Search Results (38)

Financing for Development: Domestic Resource Mobilization(2001). Malaluan, Nepomuceno,. David Ricardo (The Principles of Political Economy and Taxation, 1817) defines political economy as "an inquiry into the laws which determine the division of the produce of industry amongst the classes who concur in its formation." In this connection, the study of economics is consciously and organi...

Restructuring the Electricity Industry: Competition, Regulation and Distribution Issues...(2001). Malaluan, Nepomuceno,. The economy-wide impact of the restructuring of electricity industry makes it an important area for continuing study. This paper looks into the proposed restructuring of the electricity industry, to be accomplished through legal reform, from three perspectives. First, the paper examines the restruct...

Financing for Development: Domestic Resource Mobilization(2001). Malaluan, Nepomuceno,. This paper looks into the most crucial challenge confronting the Macapagal-Arroyo administration in relation to the mobilization of domestic resources. This is none other than the implementation of a coherent and practicable tax reform agenda whose goal is to increase the tax effort (measured as tax...

The Move To Shift To Gross Income Tax: Wrong Timing(2001). Malaluan, Nepomuceno,. This paper was presented at the Forum on the Macapagal-Arroyo Tax Reform Program organized by Action for Economic Reforms and the Human Development Network and held on 22 October 2001. The paper asserts that the proposed shift to gross income tax does not address the pressing problems of the moment,...

Presentation on Coherence at the International Conference on Financing for Development(2002). Sta Ana III, Filomeno,. This paper briefly tackles the main points on coherence contributed by Action for Economic Reforms during roundtable discussion at the International Conference on Financing for Development held in Monterrey, Mexico on 20 March 2002.It begins to describe coherence as associated with consistency and i...

Problems of Governance in the Provision of Global Public Goods(2002). Sta Ana III, Filomeno,. This paper was presented at the Manitese conference titled "From Utopia's Skies to History's Dust: Building solidarity and justice in the world," Firenze, 20-22 April 2002.Through concrete examples of threats to peace, health and economies, this paper illustrates the failure in the provision and man...

Short-Term Capital Flows, A Menu of Regulatory Options for the Philippines(2002). Cantos, Jessica R.,. Just when a few lessons were about to be learned from a crisis supposedly triggered by "external factors" (the Thai baht), an internal crisis triggered a new round of speculation that plunged the Philippine stock market to its lowest level in 10 years and eroded the peso's value against the dollar t...

Social Protection in the Philippines(2002). Sta Ana III, Filomeno,. This paper was presented at the United Nations Development Programme inter-regional workshop titled "Social Protection in an Insecure Era: A South-South Exchange on Alternative Policy Responses to Globalization," Santiago de Chile, 14-16 May 2002.This paper identifies the most critical problems and ...

Neo-Liberalism is Dead, Long live Neo-Classical Economics(2002). Sta Ana III, Filomeno,. Columbia University economist Dani Rodrik claims that “neo-liberalism is dead”. The claim points out the vanished intellectual hegemony of neo-liberal economics - embodied in the Washington Consensus - due to the failures experienced by countries that strictly adhered to its policy prescriptions, on...

GMA Must Do Unpopular Things (Or the Whys and Hows of Increasing Revenue Collection)(2002). Sta Ana III, Filomeno,. Written in 2002 amidst talks of an impending fiscal crisis, the policy paper proposes steps to address the budget deficit. The paper argues that there is not much room for spending cuts, considering that there is already underinvestment in many areas of the budget. Thus, the objective should be to i...

Will GATS Win More Jobs for the Philippines?(2003). Ofreneo, Rene E.,. This paper was written just before the Fifth Ministerial Meeting of the World Trade Organization in Cancun, Mexico. It called on the government to open up the debates on the Philippine commitments concerning the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) and seek the views of the local service in...

Beyond Particularistic Interests: Economic Nationalism as a Platform for Development(2003). Chavez, Jennina Joy,. Scanning the various groups that have appropriated the term "nationalism" along with their equally varied expressions thereof, this paper argues that the truly progressive brand of nationalism that is proper to the current Philippine context is one where the inclusion of the interests of the margina...

