Papers by Kanyarat Holasut
Concern about income inequality has become prominent in public discourse around the world. Howeve... more Concern about income inequality has become prominent in public discourse around the world. However, studies in behavioral economics and psychology have consistently shown that people prefer not equal but fair income distributions. Thus, finding a benchmark that could be used to measure fair income distribution across countries is a theoretical and practical challenge. Here a method for benchmarking fair income distribution is introduced. The benchmark is constructed based on the concepts of procedural justice, distributive justice, and authority's power in professional sports where it is widely agreed as an international norm that the allocations of athlete's salary are outcomes of fair rules, individual and/or team performance, and luck in line with no-envy principle of fair allocation. Using the World Bank data, this study demonstrates how the benchmark could be used to quantitatively gauge whether, for a given value of the Gini index, the income shares by quintile of a country are the fair shares or not, and if not, what fair income shares by quintile of that country should be. Knowing this could be useful for those involved in setting targets for the Gini index and the fair income shares that are appropriate for the context of each country before formulating policies towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goal 10 and other related SDGs.
RePEc: Research Papers in Economics, Sep 12, 2016
The pursuit of having an appropriate level of income inequality should be viewed as one of the bi... more The pursuit of having an appropriate level of income inequality should be viewed as one of the biggest challenges facing academic scholars as well as policy makers. Unfortunately, research on this issue is currently lacking. This study is the first to introduce the theoretical concept of targeted level of income inequality for a given size of population. By employing the World Bank's data on population size and Gini coefficient from sixty-nine countries in 2012, this study finds that the relationship between Gini coefficient and natural logarithm of population size is nonlinear in the form of a second degree polynomial function. The estimated results using regression analysis show that the majority of countries in the sample have Gini coefficients either too high or too low compared to their appropriate values. These findings could be used as a guideline for policy makers before designing and implementing public policies in order to achieve the targeted level of income inequality.
PloS one, Apr 4, 2024
Given a vast concern about high income inequality in Thailand as opposed to empirical findings ar... more Given a vast concern about high income inequality in Thailand as opposed to empirical findings around the world showing people's preference for fair income inequality over unfair income equality, it is therefore important to examine whether inequality in income distribution in Thailand over the past three decades is fair, and what fair inequality in income distribution in Thailand should be. To quantitatively measure fair income distribution, this study employs the fairness benchmarks that are derived from the distributions of athletes' salaries in professional sports which satisfy the concepts of distributive justice and procedural justice, the no-envy principle of fair allocation, and the general consensus or the international norm criterion of a meaningful benchmark. By using the data on quintile income shares and the income Gini index of Thailand from the National Social and Economic Development Council, this study finds that, throughout the period from 1988 to 2021, the Thai income earners in the bottom 20%, the second 20%, and the top 20% receive income shares more than the fair shares whereas those in the third 20% and the fourth 20% receive income shares less than the fair shares. Provided that there are infinite combinations of quintile income shares that can have the same value of income Gini index but only one of them is regarded as fair, this study demonstrates the use of fairness benchmarks as a practical guideline for designing policies with an aim to achieve fair income distribution in Thailand. Moreover, a comparative analysis is conducted by employing the method for estimating optimal (fair) income distribution representing feasible income equality in order to provide an alternative recommendation on what optimal (fair) income distribution characterizing feasible income equality in Thailand should be.
arXiv (Cornell University), 2022
The pursuit of having an appropriate level of income inequality should be viewed as one of the bi... more The pursuit of having an appropriate level of income inequality should be viewed as one of the biggest challenges facing academic scholars as well as policy makers. Unfortunately, research on this issue is currently lacking. This study is the first to introduce the theoretical concept of targeted level of income inequality for a given size of population. By employing the World Bank's data on population size and Gini coefficient from sixty-nine countries in 2012, this study finds that the relationship between Gini coefficient and natural logarithm of population size is nonlinear in the form of a second degree polynomial function. The estimated results using regression analysis show that the majority of countries in the sample have Gini coefficients either too high or too low compared to their appropriate values. These findings could be used as a guideline for policy makers before designing and implementing public policies in order to achieve the targeted level of income inequality.
Heliyon, Sep 1, 2022
Concern about income inequality has become prominent in public discourse around the world. Howeve... more Concern about income inequality has become prominent in public discourse around the world. However, studies in behavioral economics and psychology have consistently shown that people prefer not equal but fair income distributions. Thus, finding a benchmark that could be used to measure fair income distribution across countries is a theoretical and practical challenge. Here a method for benchmarking fair income distribution is introduced. The benchmark is constructed based on the concepts of procedural justice, distributive justice, and authority's power in professional sports where it is widely agreed as an international norm that the allocations of athlete's salary are outcomes of fair rules, individual and/or team performance, and luck in line with no-envy principle of fair allocation. Using the World Bank data, this study demonstrates how the benchmark could be used to quantitatively gauge whether, for a given value of the Gini index, the income shares by quintile of a country are the fair shares or not, and if not, what fair income shares by quintile of that country should be. Knowing this could be useful for those involved in setting targets for the Gini index and the fair income shares that are appropriate for the context of each country before formulating policies towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goal 10 and other related SDGs.
