In the human and economic development context, this study examines the relationship between human capital, life expectancy, labor force participation rate, and education level in Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand. The World Bank’s 2001–2021 data are examined using a panel vector autoregressive model. The findings demonstrate the substantial influence of health expenditure from the prior period on present health expenditure. Though not significantly different, life expectancy and education levels from earlier periods also impact present health spending. A slight positive correlation exists between prior labor force involvement and present healthcare costs. An increase in current health expenditure supports an increase in life expectancy. Health expenditure in the previous period had a significant positive effect on education, although insignificant. Life expectancy in the previous period harms current education but is also insignificant. Education in the previous period significantly positively affects current education, indicating a sustained impact of education investment. Labor force participation in the previous period also positively affected education, although not significantly. The prior period’s health spending, life expectancy, and educational attainment impact the current labor force participation rate. The length of life has a significant favorable impact on entering the labor sector. Currently being in the job field has a good correlation with prior education as well. These findings support that higher education levels lead to higher labor force participation rates. Life expectancy, health care costs, education level, and prior work experience all influence current life expectancy. While prior life expectancy significantly influences current life expectancy, health expenditures have a negligible negative impact. Prior education positively impacts life expectancy but negatively impacts prior labor force engagement. These results reject the hypothesis that increasing life expectancy causes current health expenditure to increase.

The impact of crude oil price fluctuations on the real effective exchange rate (REER) has been widely debated, but specific evidence, particularly for developing countries in Southeast Asia, is scarce and inconclusive. This issue, especially concerning both short- and long-term relationships, remains inadequately addressed, affecting these countries for risk management related to oil price fluctuations. This study aims to fill this gap by examining these relationships in Thailand context to provide more evidence on how the REER in Southeast Asia responds to changes in crude oil prices. Monthly data of crude oil prices in Dubai market and the Thai baht REER from 2000 to 2019 were employed. Johansen co-integration test and Vector Error Correction Model (VECM) were used for analyzing long-term and short-term relationships, respectively. The results indicate a significant negative long-term relationship between crude oil prices and the REER, with a 0.31% reduction in the REER for every 1% increase in the real price of oil. However, in the short term, VECM analysis reveals significant movements in the REER in response to external shocks. On average from 2000–2019, the significant fluctuations in the REER are quickly alleviated and adjusted to its long-run equilibrium, typically by 2% in the following month following external shocks such as crude oil price fluctuations. Given these findings, which highlight the long-term relationship between the REER and crude oil prices and its short-term adjustment, it is suggested that when there is a shock from the crude oil prices, the government can strengthen short-term oil price controls or monetary subsidies to mitigate the extensive repercussions of energy market fluctuations, as such interventions would have a lesser impact on the long-term equilibrium of the REER.

The nighttime economy has always been an important part of tourism in Thailand. The alcohol industry contends that lifting alcohol restrictions will promote tourism and, consequently, generate additional income. Endogenous Growth Theory, however, emphasizes on investing in human capital, innovation, and knowledge as the most important factors that affect economic growth for a nation. Alcohol consumption incurs opportunity costs, as households lose financial resources and time that could be invested in children’s development. Relaxing control measures to promote alcohol consumption should impede economic development by diminishing the quality of human resources. The paper, therefore, aims to estimate the impact of alcohol consumption on economic growth by using 1990–2019 annual data from Thailand. By adopting Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) approach, the results reveal that alcohol consumption has significant and negative effects on economic growth in the long run. The statistic tests demonstrate no presence of serial correlation, heteroskedasticity, as well as, endogeneity problems. The finding has been corroborated in international studies, in which alcohol consumption contributes to substantial social and economic costs of the society.

The spread of the coronavirus disease in 2019 (COVID-19) in Thailand has led to a lack of liquidity and income for entrepreneurs, increasing the variety of distribution channels compared to store sales. This will be a solution for businesses struggling and creating value to raise the income levels of community enterprises in Thailand. This was an integrated and participatory action research using qualitative techniques through observation, interviews, recordings, analysis, and interpretation of the operational characteristics of community enterprises from field visits for consultation. This study aimed to examine the problems and obstacles of online selling by community enterprise entrepreneurs and to find guidelines for advising lead entrepreneurs in the Digital Market. These 25 community enterprise entrepreneurs produced community herbal products in Thailand. The research findings were analyzed using grounded theory according to the research objectives. From the research results, it is possible to summarize the problems and obstacles faced by entrepreneurs in selling products online among community enterprise entrepreneurs owing to the lack of knowledgeable administrators and the decline in demand for products affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Furthermore, barriers to laws, regulations requirements related to cannabis products included legal controls only for cultivation and the production process until the product was sold, and production capacity could not be produced to meet the demand when there was a large volume of orders. Solutions were as follows: increasing skills and knowledge for entrepreneurs, especially in the potential; finding a way to pass on the business to the new generation to continue the business; using strategies to create cooperation with other enterprise networks and government agencies; creating online selling channels through various platforms; increasing funding to develop production processes; and using technology to create competitive advantages and marketing planning and delivery to make online sales an essential channel.

This research examines intangible assets or intellectual capital (IC) performance of tourism-related industries in an underexplored area which is a tourism intensively-dependent country. In this study, VAIC which is a monetary valuation method and also the most widely applied measurement method, is utilized as the performance measurement method for quantifying IC performance to monetary values. Moreover, to better understand performance, the standard efficiency levels are further applied for classifying the performance levels of tourism industries. The sample sizes of study are 20 companies operating in the tourism-related industries in the world top travel destination or Thailand, and the companies’ data are collected from 2012 to 2021. Therefore, finally, there are 187 firm-year observations. The utilization of VAIC could assess IC performance of tourism firms and industries, and the standard efficiency levels further support the uniform interpretation of IC efficiency levels. The obtained results show the strong performance of both human and structural capital of the focused tourism dependent country especially in the logistics industry that directly supports and connects to the tourism attractions. Moreover, the finding also highlights the significance of human capital which plays as a major contributor for overall IC performance in this tourism dependent economy. This study contributes the new exploration of IC in the high impact industries and also specifically in the top significant tourism country. Moreover, the application of VAIC also confirms a practical application for management. The limited number of studied countries is a limitation of study. However, these new obtained data and information could be further applied for making comparisons or in-depth or statistical analysis in the future works.

This study explores the determinants of political participation among Thai youth, focusing on the roles of political interest, knowledge, and efficacy. Employing stratified random sampling, data were collected from 191 university students in Bangkok. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) via Smart PLS was utilized to test hypotheses regarding the direct and mediating effects of political interest and knowledge on participation, highlighting the mediating role of political efficacy. The findings indicate that political efficacy significantly enhances participation, while political interest boosts knowledge significantly but does not directly influence efficacy. Furthermore, political knowledge positively affects efficacy but not participation directly. Notably, the indirect effects of political interest on participation through efficacy alone are insignificant, but the pathways from interest to participation through both knowledge and efficacy, and from knowledge to participation through efficacy, are significant. These results elucidate the complex interactions between political interest, knowledge, and efficacy in shaping the political engagement of Thai youth.