We review the data being used to argue that the Philippines’ comprehensive agrarian reform program (CARP) has failed in economic terms. We find that important statistics and econometric results from cited references have been either misinterpreted or used to make invalid comparisons. A more...

The following note seeks to clarify the appreciation of data pertaining to agrarian reform as used in the discussion paper “CARP: time to let go” (henceforth Fabella (2014)). Fabella (2014) has three parts: the first part argues that “the cumulative weight of evidence suggests that the...

Informal housing arrangements, substandard structures, congestion, and land-use conflicts characterize the urban housing problem in the Philippines. The record suggests that the response of the state, especially its reliance on below- market-priced mortgage loans, has aggravated the situation....

Urban housing programs in the Philippines have narrowly focused on maximizing the output of new houses and sites for sale at below market prices, an approach that presumes that subsidizing homeownership is the best way to meet the housing needs of urban squatter households. By estimating housing...

Informal housing arrangements, substandard structures, congestion, and land use conflicts characterize the urban housing problem in the Philippines. The record suggests that the response of the State, especially its reliance on below-market priced mortgage loans, has aggravated rather than...