Untitled Document

BACKGROUND
In accordance with the initial project design, an intensive Monthly Survey was initiated in August l998 in a subset of villages from the original sampling frame. In total there are 16 villages, four villages in each of the four original changwats. Specifically, one tambon per changwat was chosen from the 12 possibilities of the initial 1997 cross section. That tambon displayed relatively little variation in the collected environmental variables across the four villages, thus allowing us to control in a sense for the environmental variation across villages, and relatively much variation across the four villages in the collected economic institutional variables: informal networks, local village institutions, and/or use of national level institutions. Again this selection was consistent with a primary goal of the overall project: a micro-level evaluation of family networks, markets and formal institutions in credit and insurance. As the selected tambon in each changwat was also surveyed in the initial 1997 cross section 15 of the households in each of the four villages had been interviewed previously, and soil samples taken. We added a target of 30 additional households, so that the total would be 45 per village. Thus the overall target is 720 households.

This monthly survey began an initial village-wide census. Every structure and every household was enumerated and one individual per residential structure was interviewed concerning individuals who sleep or eat in that structure. Thus all individuals, households, and residential structures in each of the 16 villages can be identified in subsequent, monthly responses.

The monthly survey itself began in August with a baseline interview on initial conditions of sampled households. These answers trigger various forms which gather more specific information on the use of contracts and informal institutions, for example. Rosters provide an enumeration or list of items to be tracked in subsequent monthly interviews, and the monthly interviews themselves track inputs, outputs, and changing conditions. As activities of a household may change new forms are occasionally administered.

Environmental data are gathered courtesy of grants from the Melon foundation and the University of Chicago. There is one rain gauge per village and 20 soil moisture/stress meters per village. In addition, in the first 12 months there was water chemistry analysis. Other water measurements have continued. The soil samples with plot photos and soil questionnaire for each of the 45 households was mentioned earlier. Thus the environmental measurements include soil analysis, plot photos, daily rainfall, soil moisture, water chemistry, and other bi-weekly water measurements. This ongoing data collection includes at present 36 months of data collection.

Monthly Household Panel:
Each of the 4-village clusters is assigned to a local team consisting of 12 enumerators, one field supervisor, one filed editor, and one soil/environmental person. Much of the team consists of people hired from the local area, and they commute to work each day. The rest of the team, including those from the Bangkok office, reside in the local office. Every interviewer speaks the language of the households to which they are assigned - Thai, Lao, Kemer, or Sui. Common meals are eaten at the district office and the first round of data entry takes place there. There are periodic and occasionally random visits from the Bangkok staff, including the project director. Questionnaires, data disks, and environmental samples and measurements are sent to Bangkok, and about 10% of recently completed interviewees are checked with random reinterviews of the surveyed households.

Data are double blind entered into an ACCESS database that has dual Thai and English language capabilities. The enumerators themselves enter the data of another distinct enumerator. All data entry is supervised and checked by the field supervisor and team leader. In Bangkok data entry takes place on 10 PC's connected to a LAN system, with a separate data entry staff. Thai language answers are entered but also translated into English and entered into a separate database.

Census:
A team of enumerators in cooperation with the headman and local officials sketched a map of the village and its structures. Then individual enumerators wetn to each struture to identify its use. For residential structures, the census was administed to the head or head's spouse. Answers were cross checked by the team leader and field supervisor in the field, with reinterviews and clarifications when necessary. Data are entered into an ACCESS database at the local office of the project, and then reentered in Bangkok. The orginal Thai script is entered and English translations are done afterward. Double blind entry and subsequent checks for inconsistency remove virtually all data entry errors.