The Philippine Electric Power Industry Reform: A Tragedy of ADB and World Bank Private Sector Fundamentalism and Unaccountable Government(2003). Malaluan, Nepomuceno,. This paper looks at the privatization process of the Philippine electric power industry. It outlines the developments in the law governing the industry, with emphasis on the measures that steered privatization. It provides an overview of the role that the Asian Development Bank and the World Bank pl...

The Need to Challenge the Private Sector Fundamentalism of the IFIs in Power Sector Program(2003). Malaluan, Nepomuceno,. In the 1990's, fundamental power sector restructuring swept developing countries around the world, starting with private sector participation in public utilities (e.g. Build-Operate-Transfer modalities) and ending with outright privatization. At each step the heavy hand of the World Bank and the Asi...

From Lazy Liberalization to Lazy Protectionism(2003). Morales-Alikpala, Cristina,. This paper presents arguments that support the call for selective industrial policy, drawing largely from the lessons of the East Asia. Contrary to mainstream economic wisdom, policy interventions to promote industries are necessary and cannot simply be generic. As market failures are idiosyncratic,...

Policy Interventions in Industrial Promotion(2003). Morales-Alikpala, Cristina,. This piece is critique of the President's recent pronouncements to slow down tariff reduction schedules. It is argued in this piece that by merely focusing trade policy, be it liberal or protectionist, the government fails to address the roots of Philippine industrial atrophy....

Taxes in the Country Must Be Made Certain(2004). Sta Ana III, Filomeno,. Taxation has always been a serious problem for the Philippines. This article enumerates a number of causes for this problem and puts forth several propositions to address it, while keeping in mind the essential features of a development-friendly taxation system....

What Factors Influence Exchange Rate Behavior?(2004). Sta Ana III, Filomeno,. This piece reviews the various factors that affect the behavior of a currency's rate of exchange with other currencies, and tries to trace the sources of the recent volatility of the Philippine Peso's exchange value in the currency markets....

Maynilad Rehab Plan: Tinimbang Ka Ngunit Kulang(2005). Malaluan, Nepomuceno,. This is an evaluation of the Maynilad rehabilitation plan, submitted for court resolution in May 2005. The paper asserts that the plan puts the burden of paying off the company’s debts on taxpayers and consumers. ...

New Sources of Developing Financing: The Case for a Green Tax(2005). Sta Ana III, Filomeno,. The paper discusses the benefits of imposing a global “green tax” or environmental tax (e.g. taxing carbon emissions) as a means of financing the MDGs, addressing global poverty and environmental degradation. Like any tax policy evaluation, the paper looked at the objectives and the framework of the...

Revisiting the Cement Cartel Issue and the Need to Free Up the Market(2007). Aldaba, Rafaelita Mercado,. The article asks if the lowering of the tariff on imported cement will be able to stimulate competition in the domestic cement industry (with its alleged cartel). The paper argues that while the elimination of trade barriers is a necessary condition, it is not sufficient to generate effective compet...

Undervaluation Spells Growth(2007). Sta Ana III, Filomeno,. The article reviews a study by Dani Rodrik on the impact of an undervalued currency on the performance of economies. The study’s finding is clear-cut: that an undervalued currency has a causal impact on growth. The finding challenges the preference of the Philippine government and the Bangko Sentra...

The Legal System and the Economy(2007). Dumlao, Luis F.,. The paper tackles the impact of a country’s legal system on the performance of its economy. It compares the performance of common law systems and civil law systems and points to studies showing that the first kind performs better than the latter. As to whether the Philippines should adopt the common...

On the National Broadband Project(2007). De Dios, Emmanuel S.,. The National Broadband Network (NBN) Project has been approved under allegedly questionable circumstances but even if the contract is above board, the project must be opposed in principle, simply because it is bad policy. Concern about the project relates to two points: the first goes to the substan...

Can We Ever Turn A Remittance-Driven Economy Around?(2007). Ofreneo, Rene E.,. OFWs sent home more than $14 billion dollars in 2007 compared to only $1 billion in 1990. The OFW remittances are one reason why the economy has been growing despite a stagnating agro-industrial base and an ever-expanding non-OFW informal sector since the l980s. Promotion of labor migration, which b...

