The Impact of National Institutions on Economic Development in Satun (Thailand) and Perlis (Malaysia)

Abstract

It is widely recognized that a variety of formal and informal institutionscould be explanatory variables for patterns in economic activity and economicperformances, but there seems to be two analytical gaps with currentinstitutional studies. Firstly, not much attention has been paid to the (potential)interaction of various spatial levels of scale. Secondly, few studies concerningregional institutions deal with countries with a medium or low level ofdevelopment. The aim of this article is to analyze the impact of nationalinstitutions on regional arrangements between the private and the publicsector. In addition, an attempt is made to include politics in the analysis.A comparison is carried out of the province of Satun in Southern Thailandand the state of Perlis in Northern Malaysia, two peripheral regions withintheir respective national space economies.