Join the De La Salle University-Angelo King Institute for Economic and Business Studies on its webinar titled "The Political Economy of Structural Transformation in the Philippines and the Role of the Conglomerates: Will This Time be Different?" on March 13, 2023, at 1:00 pm.
Read the full abstract here:
This paper argues that the main gateway for the Philippines to develop and move up to become an upper-middle-income economy—and eventually, a high-income economy—is to transform its economy, that is, expedite the shift of workers out of agriculture and to produce and export more complex products with a higher income elasticity of demand. The actual growth rate is constrained by the balance-of-payments equilibrium growth rate, about 6%, the maximum the country can attain without incurring balance-of-payments problems. We use the Pritchett-Sen-Werker political-economy framework to analyze the role of different types of firms and the deals environment during successive Philippine administrations, until the current one. Due to their economic size and political power, only the nation’s conglomerates will be able to lead this transformation. However, the country’s large groups do not have incentives or see the need to shift into the production and export of tradables. This means that the country will be able to register positive growth but will not become an internationally competitive economy, and will not be able to achieve, and especially maintain, the growth rate targeted by the current administration, 6.5%-8% per annum during 2023-2028.
DlSU-AKI Director Jesus Felipe will serve as the speaker.