Prospects of Carbon Based Micro-Fluid Electrolyte for the Vanadium Redox Flow Battery (VRB)
Advanced Materials Research, May 1, 2014
The effects of carbon black particle dispersed in the electrolyte and used in a modified VRB whic... more The effects of carbon black particle dispersed in the electrolyte and used in a modified VRB which was traditionally used of carbon felt as electrode has been removed were studied. The adding of the carbon black particle reduced both activation overpotential and ohmic overpotential especially at low OCV. The functional group on the surface of the carbon black particle helps to increase the rate of reaction which results in the reduction of activation overpotential. When the electrolyte with the carbon black particle dispersed flows into the cell, it is possible that some of carbon particles settle on the surface of current collectors and this effectively increases the surface area of current collectors. Hence, it reduces the ohmic overpotential.
PLOS ONE
Given that an excellent performance of any parametric functional form for the Lorenz curve that i... more Given that an excellent performance of any parametric functional form for the Lorenz curve that is based on a single country case study and a limited range of distribution must be treated with great caution, this study investigates the performance of a single-parameter functional form proposed by Paul and Shankar (2020) who use income data of Australia to show that their functional form is superior to the other existing widely used functional forms considered in their study. By using both mathematical proof and empirical data of 40 countries around the world, this study demonstrates that Paul and Shankar (2020)’s functional form not only fails to fit the actual observations well but also is generally outperformed by the other popular functional forms considered in their study. Moreover, to overcome the limitation of the performance of a single-parameter functional form on the criterion of the estimated Gini index, this study employs a functional form that has more than one parameter...
A simple method for joint evaluation of skill in directional forecasts of multiple variables
Heliyon
Scientific Reports
Given that the existing parametric functional forms for the Lorenz curve do not fit all possible ... more Given that the existing parametric functional forms for the Lorenz curve do not fit all possible size distributions, a universal parametric functional form is introduced. By using the empirical data from different scientific disciplines and also the hypothetical data, this study shows that, the proposed model fits not only the data whose actual Lorenz plots have a typical convex segment but also the data whose actual Lorenz plots have both horizontal and convex segments practically well. It also perfectly fits the data whose observation is larger in size while the rest of observations are smaller and equal in size as characterized by two positive-slope linear segments. In addition, the proposed model has a closed-form expression for the Gini index, making it computationally convenient to calculate. Considering that the Lorenz curve and the Gini index are widely used in various disciplines of sciences, the proposed model and the closed-form expression for the Gini index could be used...
This research is a study of microbial fuel cells produce electricity from plants using Cyperus in... more This research is a study of microbial fuel cells produce electricity from plants using Cyperus involucratus R. called Plant Microbial Fuel Cell (PMFC). As a result of the polarization curve, by adjusting the external resistance between 10 to 12,000 ohms, it was found that the internal resistance of PMFC 1 , PMFC 2 , MFC 1 and MFC 2 was 9.78, 11.06, 9.47 and 11.92 ohms respectively. The results showed that the optimum size of the anode electrode is 242 square centimeters and adding soil by using the external resistance 100 ohms. The highest average power density equaled to 5.99 milliwatts per square meter of the anode electrode. Finally the wastewater in PMFC was reduced 53.5 percent in the period of 5 days compared with untreated wastewater.
arXiv (Cornell University), Sep 10, 2022
A good prediction is very important for scientific, economic, and administrative purposes. It is ... more A good prediction is very important for scientific, economic, and administrative purposes. It is therefore necessary to know whether a predictor is skillful enough to predict the future. Given the increased reliance on predictions in various disciplines, a prediction skill index (PSI) is devised. Twenty-four numerical examples are used to demonstrate how the PSI method works. The results show that the PSI awards not only the same score for random prediction and always predicting the same value, but also nontrivial scores for correct prediction of rare or extreme events. Moreover, the PSI can distinguish the difference between the perfect forecast of rare or extreme events and that of random events by awarding different skill scores, while other conventional methods cannot and award the same score. The data on the growth of real gross domestic product forecast of the Bank of Thailand between 2000 and 2019 are also used to demonstrate how the PSI evaluates the skill of the forecaster in practice.
Engineering and Applied Science Research, 2015
This research is a study of microbial fuel cells produce electricity from plants using Cyperus in... more This research is a study of microbial fuel cells produce electricity from plants using Cyperus involucratusR. called Plant Microbial Fuel Cell (PMFC). As a result of the polarization curve, by adjusting the external resistance between 10 to 12,000 ohms, it was found that the internal resistance of PMFC1, PMFC2, MFC1 and MFC2 was 9.78, 11.06, 9.47 and 11.92 ohms respectively. The results showed that the optimum size of the anode electrode is 242 square centimeters and adding soil by using the external resistance 100 ohms. The highest average power density equaled to 5.99 milliwatts per square meter of the anode electrode. Finally the wastewater in PMFC was reduced 53.5 percent in the period of 5 days compared with un-treated wastewater.
