Trade liberalization has long been expected to contribute to poverty reduction. The economy of Thailand provides an excellent case to study this relationship because its economy has structurally transformed in the past few decades through the export-oriented growth strategies. The purpose of this article is to examine the relative effect of Thailand’s accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 1995 on poverty reduction, using a unique data set compiled from labour force survey and tariff data. Variation in production composition across provinces allows us to examine a relative impact of such trade reform. Using the instrument variable estimation, we found that provinces in which employers are concentrated in industries exposed to a greater tariff reduction experience more rapid poverty reduction and more income growth than less exposed provinces. This impact on poverty and income is also more pronounced in urban areas. We hypothesize that labour mobility is a potential channel underpinning this effect.

中文翻译：

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贸易自由化对贫困的相对影响：来自泰国的证据

长期以来，人们一直期望贸易自由化有助于减少贫困。泰国经济为研究这种关系提供了一个极好的案例，因为其经济在过去几十年中通过出口导向型增长战略发生了结构性转变。本文的目的是使用从劳动力调查和关税数据汇编的独特数据集，研究泰国于 1995 年加入世界贸易组织 (WTO) 对减贫的相对影响。各省生产构成的差异使我们能够检验此类贸易改革的相对影响。使用工具变量估计，我们发现，雇主集中在关税减免幅度更大的行业的省份，与关税减免幅度较小的省份相比，减贫速度更快，收入增长更快。这种对贫困和收入的影响在城市地区也更为明显。我们假设劳动力流动是支持这种效应的潜在渠道。