This paper examines the Philippines’ investment climate in its many dimensions, relating these to the performance of the economy at the national, regional, and provincial levels. The central thesis is that the economy’s slow growth over the past two decades or more can be attributed in large...

Starting with the premise that technological innovation and economic growth are interactive and mutually reinforcing, this paper argues that in order to have a fighting chance in the Asean Economic Community (AEC), let alone global, competition, the Philippines (PH) needs to appreciably ramp up...

Most migration studies have used aggregate data to test hypotheses concerning individual migration behavior. This paper attempts to understand migration behavior more directly by analyzing data on individuals and households. The decision to migrate or stay is viewed as influenced by individual...

This paper surveys urbanization and spatial development in the Philippines by reviewing studies dealing one way to another with the subject. The objective is to put spatial and urban issues in perspective so that an understanding of them may cumulate through research. Research on these issues...

A comparative perspective on Asian urbanization and development is offered in this paper. In this first part, some aspects of urbanization and spatial concentration are discussed using data on South, Southeast, East and Centrally Planned Asian countries. South and Southeast (and some extent...

Recent research papers employing cross-national regressions report that the incomes of the poor move one-for-one with overall average incomes, suggesting that poverty reduction requires nothing much more than promoting rapid economic growth. This paper attempts to probe beneath cross-country...

The Philippines is reputed to be the world’s third highest net remittance recipient country (relative to net migration) after India and Mexico. In 2005, remittances were officially recorded at $11.7 billion1 representing about 10% of GDP. Clearly, remittances resulting from the Filipino...

Most studies on internal migration and fertility conclude that migration leads to lower fertility. This phenomenon is opened explained in the context of the social mobility and assimilation models. But there are other studies that report conflicting results. This note proposes an alternative...

Small-scale industry (SI) promotion became a prominent policy instrument in developing countries during the 70s and will probably maintain such prominence in the 80s. In the Philippines a major SI promotion program was initiated in 1974 by the Ministry of Industry. In this paper, an attempt is...

This paper attempts to survey the state of the art on the economic costs of children. Relevant studies suggest rough orders of magnitude for the direct, indirect and social costs of children. The pattern of these costs seems consistent with the persistence of high fertility especially in rural...