This paper reviews the current empirical literature on competition and market structure of Philippine industries. It shows that weak competition is one of the fundamental factors that explain limited growth, productivity, and employment in the economy. Philippine experience has shown that...

Changing the base year (1985) of Philippine GDP in constant prices could change the growth rate and the shares of components even when there is no change in the volume of production, implying that the changes in growth rate and shares are anomalous (i.e., no real basis). This possibility weakens...

The Philippines has used the BOT law, as amended to motivate private sector provision of infrastructure. Using examples from selected BOT projects in the country, the paper points out key issues constraining the successful implementation of the BOT approach to infrastructure provision. It also...

While the national average for maternal and child health services utilization shows improvement, the Philippines is yet to achieve the MDG targets for maternal and child health. This study shows inequality in maternal and child health services utilization across economic classes and across...

Over the past sixty years, the concept of development has expanded from economic growth and investment, to poverty reduction, human development, sustainable development, and more recently to institutional development. There has also been a fresh look at industrial policy and the role of the...

Using data from 3,120 farm households surveyed in 2000 and 2006, the paper tests for factors that affect the degree and extent of households' participation in the rural land rental market. The survey period coincided with the full implementation of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program...

In years when the Family Income and Expenditure Survey (FIES) is not conducted and when funds are available, the National Statistics Office administers the Annual Poverty Indicators Survey (APIS). The APIS has been conducted in the years 1998, 1999, 2002, 2004, 2007, and 2008. It presents the...

In the effort to effectively monitor the progress or drawbacks in the fight against poverty to formulate more effective poverty reduction programs, the issue on comparability of the official poverty estimates through space and time has been raised. The official estimates are said to be...

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...

The quality of poverty estimates relies heavily on the data sources. One of the sources of data for poverty estimation in the Philippines is the retail price collected by the National Statistics Office. The retail prices are used, along with or in the absence of price data of certain commodities...