BS Economics
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Item Restricted Does proximity to children affect healthcare utilization outcomes among older adults in the Philippines(2025-01-05) Ramos, Erin Therese D.; Samson, Miranda Marie Beatrice V.; Jandoc, Karl Robert L.This study examines whether proximity to children influences healthcare utilization among older adults in the Philippines. Using nationally representative data from the 2018 Longitudinal Study of Ageing and Health in the Philippines (LSAHP), the analysis investigates how three tiers of proximity (co-resident, same barangay, and outside barangay) are associated with inpatient care, outpatient care, and unmet need for healthcare. Guided by Andersen’s Behavioural Model of Health Service Use, logistic regression models sequentially adjust for predisposing, enabling, and need factors. Results show that having a child living in the same barangay increases the odds of inpatient utilization relative to co-residence, suggesting that nearby children may facilitate access during acute health events. For outpatient care, proximity effects diminish after full adjustment, though men with same-barangay children exhibit lower utilization. Proximity does not significantly predict unmet healthcare needs. Across outcomes, health status indicators, particularly chronic diseases and functional limitations, are the strongest determinants of utilization, while socioeconomic disparities, especially wealth, substantially influence outpatient use and unmet need. Additionally, gendered patterns emerge in the role of proximity: having a son in the same barangay is associated with higher inpatient use among older men and women and lower outpatient use among older men. Overall, the findings highlight that while proximity offers some advantages, healthcare use among Filipino older adults is shaped more strongly by health needs and socioeconomic resources. The results underscore the importance of strengthening formal healthcare access and support systems alongside family-based care.Item Restricted Brains without borders: how productivity loss from education mismatch locks the Philippines in the middle-income trap(2025-12-14) Arnaez, Ralph Enrico; Velasquez, Zaira; Balaoing-Pelkmans, Edylinda Anette O.This study investigates education-employment mismatch in the Philippines and its structural contribution to the country’s middle-income trap conditions. Using harmonized FIES-LFS microdata from the pre-pandemic baseline (2018) and post-pandemic recovery period (2023), the analysis applies an augmented Mincer wage equation and pseudo-panel cohort analysis to document mismatch patterns, persistence, and associated productivity implications. Results indicate a stable aggregate mismatch incidence of approximately 59%, masking a post-pandemic compositional shift toward overeducation. Required schooling is associated with high wage returns (+15.1%), while undereducation corresponds to a substantial and persistent wage penalty (-7.4%). Returns to overeducation declined markedly in 2023 relative to 2018, consistent with a post-pandemic scarring effect. Pseudo-panel estimates show strong persistence, with the majority of mismatched cohorts in 2018 remaining mismatched in 2023. When scaled, the estimated wage gaps associated with undereducation correspond to aggregate productivity shortfalls of roughly $1.76 billion, or 0.40% of GDP in 2023. Comparative benchmarking places the Philippines’ mismatch incidence above the ASEAN average. Collectively, these findings characterize education employment mismatch as a persistent structural feature of the Philippine labor market that aligns with observed limitations in effective human-capital utilization under the conditions of the middle-income trap.Item Restricted Poverty, inequality and welfare measures using consumption-based Engel-derived equivalence scales in the Philippines(2025-12-16) Dael, Aaron Philip; Tiu, Aedan Red; Solon, Orville Jose C.This paper provides Philippine-specific empirical evidence on the relationship of household size and consumption on food share as a welfare proxy and how poverty and inequality measures are affected when equivalized measures are utilized as opposed to per-capita expenditure measures. Earlier studies made by Balisacan (1992) and Albert et al. (2024) argued mixed evidence on the magnitude of economies of scale, thus emphasizing significant economies of scale. Despite this, recent studies introduced by Gibson (2002), Deaton and Paxson (1998), Lanjouw and Ravallion (1995), and Dudel et al. (2021) proposed that effects decreased as household and demographic composition effects were considered. Hence, following Engel demand theory and welfare-consistent equivalence scaling, an Engel-curve framework following Deaton-Paxson (1998) was estimated to determine the localized empirical context of the relationship between food share as a percentage of total expenditure, size of households, and the socioeconomic and demographic composition of households in the Philippines. This was compared with benchmark scales like the Square root and modified OECD models. These models are derived using survey-weighted microdata from the 2023 Family Income and Expenditure Survey (FIES). Results showed that the current per-capita expenditure approach understates welfare for larger-size households. Equivalizing households reclassifies inequality and welfare with varying intensity between methods. This proposes the need for the consideration of equivalence-scale-adjusted measures to properly target demographics for public policy and poverty alleviation. This study provides preliminary and foundational empirical evidence for welfare measurements at PSA’s institutional level.Item Restricted Beyond connectivity: why internet access and Philhealth coverage operate independently in Philippine healthcare utilization(2025-12-16) Cui, Robin Martin; Go Tian, Anthony Joshua; Solon, Orville Jose C.This paper examines the determinants of healthcare utilization in the Philippines, focusing on the roles of insurance coverage, digital access, and socioeconomic factors. Prior studies suggest that insurance and digital connectivity independently increase healthcare access when controlling for educational attainment, wealth quintile, age, urban residence, access barriers, marital status, number of living children, and employment status. (Finkelstein et al. 2012; Dorsey & Topol 2016). However, evidence on their interaction effects and distributional impacts in low- and middle-income countries remains limited. This paper