Suchergebnisse

This study aims to give a detailed account of how household sources of livelihood, income, and poverty change under the pressure of four modernizing forces: (1) population pressure on closed land frontier; (2) implementation of land reform; (3) expansion of public infrastructures such as irrigation systems, roads, and schools; and (4) growing urban influences accelerated by improvements in transportation and telecommunication systems. This study was conducted in a village in Central Luzon where recurrent household surveys were done for 36 years from 1977 to 2013 encompassing the period of dramatic diffusion of modern rice technology. The major finding is that the interaction between the four modernizing forces and the diffusion of modern rice technology resulted in major economic and social changes that led to a rise in household income and prevented poverty from increasing. This study provides evidence contrary to the popular belief that the spread of modern agricultural technology and the encroachment of market activities into rural villages are harmful to the economic welfare of the rural Filipino people.

This study aims to give a detailed account of how household sources of livelihood, income, and poverty change under the pressure of four modernizing forces: (1) population pressure on closed land frontier; (2) implementation of land reform; (3) expansion of public infrastructures such as irrigation systems, roads, and schools; and (4) growing urban influences accelerated by improvements in transportation and telecommunication systems. This study was conducted in a village in Central Luzon where recurrent household surveys were done for 36 years from 1977 to 2013 encompassing the period of dramatic diffusion of modern rice technology. The major finding is that the interaction between the four modernizing forces and the diffusion of modern rice technology resulted in major economic and social changes that led to a rise in household income and prevented poverty from increasing. This study provides evidence contrary to the popular belief that the spread of modern agricultural technology and the encroachment of market activities into rural villages are harmful to the economic welfare of the rural Filipino people.

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 best practices that can help them progress together. Such cooperation is realized through the participation and commitments in regional blocs, such as the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), where cooperation comes in many forms. Exploring the patterns of such cooperation provides an understanding of how APEC has evolved. It may highlight the achievements and learn from shortcomings. Also, exploring patterns of such cooperation provides direction APEC may take in the next decades. The quality of cooperation may also reveal how member economies have fared so far in their participation, as well as their economic or political stance on certain issues. To do such analysis, however, it must be noted that there are pieces of information that cannot be easily discerned by quantitatively analyzing available structured data. Analyzing cooperation may require a different type of methodology. This paper, therefore, explores the concepts and potential uses of content analysis in understanding international cooperation.

Since the late 1990s, the internet has developed as a major force in transforming how companies do their business, which led to the rapid expansion of electronic commerce, or e-commerce. In 2016, the Department of Trade and Industry adopted the Philippine E-Commerce Roadmap in recognition to the potential of e-commerce in the expansion of Philippine businesses. In support to the Philippine E-Commerce Roadmap's first success criteria having 100,000 Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) doing e-commerce, this study investigated the determinants of e-commerce adoption using the Philippine Statistics Authority's Survey of Information and Communications Technology as well as the Annual Survey of Philippine Business and Industry. The results showed that internal factors primarily determine e-commerce adoption in the Philippines. These factors include firm size, availability of computers, access to the internet, and firm use of information and communications technology (ICT) in other aspects of firm operations. Further, external factors, such as the growth rate of the industry in which the firm belongs and the market share of the firm have no statistically significant effects on e-commerce adoption. Given these results, this study recommended five actionable steps. First, bottlenecks caused by uncertainty and security concerns should be addressed. Second, government agencies need to support MSME's e-commerce adoption. Third, government agencies should assist firms in adopting ICT. Fourth, government can help provide access to finance to firms intending to adopt e-commerce. Fifth, reducing the cost and improving the quality of internet services should be pursued.

In 1993, the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) published a report containing recommendations that recognized the economic interdependence and economic diversity of APEC economies and welcomed the challenge to achieve free trade in the Asia-Pacific. This came to be known as the "Bogor Goals." Nearing its conclusion in 2020, APEC sought a similar report that would guide APEC, which prompted the creation of the APEC Vision Group tasked to formulate a Post-2020 Vision for APEC. This study helped in the visioning process by providing an assessment of the perception of Philippine stakeholders. The results of the online perception survey showed that APEC's achievement of its economic goals is rated more highly compared to its environmental and social goals. Stakeholders are also more optimistic about APEC providing better trade and investment in the region than it is to achieving environmental and social scenarios. Further, stakeholders generally perceived that services needed increased priority than products post-2020. Interestingly, APEC's influence on shaping policies are weaker in government than the rest despite government being the prime participant in APEC. Also, Philippine stakeholders generally find that the APEC Business Travel Card is less beneficial. These results supported four recommendations. First, the limited awareness on APEC must be addressed. Second, Philippine stakeholders can maximize participation in APEC by adopting policies and best practices. Third, participation by Philippine stakeholders in seeking APEC project funding could be strengthened. Fourth, the requirements on the issuance of an ABTC for Philippine citizens could undergo a review.

