Official statistics from the Philippine National Income Accounts (NIA) depict an economy that grew faster after the Asian financial crisis (AFC). Although higher output growth was accompanied by higher real growth rates of personal consumption and the service sector, import growth compression...

A long-standing tradition in economics contends that “institutions matter “for long-run growth. Whether defined as “rules of the game” or a “system of social factors,” institutions ultimately affect the cost of exchange and production that, in turn, influences economic performance....