Deep in the field
In 1993, Robert Townsend was an accomplished economist looking for a new project in his area of expertise, household finance. So he did something that few people would have recommended: Townsend spent months driving around northern Thailand in a borrowed van, surveying rural villagers about their incomes and expenses. In due course, Townsend ran into a government researcher, Khun Sombat Sakunthasathien, who was traversing the same territory on a motorcycle, trying to set up small-scale community savings programs — partly as a way of keeping villagers from growing poppies, which fuel the drug trade. Townsend and Khun Sombat compared notes, discussed their data, and stayed in touch. Four years later, in 1997, they launched a unique program: the Thai Family Research Project, a series of annual and monthly surveys that have generated rich data about household finance in the developing world. Helped by about 200 researchers, the survey has created...