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Posts from the ‘Economics’ Category

แนวทางการพัฒนาระบบโลจิสติกส์ของประเทศไทย


ท่านคณบดี ดร.พิสิฐ ลี้อาธรรม ได้สอบถาม (ทาง Line group ของคณะฯ) ผมว่า มีแนวทางในการพัฒนาระบบโลจิสติกส์ของไทยอย่างไรบ้าง?

ผมตอบไปดังนี้ครับ

Dean Pisit: For logistic discipline followers, Thailand should adopt a KPI to reduce our cost and time to the level of Singapore.

Ajarn Champ:
I think the Ministry of Industry is now trying to implement the World Bank approach of Logistics Performance Indicator (LPI) in Thailand.
Sadly the main target they aim is only to reduce logistics cost, which is only one side of more than 10 aspects in logistics decision making.

Dean Pisit: Pls show me so i could find a way to bring it forward.

Pairach: yes, sir
Screen Shot 2558-04-09 at 11.14.47 AM
Pairach: This is the recent finding of the global Logistics performance at the macro level
Pairach: The logistics performance (LPI) is the weighted average of the country scores on the six key dimensions:
1) Efficiency of the clearance process (i.e., speed, simplicity and predictability of formalities) by border control agencies, including customs;

2) Quality of trade and transport related infrastructure (e.g., ports, railroads, roads, information technology);

3) Ease of arranging competitively priced shipments;

4) Competence and quality of logistics services (e.g., transport operators, customs brokers);

5) Ability to track and trace consignments;

6) Timeliness of shipments in reaching destination within the scheduled or expected delivery time.
Pairach: http://lpi.worldbank.org/international/global

Screen Shot 2558-04-09 at 11.16.29 AM

Pairach: The performance of Thailand since 2007 – 2014 has no significant improvement krub
Pairach: Pairach Still lag behind not only Singapore but does Malaysia
Pairach: Thailand vs Singapore vs Malyasia vs Vietnam in 2014

Screen Shot 2558-04-09 at 11.18.10 AM
Pairach: Clearly show that we are the number 3 in ASEAN.
Pairach: Vietnam is only their way to beat us, similar to what Malaysia did.
Screen Shot 2558-04-09 at 11.19.29 AM
Pairach: Singapore is the best in infrastructure at the global level. In ASEAN Singapore is the best in all aspects. Comparing Thaialnd vs Malaysia, Thailand is slightly better than Malaysia only in “Timeliness”. Big issue for Thailand is custom clearance and logistics competence (Human resource issue). Ability to manage and handle logistics properly is what Thailand missing.
Screen Shot 2558-04-09 at 11.26.18 AM
Pairach: Now Thailand ranked NO 35
Pairach: To move up the the top tier, National data tools and Green logistics are important.

Dean Pisit: We should use this sort of ranking to challenge the Ministry and Salary could be adjusted accordingly.

Pairach: Could not agree more
Pairach: I believe they know but it’s very difficult to meet this KPI.
Pairach: Reducing Average logistics costs is easier, but not the ultimate answer.

Dean Pisit:  If proper incentive is put in place, there could be guided to work hard.

Pairach: To the best of my knowledge, the ministry of Industry still struggle to measure the impacts of their activities and project on the logistics cost at the national level.
Pairach: Agree on using incentive to push the private sector to develop their logistics competence, not just only the cost.
Pairach: Perhaps could be integrated in the agency like BOI.
Pairach: At the international level, one recent finding by WEF show that “reducing the international supply chain barriers” performs better than “reducing tariff” 7 times in term of GDP growth.
Dean Pisit:  Let international rating be the standard.
Screen Shot 2558-04-09 at 11.41.46 AM
Pairach: Here are the supply chain barriers we should reduce across the border and port krub.
Pairach: The following is the comparing the effects of “Reducing supply chain barriers” vs “reducing tariffs” on GDP growth krub.
Screen Shot 2558-04-09 at 11.42.59 AM
Pairach: However the effects could vary in different regions.

Screen Shot 2558-04-09 at 11.44.09 AM
Pairach: With simulation, ASEAN could gain 12% Export and 18% import growth by reducing supply chain barrier. Also we hardly compete to Singapore in terms of logistics cost because we have different logistics system support ting different product type. We are export more agricultural products much more than Singapore. However, we can develop value creation process in the supply chain, for example transformed agricultural products such as fresh longan into not just dried longan but things like snack or drink or even medical proucts like Longanoid cream (for joint problems). That’s my opinions.

When economic professors making simple (MS Excel) coding mistakes …


reinhart_rogoff_coding_error_0

Basic MS Excel mistake in a paper published by two Harvard Economic Professors in a top-tier Economic journal!?

This week, the hottest topic in economics or even in academia as a whole would be the paper publishes by Thomas HerndonMichael Ash and Robert Pollin |  (HAP) on 4/15/2013 critiquing a widely cited paper by Reinhart and Rogoff on the debt ration and GDP of many countries titled “Growth in a Time of Debt“.

Screen Shot 2013-04-19 at 02.29.39

What is exciting is that HAP argue that R&R has made an error when using MS Excel to analysis such macroeconomic data. That paper by HAP titled “Does High Public Debt Consistently Stifle Economic Growth? A Critique of Reinhart and Rogo ff” would probably one of legendary critique papers in economics to date.

Screen Shot 2013-04-19 at 02.37.29

As we can expect, there are many feedbacks from both academics and non-academic world. The following is the list of articles discussing this incidences.

