Working Papers
A Randomized Evaluation of an On-Site Training for Kindergarten Teachers in Rural Thailand
Weerachart T. Kilenthong, Sartja Duangchaiyoosook, Wasinee Jantorn and Varunee Khruapradit,
PIER Discussion Paper, Feb 6, 2024.
This study evaluates the effectiveness of intensive and hands-on on-site training for preschool teachers using a randomized controlled trial in rural Thailand. The main finding is that the intervention led to an increase in the effectiveness of the classroom in terms of children’s cognitive skills by almost 50 percent relative to the control group. The on-site training intervention is cost effective, costing 32.7 USD per student. Further investigation reveals that its specificity regarding the teaching approach or curriculum and detailed weekly teaching plans could be critical to its success.
Heterogeneous Returns to Education across Hukou-Migration Subgroups in China
Juan Huang and Weerachart T. Kilenthong,
PIER Discussion Paper, Nov 13, 2023.
This paper uses the China Household Income Project 2018 dataset to estimate returns to education for various Hukou-migration subgroups. We overcome the endogeneity problem of years of schooling using an instrument based on the Great Expansion of Higher Education policy. Our results indicate that the highest returns are for urban native workers (27.4%), followed by urban Hukou-converted (25.0%) and rural native workers (14.7%). In contrast, the returns to education for rural-urban migrant workers are insignificant. Further analyses suggest that Hukou conversion significantly increased the returns to education for rural-origin people by enabling them access to better job opportunities.
Intergenerational Transmission of Time Preferences: An Evidence from Rural Thailand
Suparee Boonmanunt, Wasinee Jantorn, Varunee Khruapradit and Weerachart T. Kilenthong,
PIER Discussion Paper, May 6, 2022.
This study investigates the association between child and caregiver time preferences in rural Thailand. We find that caregiver discount factor is positively correlated to a child’s ability to delay gratification, indicating that patient children are more likely to have patient caregivers. This correlation exists regardless of whether the caregiver is a biological parent or not. However, some evidence suggests genetic contribution in intergenerational transmission of time preferences: this correlation is stronger when both biological parents live at home than when none is present, and mother’s time preferences is stronger correlated with child time preferences than grandmother’s.
Segregated Security Exchanges with Ex Ante Rights to Trade: A Market-Based Solution to Collateral-Constrained Externalities
Weerachart T. Kilenthong and Robert M. Townsend, NBER Working Paper, May 2014.
This paper studies a competitive general equilibrium model with default and endogenous collateralized contracts. The possibility of trade in spot markets creates externalities, as spot prices and the bindingness of collateral constraints interact. We propose a market based solution which overcomes the externalities problem and obviates the needs for any government policy intervention. If agents are allowed to contract ex ante on market fundamentals determining the state-contingent spot prices used to unwind collateral, over and above contracting on true underlying states of the world, then standard existence and welfare theorems apply, that is, competitive equilibria are equivalent with Pareto optima.