The paper discusses the suitability of the federal form of government as a replacement for the centralized structure of government in the context of Philippine economic and political conditions. The answer is depicted in the title of the essay. In providing a review of the main question,...

The Asian financial crisis has impaired the flow of capital financing the construction of infrastructure crucial for sustaining development in the country. As such, one of the post-crisis challenges has been the development of new and alternative financing mechanisms in light of emerging fiscal...

This essay is concerned with the broader canvas of economic reforms in the Philippines viewed from the framework of political economy. The first part provides a brief discussion of the rationale for economic reforms. The second part presents a tableau of economic policies in perspective over a...

Blas Ople was the key personality in the development of labor policies during the 1960s to the 1980s. Before his political ascendancy in other branches of government after the 1980s, he held the labor portfolio for the longest time. His influence extended to the present period. This essay covers...

The Philippine Constitution contains many strong restrictions targeted against the flow of foreign capital in specific areas of economic activities. These restrictions were the same ones that were incorporated into the nationalistic provisions of the 1935 Constitution when its framers were...

The Philippines requires the revision of the economic provisions of the Constitution if it is to become a major recipient of foreign investment flows like other high growth economies in the East Asia. These economic provisions were adopted in 1935 and have helped to reduce the country's ability...

Philippine labor market policies, in the presence of a high degree of excess labor supply, are highly regulated and they tend to be along standards of highly developed markets. The policies adopted by the government are more pro-employed labor than to promote the overall employment of the labor...

The paper examines the Philippine labor market by fitting a labor supply equation using detailed firm data from the survey of manufactures. The Philippines continues to have high rates of unemployment and underemployment amidst a continuously rising labor supply. The results of the econometric...

This paper deals with the supply of male and female labor in Philippine industry. Using unit record data from the Philippine survey of manufactures of 2005, a supply equation in which labor by sex of workers is estimated with the wage rate used as the explanatory variable. The results confirm...

A high degree of unemployment and underemployment characterizes the Philippine economic development record. In large part, the mainstream labor policies that emphasized high labor welfare standards and high minimum manages over the creation of employment are responsible for this outcome. In...