Quarterly Journal of International Agriculture No. 4/06
Wages, land prices, and local public goods in Thailand
Worawet Suwanrada
Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand
Andreas Wagener
University of Hannover, Germany
Abstract
Using a hedonic pricing model for provincial land prices and
provincial wages, we estimate the effects of differences in the
availability of local public goods in the provinces of non-urban
Thailand for the period from 1996 to 2002. We observe that local public
goods can indeed explain differences in provincial wages and land
prices. Infrastructure is significantly more important than
welfare-related facilities or local school quality. For most local
public goods the productivity-increasing effects dominate their
utility-enhancing properties.
Keywords: local public goods, hedonic prices, Thailand
JEL: H72, H73, R13, R15
Vol. 45 (2006), No. 4: 455-475