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โครงการหนังสืออิเล็กทรอนิกส์ด้านการเกษตร เฉลิมพระเกียรติพระบาทสมเด็จพระเจ้าอยู่หัว

ABSTRACT

This study analyzes the following issues: (1) the effect of aging society on farm

production including land fragmentation, livelihood diversification, land abandonment,

and technical efficiency, and (2) the decomposition of income inequality and the
causes of inequality. The panel data of rural households obtained from the Townsend

Thai Project from 2000-2017 were used.

For the first part, aging society resulted in a decrease in land fragmentation,

livelihood diversification, land abandonment, and technical efficiency. The results from

stochastic frontier model show that the average of efficiency grew at rate much slower
than that of farm productivity. Surprisingly, higher degree of land fragmentation

improved efficiency when more plots of similar size were cultivated. Efficiency also
improved if farmers held higher share of rented-in land or engage in more farm

activities. Off-farm income negatively affected efficiency possibly due to misallocation

of fund towards farm investment. The average of technical efficiency was relatively
low but highly variable during periods described by high degree of government farm

price/income interventions. However, the results from quantile regression indicates
that aging had no impact on the technical efficiency of those whose technical

efficiency were above the 50 quantile.
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For the second part, the study shows that income inequality among Thai

farmers has decreased throughout the study. The reduction in inequality stems from

lowering incomes per household of the top 20th percent income group together with
a slight increase in the income of the remaining lower-income groups. However, various

indices that used to measure inequality still exhibit inequality at a high level while the

bottom-income group has the highest share of aging households. Also, income
inequality was found to occur among the elderly themselves more than between age

groups. Although, there exists an evidence of households’ class mobility through
transitions of income, asset holding, and land holdings over the more extended

periods, the opportunity to advance through the higher hierarchy of asset ownership

and land holding is less likely. Furthermore, household heads’ age and its cohort have
a statistically significant effect on income inequality to the extent that the cohort

“Greatest/Silent generation” appeared to show more degree of inequality. Selected

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