โครงการวิเคราะห์ความเพียงพอเพื่อการดำรงชีพของผู้สูงอายุในชุมชน

Adequacy of retirement savings is imperative since Thailand has recently become an
aging society. The issue is especially critical for households in the rural area that do not have
access to formal social security and pension programs. This project investigates the household
saving behavior of the community in Trat province, Sajja Sasom Sap Saving network (under Phra
Subin Paneeto). The main objective of the study is to examine whether the savings are adequate
and sustainable. The project consists of three related studies: the first investigates whether the
household savings deviate from those of theoretical level; the second examines whether the
community welfare system (village welfare fund) is sustainable in the long run; and the last
evaluates the impact of two saving interventions, financial education and incentive. Based on
the household survey, the study finds saving shortfalls for most of households compared to the
optimal levels estimated from the life-cycle model. It also documents positive relations
between the head of household education and savings. Using the concept of the financial
imbalance, the results indicate that about half of the sample of village welfare funds may not
be sustainable over the long run. Finally, the impacts of the two saving interventions are
evaluated by the randomized control trials (RCTs 2×2). The results show that providing financial
education may help increase household savings, while there is no discernable effect of providing
small cash incentive. Nevertheless, the constraint of project duration may obscure the real effect
of the interventions and its sustainability. A follow-up impact evaluation as well as an in-depth
interview with households will be useful for policy recommendations. Finally, it would be
interesting for a future study to investigate broader aspects of the aging welfare other than
savings.
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