This paper presents how APEC has evolved as an institution, the changes it undergoes and the challenges it has faced for the past decades. More importantly, this paper tries to enumerate the roles of APEC in positioning the Philippines in the global economy. Established in 1989 in Canberra, Australia, with twelve founding members, APEC desired to promote economic growth, foster and strengthen trade, and improve the living standards in the Region. Started as a simple program for sectoral and trade initiatives, APEC has come to achieve to become the largest are of free trade and investment by 2020. Forged and adopted in Bogor, Indonesia, in 1994, this challenge was known as the Bogor Goals, which aims to achieve long-term free and open trade not later than 2020; in particular, by 2010 for developed economies and by 2020 for developing economies. To ensure the achievement of Bogor Goals, three pillars were created as the main strategies of APEC. The first pillar is the Trade and Investment Liberalization. Through unilateral liberalization, APEC members voluntarily agree to liberalize a particular trade and investment area, including tariffs, non-tariff measures, services, investment, standards and conformance, customs procedures, and intellectual property rights, among others. This is done using the Individual Action Plans (IAPs), prepared by individual economy. The second pillar is Trade Facilitation, which eases and lessens the cost of doing business in the region by facilitating more efficient standards, customs, and other procedures relating to e-commerce, business travel, telecommunications, and government procurement, among others. The last pillar, the Economic and Technical Cooperation (ECOTECH), pertains to the collective actions of APEC to achieve its overall goals of attaining sustainable growth and improving economic and social well-being in the Region. [.]

As several countries have reduced tariff rates, other forms of regulatory measures that impact on trade have proliferated. These regulations, collectively known as Non-Tariff Measures (NTMs), can be imposed on both imports and exports. Using descriptive indicators, NTMs could be measured with coverage ratios (CR), frequency indices (FI), and prevalence scores (PS). For instance, the CR for all NTMs is found to be at 99.6 percent, which means that practically all of the imports value of the Philippines are affected. NTM chapters with the highest CR values, applied on all products, are Chapters C (pre-shipment inspection and other formalities), F (price-control), and G (finance) at 99.6 percent followed by Chapter B (Technical Barriers to Trade) at 89.5 percent. Across the different government agencies, it has been found that the Department of Agriculture (DA) and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) both implement the most number of NTMs with 422 and 103 NTMs, respectively. Moreover, both agricultural goods and manufactured goods have been shown to be highly regulated at 92.2 percent and 93.9 percent, respectively, albeit agricultural goods have a higher prevalence score (19.8) as compared to manufactured goods (8.9). Furthermore, between capital goods and consumption goods, results have shown that capital goods have a slightly higher frequency index (96.8%) as compared to consumption goods (93.7%) despite both showing a similar number of NTMs. The relationship between NTMs and trade has shown that the average number of NTMs applied on a product group tends to have no association either with the growth rates of imports of that product group or with technical measures. However, the number of non-technical measures show a negative correlation on the same. Likewise, imports growth is also negatively correlated with the number of consumer and customs NTMs although positive correlations were observed with process NTMs.

Despite several studies exploring innovation activities in the Philippines, no clear answer has been provided to the question of whether having foreign linkages can induce knowledge transfer and innovation. This study probes deeper into the role of foreign linkages to innovation activities of manufacturing firms in the CALABARZON region. Utilizing a probit estimation and an IV regression to control for endogeneity brought forth by omitted variable bias, the results show that foreign linkages can indeed positively affect a firm's likelihood to undertake product innovation that involves the development of a new product using a technology new to the firm. On the other hand, process innovation has consistently shown to be positively influenced by foreign linkages. Given these results, it can be inferred that having foreign linkages and participating in the global value chain impacts both process and product innovations positively. Thus, it is important to highlight the need to promote stronger regional and global linkages to sustain the manufacturing growth in CALABARZON. Moreover, supporting series of training that teach the 5S system through government channels like the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority and the various state universities and colleges are as important. Highlighting the role of industrial parks and recognizing the value of establishment-level data are also key points in this study.

MSMEs find it challenging to undertake innovation activities given their limited resources and capabilities. Studies on innovation in MSMEs have identified internal and external factors that affect innovation capabilities and activities, one of which is government support. Incentives such as tax deductions/credits, grants, subsidies and other similar instruments have been used by governments to promote innovation especially in MSMEs. Using the 2015 Survey of Innovation Activities of Establishments, this paper presents a profiling of innovation activities and characteristics of surveyed MSMEs in the Philippines, and attempts to estimate the impact of government incentives on their innovation behavior and outcomes. Findings indicate that more MSMEs undertake knowledge management, organizational and marketing innovationthan product or process innovation. Receipt of government financial support for innovation activities was found to have a positive impact on organizational and marketing innovation.

