This paper uses a panel of 23 emerging markets for the period 1965?2008 to study the determinants of per capita GDP growth in the Philippines. The Philippines is an outlier in terms of agricultural exports, investment, research and development, population growth, and political uncertainty. Panel regressions reveal that these factors, along with the deficit, inflation, trade openness, the current account balance and the frequency of crisis episodes are siginificant determinants of growth. A growth index confirms that these determinants also capture the absolute and relative performance of each country over time and suggests that the Philippines has lacked a sustained period of relatively strong economic reforms.

“The essays by Calixto Chikiamco in this collection are keen and valuable commentaries on current economic affairs and policies. They call to mind economic policies that need change if, as a country, we are to sustain economic growth at a high and efficient level of performance. When they deal with economic policies, the essays try to disentangle them so as to expose what is wrong and to propose solutions at their fine roots. Thus, unlike some commentaries that criticize policies, he also offers the way out of the problems.” — Dr. Gerardo P. Sicat, former Socioeconomic Planning Secretary and National Economic and Development Authority Director-General

This paper explores the macroeconomic effects of improving public infrastructure in the Philippines. After benchmarking the Philippines relative to its neighbors in terms of level of public capital and quality of public infrastructure, and public investment efficiency, it uses model simulations to assess the macroeconomic implications of raising public investment and improving public investment efficiency. The main results are as follows: (i) increasing public infrastructure investment results in sustained gains in output; (ii) the effects of improving public investment efficiency are substantial; and (iii) deficit-financed increases in public investment lead to higher borrowing costs that constrain output increases over time, underscoring the importance of revenue mobilization.

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.

This paper estimates potential growth in the Philippines using different methodologies, and discusses growth prospects for the medium term. Several approaches can be used to estimate potential growth. It also describes a forecasting and monetary policy analysis system (FPAS) model. Using the estimated parameters and distributions for the stochastic shocks, solutions are derived for the variability in inflation and the output gap under alternative monetary policy reaction functions. Further work could extend the FPAS model for the Philippines in a number of directions.