The Political Economy of Data Sharing: Addressing Opportunities and Challenges in Thailand's National Disaster Risk Management

Abstract

-global governance increasingly transitions toward evidence-based policymaking, Thailand is undergoing a profound paradigm shift. This is explicitly manifested in the upcoming national plan, which positions data utilization as the core engine to transition the state into a “Government-as-an-enabler.” This paper evaluates this strategic transition within the critical domain of national disaster risk management (DRM), re-interpreting natural disasters as macroeconomic negative externalities that induce severe market and coordination failures. By contrasting decentralized agency operations, institutionalized data-sharing mechanisms under joint resource constraints systematically maximize social welfare and accelerate disaster recovery trajectories. Furthermore, this study navigates the complex statutory landscape governing Thai data policy and laws to address critical regulatory compliance concerns. Finally, grounded in institutional economics and the principles of strategic opacity, we propose an incentive-compatible data governance framework. This framework optimizes the trade-offs between institutional readiness, deployment velocity, and information disclosure thresholds, thereby offering a robust blueprint for resilient and secure public sector data collaboration in Thailand.