Growth, Poverty, and Food Policy in the Philippines: Lessons for the COVID-19 Era and Beyond
Majah-Leah V. Ravago, PhD
Ateneo de Manila University
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Arsenio M. Balisacan, PhD
Philippine Competition
Commission
MAIN PRESENTER
Majah-Leah V. Ravago is Associate Professor at the Department of Economics, Ateneo de Manila University. Her research interests include energy economics, economics of natural disasters, development economics and resource economics. She served as the President of the Philippine Economic Society (PES) in 2018. In 2016, she was awarded the Outstanding Young Scientist (OYS) in the field of Economics by the National Academy of Science and Technology (NAST). She earned her BS in Business Economics and MA in Economics from the University of the Philippines. She obtained her PhD in Economics from the University of Hawai‘i in 2012 under the East-West Center (EWC) Graduate Degree Fellowship Program.
The growth of the Philippine economy has accelerated since 2000. However, during this period, the response of poverty reduction to growth appears broadly and comparatively weak, suggesting that growth has not been inclusive. While the most recent official estimates of poverty show significant poverty reduction, it is not apparent that the decline is robust to poverty measurement and whether other economic and household data corroborate the finding.
Food prices have been known to be an important determinant of household welfare. Since food constitutes a high proportion of the consumption basket of the less well-off households, changes in food prices are expected to have differential effects on household welfare. In recent years, the prices of food have risen faster than those of non-food consumer goods. This could have partly influenced the pattern of poverty in the midst of economic growth.
Our objective is to revisit the growth-poverty conundrum using the more recent national household-level data from 2000 to 2015. Compared to the earlier studies on the subject, we focus on the current decade of relatively sustained growth. Using Engel food shares as proxy for household welfare and taking account of differential welfare effects of food price changes across segments of the population, we show that economic growth in recent years would have been strongly pro-poor, if not for the misguided policy of food self-sufficiently. The government’s recent move to dismantle the quantitative restriction (QR) regime on rice imports in favor of tariffs is a step in the right direction.
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Market Concentration and Household Inequality: Exploring the Link in the Case of the Philippines
Geoffrey Ducanes, PhD
Ateneo de Manila University
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Arsenio M. Balisacan, PhD
Philippine Competition
Commission
The study explores the theoretical and empirical link between market concentration and household inequality in the case of the Philippines. Market power, if it results in high prices, could lead to inequality in access to goods and services. Market power can also lead to excessive profits, and if the businesses are already owned by wealthy individuals, to greater concentration of wealth.
The study uses nationally representative establishment and household surveys in the past two decades to examine whether such links are borne by the data.
Linkages Between Nationalism and Economic Growth: Economic Miracles and Development Puzzles in East and Southeast Asia
Marjorie S. Muyrong
La Trobe University, Australia
Marjorie Muyrong is a PhD Sociology candidate at La Trobe University, Australia and currently on study leave from Ateneo de Manila University. While teaching at Ateneo’s Economics Department, she has been also involved in a number of projects in climate change resilience and tax reform with Canada’s International Development Research Centre, Philippine Institute for Development Studies, and the Department of Trade and Industry. Her earlier research engagements involved poverty reduction with the Asian Institute of Management, National Economic and Development Authority and United Nations Development Program. Her PhD dissertation topic under the Social Inquiry Department of La Trobe asks whether nationhood and solidarity has impacts on growth and development outcomes. She obtained both her bachelor’s and master’s degree in Economics at Ateneo de Manila University. She was also recently involved with Ateneo’s FASSSTER for economic modelling as well as with some other COVID-19 related papers.
East and Southeast Asia brings forth an interesting case of comparative development. World Bank data shows that while the average income in East Asia and the Pacific was at 19,330 USD in 2018, Singapore was at 101,532 USD. However, the average income in the Philippines was at USD 8,951. Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, and Myanmar recorded even lower average incomes. Economists point to an array of factors to explain this economic disparity from human capital issues, institutional divergence and governance constraints. More Asia-centric scholars, on the other hand, point to Asian values that determine growth in Asia and relate such values to what was seen to be an orientation towards growth in a Weberian framework.
In a multidisciplinary attempt to contribute to the literature of growth and development, linkages between processes of economic expansion and nationalism are explored. Borrowing from sociologist Liah Greenfeld, it is argued that nationalism fosters not only social structures conducive to growth, it also encourages international competition thereby reorienting society towards sustained growth. An economic sociology of growth and development, therefore, emerges from a multidisciplinary survey of literature that ultimately provides a transmission mechanism from nationalism to economic growth and development. Even in the face of a pluralistic society, when there is nationalistic spirit, institutions become inclusive thereby facilitating not only capital accumulation, technological innovation and human capital development. On the other hand, countries plagued with issues of national identity are plagued with extractive institutions that ultimately lead to poor work ethics and low levels of productivity.