DOI: 10.3390/economies14100424 ISSN: 2227-7099

From Green Policy Ambition to Investment-Ready Projects: Integrating Microeconomic and Policy Implementation Perspectives in Thailand

Pichlanda Sonthiwilon, Nathapool Kamsanit

Thailand has introduced a broad policy architecture to support green industrial development, yet policy support does not automatically translate into commercially viable and socially desirable projects. Using Thailand as an institutionally grounded application rather than as empirical validation, this article develops an integrated economic-administrative framework to explain the gap between green policy ambition and project-level investment. A conceptual integrative review and documentary policy analysis are used to connect environmental and innovation economics with theories of credit rationing, investment irreversibility, transaction costs, collective action, policy implementation, and collaborative governance. The analysis identifies six cumulative decision gates through which green projects must progress: strategic direction, green classification, investment eligibility, spatial and regulatory feasibility, commercial bankability, and operational and social legitimacy. It also identifies six recurring mechanisms that may disrupt this progression: externalities, information asymmetry, investment irreversibility, fragmented authority, underprovided shared infrastructure, and distributional conflict. Based on this synthesis, the article proposes a Green Industry Project Readiness Gateway, standardized evidence and digital handoffs, stronger cross-agency coordination, project aggregation, risk-sharing mechanisms, and adaptive community safeguards. The framework suggests that improving green investment outcomes requires coordinated attention to both economic constraints and administrative implementation conditions and provides a basis for future project-level empirical testing.