Grades are used to evaluate students as well as to compare their scholastic achievements. They are used by graduate schools as well as business firms to discriminate between students. But when grades are inflated, they cease to be an objective measure. We therefore wish to examine the trend in...

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...

Outward migration data from the Philippines exhibit spatial clustering. This is likely due to information spillover effects-­-fellow migrants share information with other neighboring migrants, thereby lowering the costs of migration. To verify this, we use spatial econometrics to define a...

The Great Recession has called into question many tenets of Neo-classical Microeconomics. Neo-classical theory allows each agent only one fixed type, homo economicus, while not denying other possible types as in adverse selection. We propose that economic agents not only choose their market...

In this study, the opinions of operating enterprises regarding the minimum wage policy are studied with the use of ordered logit regression model. The study uses survey data that asked a series of questions dealing with labor market policies in the Philippines. The aim of this regression model...

This paper highlights the increasing underreporting of remittances by the FIES compared to BSP and World Bank figures, advances possible reasons why such underreporting is occurring, and examines its implications for welfare measurement in the country at points in time and across time. Using...

A non-tatonnement process is described using the simplest demand-and-supply model, involving the following : uniformly distributed agents; random matching of buyers and sellers; and a universal permission to engage in mutually acceptable trade at non-equilibrium prices. A sufficient condition is...

We examine the role of trade liberalization in accounting for increasing wage inequality in the Philippines from 1994 to 2000--a period over which trade protection declined and inequality increased dramatically. Using the approach of Ferreira, Leite, and Wai-Poi (2007), we find that...

Anecdotal evidence permeates accounts on the impact of the global economic crisis (GEC) on Philippine poverty. This study systematically assesses the evidence and recent data. It adopts a somewhat eclectic approach, applying regression and decomposition techniques to trace the GEC impact on GDP...

The strong popular mandate of the new president brings high hopes for bold economic reforms. A three-pronged strategy to deal with the Philippine under-performance in economic growth, generate more employment especially among the poor and to reduce poverty is suggested. The strategy consists of...