The financial sector is a key driver of economic development, shaping how businesses invest and innovate and how households smooth consumption and manage risk. In Thailand, these functions have become increasingly critical amid deteriorating household financial well-being and rising vulnerability, and the urgent need for structural transformation and stronger competitiveness. Gaps between financial needs and available services have forced many households and businesses toward costly informal finance.

Yet making the formal financial system work better for the Thai economy remains difficult, as widespread informality creates information asymmetries that limit effective intermediation. More research is needed on how financial systems can become more inclusive, raise firm productivity and household welfare, and maintain overall resilience.

1. Evidence of how financial frictions, information, risk or market structure lead to credit rationing or capital (mis) allocation for firms and households.
2. Innovative approach to measuring the prevalence of semi-formal and informal lending among Thai households and SMEs, and factors driving reliance on these sources.
3. Innovative approach for designing financial systems that better serve underbanked and unbanked firms and households.