Economic development follows from good economic policies. In turn, good economic policymaking is grounded on sound and comprehensive economic research. For Thailand, a major obstacle to building such a policy-relevant knowledge base is the lack of a “common space” for academics and researchers. Research output has therefore been dispersed across institutions and not disseminated in accessible form to policymakers and the wider public.

The Bank of Thailand (BOT) sees the value of policy based on sound research. To this end, the BOT has founded the Puey Ungphakorn Institute For Economic Research (PIER) to foster economic research, provide a centralized platform for disseminating high-quality research, and connect researchers with necessary resources. PIER is a quasi-independent institution governed by a board composed of senior BOT officials and distinguished external members.

PIER will serve as a repository of knowledge obtained from rigorous peer-reviewed research. In addition, PIER will advance economic policy making based on accessible, high-quality, and independent research under the guiding philosophy of “Fostering research. Informing policy.”

PIER’s mission is to produce, coordinate, and maximize the impact of research as follows:

• Produce in-depth research and support BOT’s conduct of policy in the areas of monetary, financial system, and the macro-economy.
• Coordinate research and foster academic collaboration by strengthening research networks and pooling resources such as knowledge, data, seminars, and research funding together.
• Disseminate research and synthesize key findings to the general public to raise the prominence of research among policymakers and society at large.