This paper examines the link between poverty and income, on the one hand, and human capital and location, on the other. In the process, the paper proposes a shift in the household indicator of human capital from the usual education of the household head to the education of the most educated...

We investigate the extent to which the investment slowdown in many Asian countries since the Asian Financial Crisis is attributable to changes in governance institutions. In the process we test the more general hypothesis that different aspects of governance will become relevant constraints to...

We show that the most important barriers to investment and growth in the Philippines are structural and institutional problems that are characteristic of limited access societies, which can be more effectively and efficiently overcome by prioritizing 'first-order' market reforms that increase...

There has been a growing conversation about the revival of Manufacturing to push back growing inequality and reduce poverty. We discuss the pathways by which a higher share of the Manufacturing sector in GDP may bring about lower poverty incidence while a higher share of Services may have the...

The paper examined the methodology used for measuring the country's poverty line and poverty rate. It finds that the poverty line was not based on the cost of meeting an acceptable or minimum standard of living or of meeting basic needs by which to classify families as poor as is customarily...

The paper puts together the very alarming poor state of the Philippines education system from basic to higher education based on recent available data from international and local sources. It points to the central role of universities as producers of the principal learning inputs for all levels....

Labor-importing countries adopt differing immigration policy on foreign workers. They all restrict the number allowed entry and many set wage ceilings at levels below the wage paid the native workers. The differing restrictive immigration policies result in the segmentation of the world labor...

Following an earlier paper titled 'Population and Poverty: The Real Score' (UPSE Discussion Paper 0415, December 2004), the present paper was first issued in August 2008 as a contribution to the public debate on the population issue that never seemed to die in this country. The debate heated up...

An estimated 9 million Filipinos, about 10% of the population, now reside abroad as permanent immigrants in advanced economies and as temporary migrant workers. The permanent immigrants who are mostly in the US, Australia and Canada comprise about 45% of the total. The migrant workers are...

Debates on the revision of the value-added tax (VAT) are about to reach the penultimate stage. Once house and senate have passed their respective versions of the bill, congress - through a bicameral conference committee sometimes referred to as the 'third chamber' - must then agree on the final...