In response to the spike in rice prices in 2008, the rice subsidy program budget for the Philippines's National Food Authority (NFA) was expanded five-fold to 2.5% of gross domestic product. The NFA is the largest recipient of government subsidy, but also the largest loss-making government...

This paper highlights the thinness of rice trade relative to wheat and maize, and the contrasting price volatility and tradability relations for wheat and maize, which display a positive correlation, and for rice, which show an inverse relation. The paper focuses on Southeast Asia, which hosts...

This paper reports the survey findings that rice value chains are transforming in Bangladesh and India. The main elements of the transformation are as follows: First, rice value chains in both countries have begun to "geographically lengthen" and "intermediationally shorten." Second, farmers...

Despite a growing interest in using satellite data to estimate paddy rice yield in Southeast Asia, significant cloud coverage has led to a scarcity of usable optical data for such analysis. In this paper, we study the feasibility of using two alternative sources of satellite data - (i) surface...

Traditional sampling strategies for paddy rice statistics rely on outdated list frames, incomplete holding information, or administrative data that are prone to numerous biases. The objective of this study is to test the utility of an area frame developed using remote sensing data in three pilot...

This study assesses the impact of increased fertilizer prices under different scenarios on rice production, consumption, trade and prices. Using a global rice model based on a partial equilibrium framework, the simulation results show that a 30% to 100% increase in fertilizer prices would reduce...

This paper examines the links between ownership, innovation, and exports in electronics firms in three late-industrializing developing countries (People's Republic of China, Thailand, and Philippines), drawing on recent developments in applied international trade and innovation and learning....

Due to population aging, weakening of family-based support, and other factors, old-age income support is becoming an issue of growing importance throughout Asia. This is especially true in East Asia and Southeast Asia where the demographic transition is already well under way. This paper...

The global economic crisis in 2008-2009 had varying impacts on economies in Asia and the Pacific. This paper studies the impacts of the global crisis, with emphasis on the labor market, on three Asian countries: Republic of Korea (Korea), Philippines, and Thailand. It develops a crisis index...

From 1994 to 2006, the average household saving rate in the Philippines declined by 5.2 percentage points to about a mere 5% of disposable income. Using data from income and expenditure survey at the household level, this paper explains why households' consumption growth had been higher than...