  1. The Wall Street Journal
    Reinhart-Rogoff Response to Critique
  2. The Financial Times (Chris Cook)
    Reinhart-Rogoff recrunch the numbers
  3. The Economist
    Revisiting Reinhart-Rogoff
  4. Slate.com ()
    Is The Reinhart-Rogoff Result Based on a Simple Spreadsheet Error?
  5. Marginal Revolution (Tyler Cowen)
    An update on the Reinhart and Rogoff critique and some observations
  6. Next New Deal (Mike Konczal)
    Researchers Finally Replicated Reinhart-Rogoff, and There Are Serious Problems.
  7. Christopher Gandrud
    Reinhart & Rogoff: Everyone makes coding mistakes, we need to make it easy to find them + Graphing uncertainty
  8. Simply Statistics (Roger Peng)
    I wish economists made better plots
  9. Paul Krugman 
    Holy Coding Error, Batman
  10. Phillip Price
    Data problems, coding errors…what can be done?
  11. Next New Deal (Mike Konczal)
    Researchers Finally Replicated Reinhart-Rogoff, and There Are Serious Problems.

How I became an economist


Inspired by the autobiography of Paul Samuelson in the NobelPrize.org, telling his story of more than 90 years. I humbly also would like to record my own one here.

 

I was trained as an economist at Chiang Mai School of Economics (Thailand) during 2001 – 2005. Economics was my first choice (actually the only one) when I was apply for the higher education in Thailand. Initially I was always aiming to study engineering but my performance in Physics was not so well.  Despite the fact that I might still try to go for it. When my guidance teacher told us to think about what would we like to be. Then go for the subject (faculty) that will make you so. I imagined myself as an engineer doing work with construction. That the first time I realised that I don’t want to be an engineer. It was a trend that a boy who doing well in Math should go to the engineering school. And that was not my way.

to be continued …

My Course Wish List at CMSE next year


Here is the list  of courses I wish to teach next year at Chiang Mai School of Economics, not so sure about the demand there!

Undergraduate (B.Econ.)

Curriculum (pdf) 

  1. ECON 304: Economics Statistics  with an applications in R)
  2. ECON 415: Efficiencies and Productivity Measurement of Industries (Focus on Supply Chain Performance Measurement)
  3. ECON 320: International Business Economics (Focus on Supply Chain Economics for AEC analysis)

or

  • ECON 444: Urban Economics  (Focus on City Logistics in Chiang Mai and other Lanna provinces)
  • ECON 442: Regional Economics (Focus on AEC and GMS)
  • ECON 417: Managerial Economics (Focus on Logistics and Supply Chain Economics)
  • ECON 345: Transportation Economics
  • ECON 408: Research Design in Economics
  • ECON 419: Economic Theory and Entrepreneurship
  • ECON 443: Industrial Economics
  • ECON 4xx: Introduction to Economics of Logistics and Supply Chains (Pre: ECON 301 and Intro. to Business 703103)
  • ECON 4xx: Introduction to Structural Equation Modeling for Economics (Pre: ECON 304) (with R)

Postgraduate

Master (M.Econ.)

  1. ECON 729: Applied Logistics and Supply Chain Economics (Selected Topic in Economic Theory)
  2. ECON 719: Applied  Structural Equation Modeling in Economics (Selected Topics in Quantitative Economics) (with R)

PhD

  1. ECON 829: Advanced Logistics and Supply Chain Economics (Selected Topic in General Economic & Theory)
  2. ECON 819: Advanced  Structural Equation Modeling in Economics (Selected Topics in Advanced Econometrics) (with R)

Blogs on Supply Chain Management and Economics


Here is the list of good academic blogs on Supply Chain Management (SCM) and Economics I found worth following. Please do not hesitate to suggest me if you know other good one.

And of course, you can follow my blogs on SCM as well, just by subscribing via WordPress, Facebook Page, or Twitter. (See the bottom of the website. 

  1. Supply Chain View from the Field
    by Robert Handfield
    A blog by a well-known SCM academic, all SCM students should recognise his name
    “Producing graduates that are prepared to tackle supply chain management issues with analytical problem solving, practical skills and the ability to execute.”Rob Handfield is the Bank of America Distinguished Professor of Supply Chain Management, and Consulting Editor, Journal of Operations Management. He serves as Co-Director of the SCRC along with Clyde Crider.
  2. The Operations Room
    by Marty Lariviere, Gad Allon and Jan Van Mieghem
    Kellog School of Management
    “The Operations Room is a forum for discussing current topics in operations management (OM). We have no particular agenda but are looking to identify interesting strategic and tactical developments in the field. Along the way, we aim to create a catalog of articles on OM topics that is useful to both the Kellogg community and a wider set of readers.”
  3. Managerial Econ
    by Luke Froeb, Michael Ward, Brian McCann and Mike Shor
    About Economic Analysis of Business Practice, ranked as one of the top blogs by professors
  4. Organizations and Markets
    by  Nicolai J. Foss, Peter G. Klein, Richard Langlois, Lasse B. Lien
    Organizations and Markets was created in April 2006 by Nicolai J. Foss and Peter G. Klein, professors with research interests spanning organizational economics, strategic management, entrepreneurship, innovation, the economics of institutions, and the history, philosophy, and sociology of science. Foss teaches management at the Copenhagen Business School and Klein teaches economics at the University of Missouri, giving the blog an international and interdisciplinary orientation.”
  5. Greg Mankiw’s Blog
    The author of a comprehensive and popular Economics Textbooks, also good job on blogging mostly with not too long posts. Providing general curent news on Economics, recommended for Economics students.

However, there are many professional blogs as well. Some have listed good SCM blog as follows.