Village and Larger Economies: The Theory and Measurement of the Townsend Thai Project
回顾了汤森德泰国项目近20年的研究成果，发现泰国村庄的货币市场在某些方面与纽约金融市场相似，并追踪了儿童从出生到毕业的入学与毕业情况，为发展经济学研究提供了理论驱动的数据收集框架。
I have spent close to 20 years cataloging transactions between households in Thai villages, along with a research team. Just this past summer, we documented a number of ways in which even relatively poor villages have money markets not dissimilar in some ways from New York financial markets, with borrowing and repayment passing along links in credit chains. In another project, we have been looking at month-by-month school attendance, grade level completion, and graduation for children in these villages, following them from birth to graduation. The Townsend Thai project is a theory-based data collection endeavor, measuring and mapping village and larger economies into general equilibrium frameworks. This paper reviews a number of findings, implications, applications, and lessons learned, and considers next steps.