Ammar Siamwalla ( th, อัมมาร์ สยามวาลา; ) is one of

Thailand Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is bo ...

's most prominent

economist An economist is a professional and practitioner in the social sciences, social science discipline of economics. The individual may also study, develop, and apply theories and concepts from economics and write about economic policy. Within this ...

Education

Siamwalla attended St. Paul's School, Darjeeling in India, and went on to receive a B.Sc. in

economics Economics () is the social science that studies the Production (economics), production, distribution (economics), distribution, and Consumption (economics), consumption of goods and services. Economics focuses on the behaviour and intera ...

from the

London School of Economics , mottoeng = To understand the causes of things , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £240.8 million (2021) , budget = £391.1 millio ...

and a PhD in economics from

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

. His teachers at Harvard included

Alexander Gerschenkron Alexander Gerschenkron (russian: Александр Гершенкрон; 1 October 1904 – 26 October 1978) was a Russian-born American economic historian and professor at Harvard University, trained in the Austrian School of economics. Born i ...

Wassily Leontief Wassily Wassilyevich Leontief (russian: Васи́лий Васи́льевич Лео́нтьев; August 5, 1905 – February 5, 1999), was a Soviet-American economist known for his research on input–output analysis and how changes in one ec ...

and

Edward Chamberlin Edward Hastings Chamberlin (May 18, 1899 – July 16, 1967) was an American economist. He was born in La Conner, Washington, and died in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Chamberlin studied first at the University of Iowa (where he was influenced by Fr ...

Career

He began his career as an assistant professor and research staff economist at the Department of Economics,

Yale University Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...

before moving to the Faculty of Economics of

Thammasat University Thammasat University (Abbreviation, Abrv: TU th, มธ.; th, มหาวิทยาลัยธรรมศาสตร์, , ) is a public research university in Thailand with campuses in Tha Phra Chan area of Phra Nakhon District near the ...

as a Rockefeller scholar at the advice of

Puey Ungpakorn Puey Ungphakorn, MBE ( th, ป๋วย อึ๊งภากรณ์; ; IPA:; ; 9 March 1916 – 28 July 1999), was a Thai economist who served as Governor of the Bank of Thailand and Rector of Thammasat University. He was the author of ''Fr ...

who was then dean of faculty. Like Puey and other scholars, Siamwalla left Thammasat after the 1976 student massacre. He was a visiting professor at the Food Research Institute of

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

as well as a research fellow with the

International Food Policy Research Institute The International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) is an international agricultural research center founded in the early 1970s to improve the understanding of national agricultural and food policies to promote the adoption of innovations ...

in Washington, D.C. He has been active at the Thailand Development Research Institute (TDRI) as a program director for agriculture and rural development, and as president of TDRI in 1990-1995. Siamwalla is an expert in Thai rice, Thai agricultural economics, and

development economics Development economics is a branch of economics which deals with economic aspects of the development process in low- and middle- income countries. Its focus is not only on methods of promoting economic development, economic growth and structural ...

. As one of the first Thai trained in

neoclassical economics Neoclassical economics is an approach to economics in which the production, consumption and valuation (pricing) of goods and services are observed as driven by the supply and demand model. According to this line of thought, the value of a good ...

, he has contributed considerably in the development of the modern economic discipline in Thailand. Currently, he holds a post as a distinguished scholar of Thailand Development Research Institute. He is still active in the economic debates and periodically gives commentaries to the public.

References

External links

CV on the Thailand Development Research Institute websiteWho's Who Thailand page for Ammar Siamwalla
{{DEFAULTSORT:Siamwalla, Ammar Ammar Siamwalla Alumni of the London School of Economics Harvard University alumni Living people St. Paul's School, Darjeeling alumni Ammar Siamwalla Ammar Siamwalla 1939 births Ammar Siamwalla Ammar Siamwalla Ammar Siamwalla