Funded by the National Science Foundation, this interdisciplinary study analyzes the dynamics of economies in Thailand and Cambodia experiencing dramatic social and environmental changes in the context of ongoing globalization.  Environmental, social, cultural, and historical variation and how they may interact with economic factors to cause social inequality and differences in income growth are examined.  The research team includes anthropologist Alan L. Kolata and economist Robert M. Townsend, both of the University of Chicago, and environmental geographer/landscape ecologist Michael W. Binford of the University of Florida.

Preliminary findings show that there has been much more forest clearing in Cambodia than has been reported by authorities, and, in Thailand, that there is more inequality in incomes across villages in regions that are relatively less developed, though this pattern has lessened over time as national markets have developed and the wage rate for unskilled labor has increased.