A decade and a half since the Philippines embarked on a major program of decentralization, the authors of this book have undertaken a detailed examination of all aspects of the nation's regional dynamics and policies. Their analysis extends to comparable experiences in East Asia, particularly...

Anecdotal evidence permeates accounts on the impact of the global economic crisis (GEC) on Philippine poverty. This study systematically assesses the evidence and recent data. It adopts a somewhat eclectic approach, applying regression and decomposition techniques to trace the GEC impact on GDP...

Despite the large and expanding literature on pro-poor growth, quantitative studies identifying policy levers leading to pro-poor growth remain scarce, and this paper addresses this lacuna in the literature. The main driver of rural poverty reduction shifted from agricultural to non-agricultural...

This paper analyzes the processes of growth and poverty reduction simultaneously under a neoclassical growth model framework, using provincial data from the Philippines. We obtain a high rate of provincial income convergence and a trade-off between equity and growth. The lack of political...

Key issues in the empirical study on growth are addressed using provincial data in the Philippines. We find a high rate of absolute convergence, a positive relationship between inequality and growth, and a positive relationship between political competitiveness and growth