!


As always, the podcast will continue to be
100% funded by listeners just like you who get
some special swag from us. And we'll keep our
Facebook, Twitter,
and LINE accounts active so you can
send us comments, questions, or whatever you want to
share.