Electricity generation by Reverse Elctrodialysis (RED) process is one of the alternative energyav... more Electricity generation by Reverse Elctrodialysis (RED) process is one of the alternative energyavailable. In this paper the concept of RED is introduced together with the experimental results concerning thereduction of the internal resistance of the RED cell in order to minimize the voltage potential loss and improvethe prospect of using clean and energy-efficienct utilization. By increasing the surface area of electrodes themaximum power obtained increased from 16.59 micro watt to 116.29 micro watt, while the internal resistanceof the RED cell reduced from 1,213.48 ohm to 80.89 ohm. In principle it is possible to use the RED to generateelectricity by using potential of salinity gradient at the point where the river meets the sea. However the REDstill needed more development and study before widely adopted while the investment cost and break evenpoint remained the main obstacles which need to be overcome.
This research work is a study of the synthesis of polylactic acid (PLA) from 85% lactic acid via ... more This research work is a study of the synthesis of polylactic acid (PLA) from 85% lactic acid via condensation polymerization. Stannous chloride and stannous chloride mixed with p-toluene sulphonic acid were used as catalyst for condensation polymerization reaction. The reaction was conducted at three different levels of temperature namely 140, 150 and 160oC with reaction time of 24, 36 and 48 hr. The polymer obtained was characterized by FT-IR, 13C-NMR and 1H-NMR. Thermal property and weight average molecular weight of PLA were determined by DSC and GPC, respectively. It was found that the optimal condition to synthesize PLA with the highest weight average molecular weight (Mw=32,956) was occurred at temperature of 160oC, reaction time of 36 hr and using stannous chloride as catalyst.
Humanities and Social Sciences Communications
Given many popular functional forms for the Lorenz curve do not have a closed-form expression for... more Given many popular functional forms for the Lorenz curve do not have a closed-form expression for the Gini index and no study has utilized the observed Gini index to estimate parameter(s) associated with the corresponding parametric functional form, a simple method for estimating the Lorenz curve is introduced. It utilizes three indicators, namely, the Gini index and the income shares of the bottom and the top in order to calculate the values of parameters associated with the specified functional form which has a closed-form expression for the Gini index. No error minimization technique is required in order to estimate the Lorenz curve. The data on the Gini index and the income shares of four countries that have a different level of income inequality, economic, sociological, and regional backgrounds from the United Nations University-World Income Inequality Database are used to illustrate how the simple method works. The overall results indicate that the estimated Lorenz curves fit ...
Palgrave Communications
To simultaneously overcome the limitation of the Gini index in that it is less sensitive to inequ... more To simultaneously overcome the limitation of the Gini index in that it is less sensitive to inequality at the tails of income distribution and the limitation of the inter-decile ratios that ignore inequality in the middle of income distribution, an inequality index is introduced. It comprises three indicators, namely, the Gini index, the income share held by the top 10%, and the income share held by the bottom 10%. The data from the World Bank database and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development Income Distribution Database between 2005 and 2015 are used to demonstrate how the inequality index works. The results show that it can distinguish income inequality among countries that share the same Gini index but have different income gaps between the top 10% and the bottom 10%. It could also distinguish income inequality among countries that have the same ratio of income share held by the top 10% to income share held by the bottom 10% but differ in the values of the Gini index. In addition, the inequality index could capture the dynamics where the Gini index of a country is stable over time but the ratio of income share of the top 10% to income share of the bottom 10% is increasing. Furthermore, the inequality index could be applied to other scientific disciplines as a measure of statistical heterogeneity and for size distributions of any non-negative quantities.
An alternative method to test scale invariance
MethodsX
A scaling perspective on the distribution of executive compensation
Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications
SSRN Electronic Journal, 2000
The pursuit of having an appropriate level of income inequality should be viewed as one of the bi... more The pursuit of having an appropriate level of income inequality should be viewed as one of the biggest challenges facing academic scholars as well as policy makers. Unfortunately, research on this issue is currently lacking. This study is the first to introduce the theoretical concept of targeted level of income inequality for a given size of population. By employing the World Bank's data on population size and Gini coefficient from sixty-nine countries in 2012, this study finds that the relationship between Gini coefficient and natural logarithm of population size is nonlinear in the form of a second degree polynomial function. The estimated results using regression analysis show that the majority of countries in the sample have Gini coefficients either too high or too low compared to their appropriate values. These findings could be used as a guideline for policy makers before designing and implementing public policies in order to achieve the targeted level of income inequality.
Electricity generation by reverse electrodialysis
Kku Engineering Journal, May 29, 2012
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Papers by Kanyarat Holasut