Ammar Siamwalla

Ammar Siamwalla (Thai: อัมมาร สยามวาลา, RTGS: Amman Sayamwala; born 29 May 1939) is a prominent Thai economist, specializing in agricultural and development economics.^[1] He was a founding member of the policy think tank the Thailand Development Research Institute (TDRI), and served as its president from 1990 to 1995.

Ammar Siamwalla
Born	29 May 1939[1]
Nationality	Thai
Education	Harvard University
Occupation	Economist

Family and education

Ammar was born to Tahir and Khadija Siamwalla.^[2] His father Tahir was a son of Dilawer Husain Abdulali Siamwalla, an Indian merchant from Baroda who put down roots in Siam and founded DHA Siamwalla, now a stationery producer;^[3] his mother Khadija was a Shi'a Muslim, also from Baroda. Ammar is the youngest of three sons.^[2]

He attended Assumption College in Bangkok^[2] and St. Paul's School, Darjeeling in India, and went on to receive a B.Sc. in economics from the London School of Economics and a PhD in economics from Harvard University.^[1]

Career

Ammar began his career as an assistant professor and research staff economist at the Department of Economics, Yale University before moving to the Faculty of Economics of Thammasat University as a Rockefeller scholar at the advice of Puey Ungpakorn who was then dean of faculty.^[4] Like Puey and other scholars, Siamwalla left Thammasat after the 1976 student massacre.^{[citation needed]}

He was a visiting professor at the Food Research Institute of Stanford University as well as a research fellow with the International Food Policy Research Institute in Washington, D.C.^[5]

He was a founding member of the Thailand Development Research Institute (TDRI), serving first as program director for agriculture and rural development and then as its president from 1990 to 1995. Following his tenure, he held the title of distinguished scholar at the TDRI.^[6][5]

Ammar is an expert in Thai rice policy,^[7] Thai agricultural economics, and development economics. As one of the first Thai trained in neoclassical economics, he has contributed considerably in the development of the modern economic discipline in Thailand.^{[citation needed]} He has been described as "one of the country's top technocrats".^[8] His work together with Suthad Setboonsarng formed the definitive study of Thiland's agricultural price policy in the 1980s.^[9]

Ammar was also appointed as member of the National Legislative Assembly following the 2006 coup d'état.^[6]