In this volume, a leading group of scholars pose the question, has the Philippine economy rejoined the dynamic East Asian mainstream and, if so, what set of policies and priorities are required to maintain the strong economic momentum of recent years? Successive chapters address issues related to growth and poverty, infrastructure and urbanization, education, health, the environment, energy, development finance, and governance and institutions. The book has been written with a broad audience in mind. First and foremost it is for readers in, and interested in, this fascinating and important country with a population that now exceeds a hundred million. Second, it will appeal to those in the broader development community with an interest in the analytical and policy challenges that democratic, middle-income countries face as they struggle to lift their citizens out of poverty and to achieve broad-based and environmentally sustainable growth.
An examination of all major facets of the Philippine economy and development policy, this title looks to the past and to the future using approaches that are descriptive, analytical, interpretive and comparative. It assesses trends since the 1980s, identifies major policy issues, and provides a balance sheet of achievements and deficiencies.
Against the backdrop of the global financial crisis and rising food, fuel, and commodity prices, addressing poverty and inequality in the Philippines remains a challenge. The proportion of households living below the official poverty line has declined slowly and unevenly in the past four decades, and poverty reduction has been much slower than in neighboring countries such as the People's Republic of China, Indonesia, Thailand, and Viet Nam. Economic growth has gone through boom and bust cycles, and recent episodes of moderate economic expansion have had limited impact on the poor. Great inequality across income brackets, regions, and sectors, as well as unmanaged population growth, are considered some of the key factors constraining poverty reduction efforts. This publication analyzes the causes of poverty and recommends ways to accelerate poverty reduction and achieve more inclusive growth. it also provides an overview of current government responses, strategies, and achievements in the fight against poverty and identifies and prioritizes future needs and interventions. The analysis is based on current literature and the latest available data, including the 2006 Family Income and Expenditure Survey.
After the Galleons tracks the progress of Philippine foreign trade in the nineteenth century from the end of the galleon trade to the Philippine Revolution. Distributed for the Center for Southeast Asian Studies at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.
The Philippine economy has grown rapidly since 2010, but despite this growth, poverty and inequality remain high. Two-thirds of the poor live in rural areas, and the weak performance of the agriculture sector has contributed to the slow improvement in livelihoods. The challenge for agriculture will further increase, with climate change posing a growing threat to the sector. But agricultural transformation to spur sustained growth and reduce poverty is still possible under climate change with aggressive institutional reforms and implementation of the right mix of policies and programmes. The identification of the suitable policy and programme combination requires an accurate assessment of the key drivers of agricultural growth and food security; the impacts of climate change on agriculture and the overall economy; and the effectiveness of policies for adaptation and growth. This book addresses these big issues, focusing on enhancing the adaptation capacity of the Philippine agriculture sector. It is designed to provide a much-needed base of knowledge and menu of policy options to support decision- and policymaking on agriculture, climate change, and food security. The volume uses newly generated data, modelling outputs, and innovative analyses to provide a scientific basis for a variety of adaptation measures under different sets of climate change scenarios to guide decision-makers in strategic planning and policy formulation. “As we have actually experienced in Leyte, an island province in the Visayas where Super Typhoon Yolanda (Haiyan) struck, disasters caused by natural hazards could completely negate economic gains, devastate families and shatter dreams. Our greatest challenge is to make ourselves better prepared for and be more resilient to such disasters. Natural hazards need not always lead to loss of so many lives and properties. This book shows us ways and provides tools to draw up climate change and socioeconomic scenarios at the regional and provincial levels, allowing us to identify strategies for mitigating climate change risks.” — Ernesto M. Pernia, Secretary of Socioeconomic Planning, National Economic and Development Authority, Philippines “This book by top Philippine researchers combines state-of-the-art biophysical and economic modeling of climate impacts and adaptation policies with in-depth synthesis of agriculture, natural resources, climate trends, and policies. It provides a comprehensive assessment of climate change impacts on agriculture and the broader economy to provide important insights for Philippine policymakers.” — Dr Cynthia Rosenzweig, Head, Climate Impacts Group, NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies and Co-Founder of the Agricultural Model Inter-comparison and Improvement Project (AgMIP)
This book explores the complex interplay of culture and economics in the context of Philippine cinema. It delves into the tension, interaction, and shifting movements between mainstream and independent filmmaking, examines the film distribution and exhibition systems, and investigates how existing business practices affect the sustainability of the independent sector. This book addresses the lack or absence of Asian representation in film distribution literature by supplying the much-needed Asian context and case study. It also advances the discourse of film distribution economy by expounding on the formal and semi-formal film distribution practices in a developing Asian country like the Philippines, where the thriving piracy culture is considered as ‘normal,’ and which is commonly depicted and discussed in existing literature. As such, this will be the first book that looks into the specifics of the Philippine film distribution and exhibition system and provides a historical grounding of its practices.
As early as the first millennium A.D., the Philippine archipelago formed the easternmost edge of a vast network of Chinese, Southeast Asian, Indian, and Arab traders. Items procured through maritime trade became key symbols of social prestige and political power for the Philippine chiefly elite. Raiding, Trading, and Feasting presents the first comprehensive analysis of how participation in this trade related to broader changes in the political economy of these Philippine island societies. By combining archaeological evidence with historical sources, Laura Junker is able to offer a more nuanced examination of the nature and evolution of Philippine maritime trading chiefdoms. Most importantly, she demonstrates that it is the dynamic interplay between investment in the maritime luxury goods trade and other evolving aspects of local political economies, rather than foreign contacts, that led to the cyclical coalescence of larger and more complex chiefdoms at various times in Philippine history. A broad spectrum of historical and ethnographic sources, ranging from tenth-century Chinese tributary trade records to turn-of-the-century accounts of chiefly "feasts of merit," highlights both the diversity and commonality in evolving chiefly economic strategies within the larger political landscape of the archipelago. The political ascendance of individual polities, the emergence of more complex forms of social ranking, and long-term changes in chiefly economies are materially documented through a synthesis of archaeological research at sites dating from the Metal Age (late first millennium B.C.) to the colonial period. The author draws on her archaeological fieldwork in the Tanjay River basin to investigate the long-term dynamics of chiefly political economy in a single region. Reaching beyond the Philippine archipelago, this study contributes to the larger anthropological debate concerning ecological and cultural factors that shape political economy in chiefdoms and early states. It attempts to address the question of why Philippine polities, like early historic kingdoms elsewhere in Southeast Asia, have a segmentary political structure in which political leaders are dependent on prestige goods exchanges, personal charisma, and ritual pageantry to maintain highly personalized power bases. Raiding, Trading, and Feasting is a volume of impressive scholarship and substantial scope unmatched in the anthropological and historical literature. It will be welcomed by Pacific and Asian historians and anthropologists and those interested in the theoretical issues of chiefdoms.
‘Diagnosing the Philippine Economy’ describes the conditions that depress economic growth in the Philippine economy and their causes and potential solutions. The studies’ findings provide insight for politicians, academicians, and economists into the issues and their potential solutions.
This book presents the advantages of the circular economy as a powerful - and inevitable - model for tackling the current challenges against shrinking resources and establishing the resource efficient economy. The experienced contributors present the status and strategies of circular economy implementation in several countries with hands on experience to protect the environment while promoting the circular economy through legislative requirements, best practices adopted and popularizing the idea of circulation of resources amongst the researchers & academia, policy makers, industry, and the general public at large. The book advocates model that consists of designing products and processes with a view to endlessly recycling them evolving a greater scope of sustainable development.
