FINANCIAL SYSTEMS IN NORTHERN THAI VILLAGES

Field research attempted to measure the risky environments, the inform ation structures, the institutions, and the risk-response mechanisms o f ten villages in northern Thailand. Various key features are then mod eled in an abstract but realistic way, either with a full-information risk-sharing model or an information-constrained version of the same m odel. Observations from some of the villages seem consistent with one or the other of these models, but in many of the villages one is left with risk-response variations across households which suggest that Par eto improvements are possible.