The population debate in the country has been dynamic and contentious. On the one hand, proponents of population management say that the rapid population growth in the Philippines has hindered the country’s economic development. On the other hand, others are saying that population growth is...

Despite the large and expanding literature on pro-poor growth, quantitative studies identifying potential determinants of pro-poor growth remain scarce. This paper addresses this lacuna in the literature for the case of the Philippines. The main driver of rural poverty reduction has shifted from...

The Philippines does not have a comparative advantage in the domestic production of fertilizer. This is one of the thoughts conveyed by the article as it analyzes the government policies affecting fertilizer prices during the post-war period, with a focus on the policies after 1973. In addition,...

Over the past three decades, the level and nature of government interventions and the relative importance of policy objectives have changed in response to changes in the domestic rice demand and supply factors. This paper analyzes the changes in the Philippine rice economy during the period and...

Mainly due to the dearth of available data, this article empirically illustrates that the practice of using household expenditures/incomes in assessing aggregate poverty tends to its overestimation. In the absence of reliable equivalence estimates, household size should be normalized to improve...

Usual indicators of intertemporal rural performance are technically flawed mainly because of the “shifting” of the physical area of the rural sector as population grows and/or economic activity expands. This problem is illustrated here using Philippine recovery data. Also shown is the fact...

This paper studies the relationship between population dynamics and income growth in the Philippines using data from 74 provinces for the period 1985-2003. Simulation techniques were used to quantify the effect of population dynamics on the differences in income of the provinces. It also...

Provision of safety nets for the poor is a popular call in development policies especially in light of the government’s pursuit of structural and macroeconomic adjustments. A simple exercise in this article shows that even when the only information employed in identifying potential...