The study analyzes the response of households, especially agricultural households, to price and income changes. The determination of the income and price elasticities of demand for food and nonfood items is important in framing appropriate policies affecting the macroeconomy and the agricultural...

This paper describes some emerging innovations in microfinance observed in Southeast Asian microfinance markets that enable microfinance institutions (MFIs) to reach a greater number of poor households on a sustainable basis. It discusses the nature, importance, and types of innovations....

Microfinance is an emerging important financial subsector in Asian transition countries. Its role is to improve financial access of the poor and small economic players and thus help them to build assets, which means a contribution to poverty alleviation. This paper provides an overview of rural...

The country's archipelagic configuration requires an efficient maritime transport infrastructure composed of ports and shipping for growth and socioeconomic integration. This paper examines competition policy and the regulatory framework of the port and shipping sectors. It assesses the policies...

This paper discusses financial reform and development in the Philippines during the past one and a half decades and the challenges facing the financial sector in the light of greater international financial integration. Issues on prudential regulation and how it can be improved and strengthened...

To evaluate the effectiveness of approaches to improve policies toward the development of small and medium enterprises, this article assesses the efficiency of directed credit programs and the impact of a liberalized design of a specific project.

The monetary approach to the balance of payments (BOP) takes the view that domestic credit is exogenous to BOP and that it is deteriorated by the excess money, which results from domestic credit expansion. This article determines whether in fact the assertion is true. Utilizing the method...

This paper reports the empirical results of an attempt to develop a statistical classification system for rural banks using common financial ratios as predictor variables. Though it provides a formal and fast way to classify banks, the classical techniques utilized in this paper should not be...

One of the issues contending the rural borrowers, who are composed of small entrepreneurs, fishermen and farmers, is the access to financial services of formal financial institutions. With this fact on hand, this article discusses the issue within the framework of asymmetry of information...

To forecast the Philippine money multiplier, this article utilizes Box-Jenkins Technique that suggests the use of simple autoregressive intermediate moving average (ARIMA) process. Estimation results are discussed in reference to its implications in the future forecast of money multiplier.