Empirical evidence points to globalization to be favorable for the growth and development of a nation. For the Philippines, trade openness and foreign portfolio helped increase per capita GDP as investment and productivity improve. With trade openness and globalization, nations share and gain...

To understand the design of JPEPA and EFTA, notably the similarities with other FTAs of Japan and EFTA-member countries, respectively, and how these similarities affect Philippine trade, the study proposes the use of text-of-trade-analysis, that is, text analysis employing textas-data. The paper...

From the launch of the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF), apprehension surrounds its true intentions and objectives. While touted as a US-led strategy to counter China's dominance in the region, IPEF seems to be a very slow-paced initiative and how it will progress, and how to go about it,...

The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (RCEP) gathers 10 ASEAN countries and five partners, namely, the Republic of Korea, China, Japan, New Zealand, and Australia. RCEP covers a market of 2.2 billion consumers and accounts for more than 30 percent of the global GDP. The...

International relations is considered an important aspect in the development of an economy and of a region by providing them opportunities to work together to address economic, social, political issues, environmental, and security issues. It allows economies to share information, technology, and...

The integration of the concept of environment, social, and governance (ESG) into trade and investment to contribute to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is becoming a new consensus. ESG considerations are becoming crucial in national and regional policies for sustainable development...

Using a gender lens, this paper takes stock of economic relief measures that aim to foster the resilience of micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) to COVID-19. It does so by analyzing results from an online survey of MSMEs and by coming up with a definition of women-owned/led MSMEs...

Rapid digitalization has become an integral feature of the global economy in recent years, as markets became more connected and new modes of production and trade emerged. Having a relatively open digital environment, the Philippines is poised for digital trade integration with its Asia-Pacific...

The world economy has undergone at least three waves of globalization; currently the fourth wave is on-going, sweeping away old certainties are being overturned. The Philippines, which has hitherto been reaping the growth dividend from the third wave of globalization owing to a functioning...

In January 2020, the Philippines joined the World Trade Organization Joint Statement Initiative on E-commerce which seeks to develop a multilateral agreement on trade-related aspects of e-commerce. This paper explores the costs and benefits of possible trade disciplines, particularly the...