JPEPA Ratification: Threat Economics(2007). Ofreneo, Rene E.,. Malaluan, Nepomuceno,. Malaluan and Ofreneo’s article is a response to “JPEPA: Why the Need to Ratify” written by Josef Yap, Erlinda Medalla and Rafaelita Aldaba. The Yap paper asserts that failure to ratify the said treaty will result in the loss of opportunities like GDP growth, job generation and poverty reduction, whi...

How Relevant is Financing for Development?(2007). Sta Ana III, Filomeno,. Financing for development (FFD) is thought to be the answer on how to acquire the tremendous resources needed to attain the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). FFD has become an overarching framework that weaves together major themes or what the official document calls “leading actions.” To wit: t...

Pragmatism in US Public Finance(2007). Dumlao, Luis F.,. In 1985, during the heyday of Reaganomics when the mantra was to reduce taxes and balance the budget by reducing the size of government and its expenditures, the US Congress passed the Gramm-Rudman-Hollings (GRH) Law. It required the reduction of the US budget deficit on a staggered basis until a ba...

Man’s Waterloo?(2007). Angara, Alex,. Populations in the Philippines and around the world lack of access to safe drinking water. With population growth as well as lack of education and apathy about the water problem and related environmental concerns, sustainable access to water will become more difficult. Such in turn can exacerbate th...

Economic Development of Indigenous Communities(2007). Hoyer, Robert,. It is important that development organizations do not neglect the socio-economic realities of their target populations. Socio-economics here acts as a measure of bounded culture, that is, the range of options available to a particular individual or organization relative to any given circumstances. ...

Second-best Institutions(2008). Sta Ana III, Filomeno,. Institutions that were designed to ensure the accountability of public officials such as the Ombudsman have failed to accomplish their mandate. Under these circumstances, “second-best institutions” are the ones that seem to work. Laudable, thus, are the efforts of institutions such as the Senate in ...

Douglass North, Killing Us Softly with His Song(2008). Alba, Michael M.,. Philippines. “Throughout history, human societies have been organized to solve the problem of violence. Surprisingly, there have only been three forms of social orders: the primitive one of the hunters-gatherers, the limited access order (LAO) of almost all states over the last 10 millennia, and ...

Rethinking Food Security(2008). Cantos, Jessica R.,. This article was written in April 2008, when rice prices in the international market reached about $1,000 per metric ton, up from $430 in the beginning of 2008. It blames policy makers for the country’s dependence on rice imports and the resulting food insecurity. It says that the international rice...

Temper the Appreciation, says GMA. Is that Enough?(2008). Sta Ana III, Filomeno,. The appreciation of the Philippine peso poses a concern for the economy. The BSP has reacted by purchasing dollars and liberalizing the outflow of capital. The intent of these measures, however, is to slow down the peso appreciation and to smoothen the price fluctuation. The measures—and they are i...

There is Nothing Godly about Enforced Motherhood(2008). Estrada-Claudio, Sylvia,. The article reports the case filed in the Court of Appeals to invalidate City of Manila’s Executive Order No. 003, which banned the use of “artificial contraceptives” in city’s public healthcare facilities. It also narrates the impact of the policy on mothers and families, especially those coming fr...

Global Collective Action(2009). Sta Ana III, Filomeno,. Leaders of developed and developing countries all recognize the need for collective action to tame the worldwide recession. But collective action is easier said than done. Protectionism is tempting as jobs and incomes at home are vanishing. This essay argues that such inward-looking and mercantili...

Fiscal Stimulus and Global Collective Action(2009). Sta Ana III, Filomeno,. If we liken the search for a solution to the US recession to a jigsaw, the key is to find the critical, central, but complex piece (or set of pieces) to complete the puzzle. A well-designed stimulus plan for the US is at best a necessary but insufficient condition. The missing piece is the interna...

The Global Crisis: Its Implications on the Work of Development NGOs(2009). Sta Ana III, Filomeno,. This briefing paper about the global crisis and its consequences is mainly intended for the use of non-government development organizations (NGDOs), especially those working in East Asia. The paper intends to help public policy reformers, writers and researchers, educators and trainers, and grassroo...