Despite several studies exploring innovation activities in the Philippines, no clear answer has been provided to the question of whether having foreign linkages can induce knowledge transfer and innovation. This study probes deeper into the role of foreign linkages to innovation activities of manufacturing firms in the CALABARZON region. Utilizing a probit estimation and an IV regression to control for endogeneity brought forth by omitted variable bias, the results show that foreign linkages can indeed positively affect a firm's likelihood to undertake product innovation that involves the development of a new product using a technology new to the firm. On the other hand, process innovation has consistently shown to be positively influenced by foreign linkages. Given these results, having foreign linkages and participating in the global value chain can truly have a positive impact on both process and product innovations. Thus, it is important to highlight the need to promote stronger regional and global linkages to sustain the manufacturing growth in CALABARZON. Moreover, supporting trainings that teach the 5S system by means of government channels TESDA and SUCs are as important. Highlighting the role of industrial parks and recognizing the value of establishment level data are also key points in this study.

The study focuses on the transport of vegetable and fruit produce from Mindanao, a major food producing area, to particular regions in Luzon and Visayas to meet increasing market demands. The estimated gravity model showed the key determinants of interregional trade. Economic growth in both sending and recipient regions is necessary for interregional trade to flourish. Economic growth and interregional trade are anchored on access to markets by various economic agents, which is facilitated by the presence of hard and soft infrastructure that make interregional exchange possible.Because distance drives up transport and marketing costs, the necessity of a good network of roads and ports that links production areas to consumer markets cannot be underestimated. The lack of an efficient transport and distribution system increases the cost of transporting agricultural produce, reduces the quality and quantity of those goods, and diminishes the profitability of actors involved in the supply chain. Inadequacy of infrastructure has been a major reason for the country's lack of competitiveness and attraction as a viable and profitable business destination.There is a scope for government intervention at two levels. At the macro level, government has a critical role to play in increasing investments in roads and ports, portside facilities, and related investments; in improving monitoring and coordination of markets; and in ensuring effective regulation at the national and local level.

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 agreement was signed last November 15, 2020 through a video conference with the abovementioned countries. RCEP is the largest free trade agreement and can be a catalyst for economic development for the Philippines. However, there are economic and political concerns being raised against RCEP. This paper contributes to the discussion on RCEP by providing a policy tool that calculates the impact of the trade agreement on exports and GDP. The calculations show that RCEP has a positive impact on Philippine exports and GDP. Other top gainers would be Vietnam and Korea.

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 moratorium on customs duties on electronic transmissions. Based on estimates of digitizable products, the foregone revenue of a moratorium represents about 0.10 percent and 0.65 percent of national government revenues using the average MFN rate and the bound tariff rate, respectively. Estimates based on broader definitions of electronic transmission range from 0.59 to 1.38 percent and from 3.68 to 8.59 percent of national government revenues using the average MFN rate and bound rate, respectively. However, there are practical difficulties and policy constraints which could limit the actual intake from tariffs. Various barriers to cross-border data flows could also adversely affect not only data-intensive industries but the economy more broadly. Thus, the country should support trade rules that facilitate cross-border data flows. At the same time, the government must invest in digital infrastructure necessary for an efficient and effective tax system fit for the digital economy.

Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) are known to enhance trade through reduction or elimination of barriers, such as tariffs on imported goods. The difference between the preferential tariff rate under an FTA and the most-favored-nation (MFN) rate can be significant enough to encourage trade under an FTA. The Philippines has signed several FTAs and has enjoyed a reduction and even the elimination of tariffs on specific commodities. This research aims to understand the relationship between preferential margin and FTA utilization rates in the case of the Philippines. It uses an empirical model to estimate this relationship using an FTA import ratio as a variable for utilization and the difference between MFN and FTA tariff rates as a variable for margin. Findings suggest that the preferential margin is positively associated with the utilization rates for FTA agreements. Results are found to be relatively robust after controlling for different fixed effects variables. Among the Philippines' FTA partners, margin is revealed to be significant in increasing imports from its ASEAN neighbors. Furthermore, the study found a positive and significant relationship between margin and imports of nearly all commodity groups.

In November 2015, the ASEAN Community composed of three (3) pillars: the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC), the ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community (ASCC), and the ASEAN Political-Security Community (APSC) was established as a response by the ASEAN Member states to the need to develop a Post-2015 Vision of a cohesive, economically integrated, socially responsible and a truly people oriented, people -centered and rules-based ASEAN. Each pillar corresponds to a blueprint, and are part of the general master plan called ASEAN Community Vision 2025 with the theme "ASEAN 2025: Forging Ahead Together". This study focuses on the AEC Blueprint 2025 and its characteristics and elements. After five years upon establishment, there is a need to assess how the Philippines has fared in achieving the key result areas in the AEC Blueprint 2025. By comparing the baseline with the most recent data, this study found that the Philippines is among the middle of the pack (ranking from 4th to 6th) among the ASEAN countries. In terms of AEC vision and goals, the Philippines performance suggests that the country is generally on track and is progressing in the right direction.