The paper examines the progress being made in local finance reforms and indicates pathways to advance those reforms. A summary of the effects of decentralization is given as a contextual background for the discussion of local finance reforms. The inefficient tax assignment has constrained the...

Twelve years into the implementation of the Local Government Code of 1991, it is but opportune to assess how the key features of this landmark legislation has contributed to (or detracted from) achieving the balance between local autonomy and accountability. The literature on fiscal...

In line with the commitment of the Philippine government to adopt the Millennium Declaration, there have been efforts geared toward the achievement of the millennium development goals (MDGs) particularly the specific targets set for each of the eight MDGs. The MDGs include eradication of extreme...

This report argues that improving local service delivery (LSD) is about improving people's lives. It is premised on the idea that better provision of public goods and services is a prerequisite to realizing human capabilities, thus expanding human freedoms and enhancing human lives for a better...

How should local service delivery of public goods and services be improved for desirable development outcomes? This paper attempts at answering this question by providing a framework for improving local service delivery. It argues that improving local service delivery is a function of...

This paper, which is borne out of the need to address scarcity of evidence-based studies on barangay financing, analyzes and evaluates key issues on financing of devolved functions at the barangay level, with particular focus on fund utilization and program allocation, and proposes some policy...

The primary objective for the conduct of the assessment of the social sector is to provide the basis for setting the thematic priorities for the Philippines, taking into account the development requirements in the next five years. The specific objectives of the study are: (i) to review the major...

This study looks at emigration governance in the context of decentralized Indonesia. It examines various local initiatives that have evolved following the onset of decentralization in Indonesia a decade ago. These initiatives materialized in the form of local regulations (perda). First, we...

In the relatively new body of ideas dubbed "new economic geography" and "spatial economics," we find insights on the potentials of industrial agglomeration for regional and national economic development. This paper looked into the evolution of industrial development in the country as a means of...

The economic reform process in the Philippines was accelerated in the 1980s and 1990s. The reforms were found to have yielded positive results in terms of the nature of industrial agglomeration in the country as this was found to have occurred in the 1990s based on the results of the survey and...