This paper examines how economic openness influences regional development in the Philippines. It first looks at the disparities in economic and social indicators across the country's 14 regions and over time. Metro Manila continues to tower over the national economic landscape, though economic...

This paper looks into whether and how sub-national regions can benefit from a country’s economic openness. Using data on the Philippines, it first notes marked disparities across its regions as reflected in economic and social indicators. The dominance of Metropolitan Manila in the national...

This paper examines the Philippine experience with trade liberalization policies and their impact on the economy. Although the relationship between trade liberalization and poverty is not straightforward, empirical evidence suggests that there are beneficial effects of freer trade on the poor in...

This paper provides estimates of trade costs of the Philippines with her key trading partners, and develops a framework for assessing their welfare cost. With tariff restrictions reduced significantly following several rounds of multilateral and regional trade negotiations, non-tariff barriers...