| This dissertation empirically evaluates whether financial intermediation facilitates inter-regional risk-sharing. It utilizes two data sets from Thailand. One data set, the Socioeconomic Survey, has detailed data on income and expenditures at the household level. The other, the Community Development Department, has data on credit usage for production purposes at the village level. Two testable implications are derived. The first is based on a full-insurance model, while the second is based on a growth model with explicit intermediated sector. Testing the first specification, I found that credits from Bank for Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives (BAAC), Commercial banks, and Suppliers are beneficial to inter-regional risk-sharing. Only the results of BAAC and Suppliers are statistically significant. For the second testable implication, all intermediaries, with the exception of Saving for production groups, are beneficial. However, only the results of Suppliers are statistically significant. |
