This paper argues that the way for the Philippines to the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) is not through ASEAN but through the world. Being good neighbors will define the AEC and how the Philippines fits into it-not necessarily in the way it was planned. Of the 4 pillars underlying the AEC, the...

The paper examines recent technology enablers as these affect the services sector and are seen to be analogous to developments taking place as Industry 4.0. After briefly summarizing these, we argue that there are important implications to services, particularly their international trade, in...

This paper argues that, in any review of export promotion policy of the Philippines, it is more fruitful if a comparative context (relative to countries in its similar stage) is used. We broadly trace export promotions policies of 3 illustrative tiger economies (South Korea, Singapore, and...

This paper provides a review of the empirical evidence cited in the current public discussions on removing the remaining constitutional restrictions on foreign-equity ownership in certain economic sectors. A fuller appreciation of the given evidence shows that lifting equity restrictions is not...

We are pleased to note that the discussion paper we wrote ("How to change a constitution by handwaving") has attracted some interest from the public and observers of economic policy. Among the more thoughtful responses the paper has received is that from the Foundation for Economic Freedom...

This paper attempts to review the Overseas Filipino Worker (OFW) phenomenon through selected aspects of it - past and present trends, structural issues, and development context. While the OFW system appears to be beneficial to the county, it is overrated. It is unclear what policies were really...