This study presents a four-part evaluation of the President’s Budget (PB) for 2002. First, it shows that the speed of fiscal consolidation that is envisioned in the President’s Budget for 2002 will not be achieved. In particular, the fiscal deficit targets that are set in the proposed budget...

Assessment of trade reforms in the 1990s suggests achievement of considerable progress in tariff simplification and improvement in international competitiveness. The same observation, however, cannot be claimed on reforms resulting to a uniform pattern of protection across sectors. Results from...

Government education spending is expected to improve the well-being of beneficiaries and enhance their capability to earn income in the future. In this sense, directing education expenditures to the poor holds a promise for breaking the intergenerational transmission of poverty. Given this...

The paper traces the roots of the present fiscal problem and concludes that it is largely attributable to the deterioration of the national government’s revenue effort. On the other hand, because the government relied heavily on across-the-board budget cuts in order to maintain some semblance...

The devolution of functions and responsibilities to LGUs has translated to the expectations of an improved delivery of public goods and services. However, LGU funding, mainly coming from the national government, loans from the government-owned financial institutions and Municipal Development...

This study evaluates the absorptive capacity of a government agency for domestic and external funds. It takes the case of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), one of the biggest recipients of funds from government and foreign sources. Specifically, the paper a) provides an...

Various indicators (e.g., VAT-to-GNP ratio, VAT evasion rate) suggest that problems in VAT administration have not only persisted during the 1990s but also appear to have worsened. This study makes use of the 1994 Input Output Table to estimate industry benchmarks for the ratio of VAT-able...

Government education spending is expected to improve the well-being of beneficiaries and enhance their capability to earn income in the future. In this sense, directing education expenditures to the poor holds a promise for breaking the intergenerational transmission of poverty. Given this...

This paper explains the evolution of the metropolitan organizations that have been established to oversee the development of Metro Manila, provides a survey of their responsibilities, authorities, organizational structure, financing, institutional relationships as well as briefly assess their...

This paper provides a broad historical perspective against which to assess the 1989 program of government expenditures. Specifically, it reviews and quantitatively evaluates the revenue target and implied fiscal deficit figures, sectoral distribution of government expenditures and other budget...