Phitawat Poonpolkul is a Principal Researcher at the Puey Ungphakorn Institute for Economic Research (PIER), Bank of Thailand. His research focuses on structural life-cycle modeling in developing countries, with particular interests in demographic change, social protection systems, public finance, labor markets, and the economics of aging. He holds a PhD in Economics from the Australian National University, an MSc in Business Economics from the University of Amsterdam, and a bachelor’s degree in Economics from Thammasat University.