Imperial Manila is often blamed for controlling public spending in at least three ways: a) by being the beneficiary of a disproportionatley larger share of public spending; b) by “controlling” public spending allocations to the LGUs; and c) by passing on unfunded mandates to the LGUs. On the...

As a contribution to the nascent literature, this study examines patterns of vote buying among poor voters in 17 cities in Metro Manila, using a dataset closely following the 2016 national and local elections. Specifically, it will examine the possible factors linked to vote buying, hopefully...

Many young democracies are characterized by the proliferation of political dynasties, i.e. elected politicians from the same clan spanning across time and across different elected positions. In the Philippines, there has been growing concern that political dynasties are on the rise, as more...

Even deeper decentralization (de-concentration and devolution) in the Philippines will likely face chronic challenges in local governance. Emerging evidence from several decades of policy experience from the implementation of the Local Government Code suggests that weak governance and...

How did political dynasties fare in the 2019 midterm elections? This paper extends and analyzes the Ateneo Policy Center's political dynasties dataset, covering the period from 1988 to 2019. It finds evidence that over the past 30 years (or 10 election periods), political dynasties have become...

This paper reviews the empirical evidence linking political dynasties to the imposition of term limits under the 1987 Constitution. It finds evidence that political clans have found a way around this Constitutional constraint, by fielding more family members in power -- giving rise to more fat...

Urbanisation in China has long been held back by various restrictions on land and internal migration but has taken off since the 1990s, as these impediments started to be gradually relaxed. People have moved in large numbers to richer cities, where productivity is higher and has increased...

Current approaches of measuring vulnerability to natural hazards generally use a rather static perspective that focuses on a single point in time - often before a hazardous event occurs. In contrast, the paper argues that vulnerability assessment should also take into account the changing...

We provide new evidence about the degree of social segregation in England’s secondary schools, employing a cross-national perspective. Analysis is based on data for 27 rich industrialised countries from the 2000 and 2003 rounds of the Programme of International Student Assessment (PISA), using...