Most migration studies have used aggregate data to test hypotheses concerning individual migration behavior. This paper attempts to understand migration behavior more directly by analyzing data on individuals and households. The decision to migrate or stay is viewed as influenced by individual or household attributes and certain external factors that impinge on the individuals or household. Additionally, income-earning capacity and employment or occupation are assumed to be sequentially determined with migration. The migration decision model is specified in logic form and estimated, using the maximum likelihood method, with data from the 1973 National Demographic Survey (NDS). In general, personal and household characteristics are found to be more significant in the decision to migrate than external factor, which have been stressed by previous studies. Kinship ties at destination seem to be the decisive factor in the choice to migrate. Occupation at destination appears to interact more strongly with migration than income. With respect to policy, such factors as education, employment, and kinship stand out as potential vehicles for migration policy.
Recent research papers employing cross-national regressions report that the incomes of the poor move one-for-one with overall average incomes, suggesting that poverty reduction requires nothing much more than promoting rapid economic growth. This paper attempts to probe beneath cross-country averages by analyzing provincial data on the poverty-growth nexus in the Philippines. The results show that economic growth explains a lot but not all about poverty. The balance which seems fairly large can be accounted for by other factors (e.g. infrastructure, human capital, and location-specific characteristics) and institutions (e.g., political economy and agrarian reform). Thus, while growth is indeed good for the poor, it is not good enough. How much is not good enough is illustrated by this paper and will become clearer still as subnational analysis is etended to more countries. For policy purposes, an intra-country examination of the determinants of poverty reduction seems clearly superior to cross-country analysis. JEL Classification: 132, 015, R11 Key words : Welfare, poverty, inequality, economic growth, Philippines
Starting with the premise that technological innovation and economic growth are interactive and mutually reinforcing, this paper argues that in order to have a fighting chance in the Asean Economic Community (AEC), let alone global, competition, the Philippines (PH) needs to appreciably ramp up investment spending in science, engineering, and research and development. To the extent that this is achieved – along with the other ongoing policy and institutional reforms – the economy could in time be on a stronger platform to face up to AEC challenges. The paper first revisits PH’s macro-economy, poverty, and economic sectors vis-a-vis its Asean and East Asian neighbors. Next, it examines PH’s regional and global competitiveness. Then, it looks into the country’s current human resource and intellectual capital investments, mainly in higher education and technical/vocational training, as well as in R&D and innovation. A more focused discussion on the University of the Philippines – the “national university” – vis-a-vis its comparators in AEC, including ways to improve its competitiveness, follows. The final section concludes with some recommendations. JEL Classification : F15, J24, O, O3, O31
This paper attempts to survey the state of the art on the economic costs of children. Relevant studies suggest rough orders of magnitude for the direct, indirect and social costs of children. The pattern of these costs seems consistent with the persistence of high fertility especially in rural areas. Direct cost appears sufficiently onerous but indirect (opportunity) costs do not seem to be a major consideration in the rural setting. These private costs, in any case, appear to be more than offset by the stream of economic benefits, not to mention non-economic satisfaction from children. By contrast, the social costs of high fertility seems considerable but are not material to the extent that fertility decisions are made within the household framework. Persistently high fertility may be further explained in the context of the threshold model. If a household is poor and/or rural (i.e., below the threshold), the graduation of a child from net consumer to net producer would, by definition, push the household up toward the threshold (and down the mother's labor force participation curve), helping to foster natural fertility. This graduation seems faster the poorer the household. The implication for policy, other than the obvious one of uplifting the masses from poverty, would seem to be to bring social cost considerations to bear on household fertility decisions through information and education.
While research on Philippine urbanization and spatial development has been very useful, researches on these areas are highly fragmented. This paper provides a survey of literature on urbanization and spatial concentration of population and economic activity in the Philippines. This is in the hope of putting spatial and urban issues in perspectives so that its better understanding may cumulate through research.
“Health is wealth,” though a cliche, has scarcely been uttered during this coronavirus pandemic. Not surprising as it has become second nature to individuals, while what we have is a public health crisis. So more appropriate is “health is economy.” Indeed, health and economy are intimately linked and interactive – sound public health is good for the productivity and sustainability of the economy which, in turn, generates jobs and goods needed for a healthy population.
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