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This is the last of five country case studies on income inequality, and looks at the case of Thailand. Following on from a number of other studies, the study attempts to re‐examine the relationships between economic growth, structural change, and income inequality in Thailand. After an introduction, the second section, Economic Growth and Structural Change, provides a broad picture of the Thai economy, and the third, Trends in Income Inequality, reviews studies on the changes in income inequality from the 1960s through to the beginning of the 1990s. The fourth section, Factors Related to Income Distribution, examines industrialization planning, industrial protection policies, regional income disparities, and the minimum wage bill over the past four decades. The fifth section, Analysis of Income Inequality in 1988, 1992, and 1996, presents an analysis income inequality in those years according to the subgroups and source decompositions of income; the final section summarizes.

This chapter focuses on domestic abuse. The recognition that poverty is a factor in domestic abuse and is linked to men's perceptions of the breadwinner role suggests how vital it is to understand and engage with social constructions of masculinity. Overall, given the extensive evidence that has emerged of the focus by child welfare and protection systems on deprived populations, the levels of domestic abuse that are commonly to be found in families subject to child protection processes are to be expected and add fuel to the concerns about the invisibility of poverty in contemporary child protection policies and practices. Moreover, a range of system interventions can either trap women in abusive relationships or be a driver of their vulnerability to poverty post separation. This reinforces the need to critically interrogate the implications of system interactions including child protection systems.

In a world with volatile food prices, countries have an incentive to shelter their populations from the induced real income shocks. When some agents are net food producers while others are net consumers, there is scope for insurance between the two groups. A domestic social protection scheme could transfer resources away from the former group to the latter in times of high food prices, and do the reverse otherwise. We show that in the presence of consumer preference heterogeneity, implementing the optimal social protection policy can potentially induce higher food price volatility. Such a policy indeed generates a counter-cyclical demand shock that amplifies the effects of the underlying food shortage.

This chapter presents an actual description of residential child protection in Finland. The material is interpreted on the basis of culture and child protection policy. In Finland, practitioners from different fields are involved in residential child protection work: health care professionals, youth workers and social work professionals. Residential child protection facilities in Finland receive children of all ages. Such residential facilities are described. There are many children and young people in residential care, and one should assume responsibility for them despite the fact that they are not necessarily seen.

This chapter talks about the recent social-protection policies for young people in Europe. It notes that the provision of economic support for young people depends on the boundary of responsibility between state and the family, which is of course strongly influenced by recent adaptations of welfare systems in general. The chapter demonstrates that youth policies are based on different constructions of youth as a category, which becomes manifest among other things in different age divisions for different policy measures. Next, it shows a detailed overview of state provisions for young people across Europe, covering minimum wages, social assistance, unemployment, housing and child benefits, and the funding of post-compulsory school-age education. Lastly, the chapter provides an overview of expectations of parental support across Europe.

This chapter examines what the capability approach can contribute to child protection policy and practice in England as an alternative conceptual framework for social work that challenges the dominance of neoliberal ideology in ways consistent with the promotion of human rights and social justice. After providing an overview of the historical and political contexts of child protection policy in England, the chapter considers the ways poverty and parenting are constructed in the dominant discourses as well as the policies and practices that have developed within this context. It also analyses the impact of interventions on parents and argues that contemporary child protection policy and practice in England is based on a narrow approach to child and family welfare and the role of social work. It concludes with recommendations for policy and practice that aims to promote greater social justice.

Human beings in the twenty-first century are facing major pressure to manage a rapidly expanding repertoire of health risks and are experiencing various major transitions. To protect health effectively, practitioners and workers in health protection, regardless of being health- or non-health-based, must learn about terminology, acquire knowledge and skills, and understand the frontiers of other disciplines that may facilitate their efforts in improving health. Due to the dynamic changes that influence modern living, the scope and nature of health protection will only become more complex. Mutual learning and collaboration among disciplines and sectors will be essential to enable formulation of effective cross-disciplinary policies and actions to protect health and well-being. Beside the major health protection themes of emergency and disaster preparedness, climate changes, infectious disease control, environmental risks, and issues of sustainability and planetary health, dynamics and transitions that may contribute to major changes in health profile and risks deserve careful monitoring and public health policy reconsideration.

This chapter demonstrates that elite and middle-class reformers are the main characters in regulatory welfare's origin story. Across political and institutional contexts as varied as absolutist Prussia, July Monarchy France, Imperial Germany, and Progressive era Illinois, upper- and middle-class policy entrepreneurs played a pivotal role in shaping worker protection policy outcomes. The chapter discusses the policy entrepreneurs that took the initative and the laws enacted that reflected their ideas and priorities. The chapter explores how the middle-class reformers' influence was shared with, or even eclipsed by, a mobilized and institutionally empowered working class. At other times, such as 1830s–1940s Massachusetts, reformers' individual impact is difficult to distinguish from a more diffuse cultural consensus.

With the dramatic growth of foreign investment laws in the past few decades, there is an increasing concern over investment arbitration, including that it has reduced the scope for state regulation. This is contrasted with the WTO Appellate Body, which has received wide support and trust as an efficient and legitimate state–state dispute settlement forum. With this background, this article examines the reasons behind the difference in these systems of law and proposes that, despite various differences between the WTO dispute settlement system and investment arbitration, there are certain contexts where WTO jurisprudence may provide helpful guidance with investment arbitration in addressing the issue of balance between investment protection and public interests. As one such ‘context’, this article focuses on the approach of the WTO Appellate Body in the application of general exception clauses and its implications on the interpretation of investment protection obligations by investment arbitration tribunals.

This chapter analyzes the challenges of trying to incorporate principles of behavioral economics into FTC consumer protection policy. Whether such attempts might lead to poor market outcomes for consumers often depends upon context, and thus the potential implications of behavioral economics may be more constrained than much of the current behavioral law-and-economics dialogue suggests.

This chapter explores the formulation of disaster protection policies. This is in part due to the tendency to build houses in floodplains and coastal hazard areas. In Hawaiʻi, the flood hazard is both riverine and coastal. Heavy rainfall causes riverine flooding, resulting in the temporary rise of the water level of natural watercourses. In contrast, coastal flooding occurs when unusual surf conditions or tsunamis generate waves that inundate shoreline areas. The chapter’s brief sketch of the hazards of flooding helps to justify floodplain zoning. Nevertheless, the theoretical public purpose behind the local regulation of flood-prone lands is well established. This is particularly critical since the Flood Disaster Protection Act (FDPA) and its predecessors require nothing until a community chooses to become part of a federal program.