integrates Grossman's health capital model (1972), Gertler and van der Gaag's full price theory (1990), and Veinot et al. (2018) and Crawford (2020) digital determinants framework (2005) to frame the research question from which an empirical model is derived. This empirical model is estimated using 2022 Philippine National Demographic and Health Survey data (N = 27,813) following multinomial logistic regression with cluster-robust standard errors. Results suggest that after controlling for illness severity and demographic factors, PhilHealth coverage is associated with higher face-to-face consultation odds by 94.2% (p = 0.04), but internet access shows no significant independent effect (p =0.070), and the two operate independently rather than synergistically (p = 0.143). Policy simulations quantify these effects at scale: achieving universal PhilHealth coverage would increase consultation rates by 0.27 percentage points (pp) , universal internet by 0.15 pp, and both combined by 0.37 pp, leaving 88.48 percent of ill women without care and demonstrating negative complementarity (-0.06 pp). These findings imply that expanding internet infrastructure alone will not translate into increased healthcare utilization without complementary policies addressing affordability, digital literacy, and institutional integration of telemedicine within the national health insurance framework.Item Restricted Educational attainment and time-related underemployment: evidence from the labor force survey 2018 and 2023(2025-12-16) Cabalu, Gabrielle Elise; Yaco, Madison Paege; Solon, Orville Jose C.This paper investigates how educational attainment influences the likelihood that a worker wants more hours of work, and if this relationship changes between 2018 and 2023, owing to the COVID-19 pandemic. A study by Felipe (2018) reflects how the desire for more working hours has long been persistent among the employed Filipinos. Moreover, reports from the International Labor Organization (2020) and the Philippine Development Institute for Development Studies (2022) suggest that the COVID-19 pandemic has further intensified this, significantly reducing total working hours and increasing the share of workers working less than the ideal 40 hours weekly. Becker’s (1964) human capital theory and the classic labor supply model of leisure-labor to frame the research question and draw the hypotheses that are used here. The empirical model is estimated using the Philippine Statistics Authority’s (PSA) Labor Force Survey for the years 2018 and 2023 to represent the labor market outcomes before and after COVID-19 pandemic. Logistic regression method was used to examine the probability that a worker wants more hours of work as a function of educational attainment and other control variables including the demographic, occupational, and regional factors. The logit model used to assess whether this relationship changed after the COVID-19 pandemic. Results suggest that, after controlling for other factors, the effect is negative and statistically significant for both high school (-0.1995, p = 0.021) and college and above (-0.4614, p <0.001), but small. This relationship did not significantly change between 2018 and 2023. This implies that, while policies focused solely on raising education level may not yield commensurate reductions in underemployment, educational attainment continues to be a strong and consistent indicator of job quality, regardless of economic shocks.Item Restricted The impact of tobacco advertising, promotions, and sponsorship on adolescent smoking behavior: evidence from the global youth tobacco survey (2000-2011) in the Philippines(2025-12-06) Agustin, Marc Gabriel L.; Lizares, Lucia Sabina M.; Solon, Orville Jose C."This paper assesses the impact of Tobacco Advertising and Sponsorship (TAPS) bans on adolescent cigarette smoking behavior. Prior studies by Blecher et al. (2008) and Ylitörmänen et al. (2020) suggest a 6.7% decline in per capita consumption and a 10.0% and 7.7% decline in youth smoking, respectively. In contrast, Stubbs (2021), Saffer et al. (2000), and Nelson (2010) present contrasting findings, highlighting the need for further investigation into their conclusions. This analysis integrates the model of rational addiction of Gruber and Koszegi (2000), alongside Becker and Murphy’s (1988) rational addiction model, to construct an empirical model that examines the effect of TAPS on adolescent smoking behavior. This empirical model is estimated using pooled data from the World Health Organization’s Global Youth Tobacco Survey for 2000, 2004, 2007, and 2011, and employs Cragg’s Two-Part Model and the Heckman Selection Model to assess smoking participation and intensity. Results of both models suggest a significant positive effect of the TAPS ban on curbing smoking prevalence, after controlling for socio-environmental, demographic, and socio-economic factors. However, the TAPS ban's effect on reducing smoking intensity is found to not be statistically significant, even as the advertising ban becomes more stringent, suggesting the impact of the ban is limited to participation rather than changing the behaviors of established smokers. Meanwhile, isolating the impact of the levels of advertising exposure of adolescents to cigarette advertisements shows a significant positive association with a reduction in smoking prevalence but not smoking intensity. The empirical findings are supported by the use of the Cragg Two-Part Model, given that the data empirically demonstrate the assumption of the two decision stages operating independently. These findings suggest that TAPS bans curtail adolescent smoking participation, but their impact is constrained by social environments. Therefore, policy strategies must be complemented by interventions that address the socio-environmental influences on adolescent behavior."Item Restricted Filipino domestic traveler decisions on party type and expenditures: an application of selection correction models(2025-12-30) Castillo, Andrea Mae C.; Rustia, Kirsten Jenelle J.; Sabarillo, Anthony G.This study investigates the discrete-continuous travel choices of Filipino domestic travelers using the selection correction models of Lee (1983) and Dubin and McFadden (1984). Using the socio-demographic and travel-related data in the 2022 Household Survey on Domestic Visitors (HSDV) dataset, we first estimated the travel party decision (i.e., the choice to travel solo or not) for leisure or non-leisure purposes. Conditional on each travel party choice, we then examined the determinants of travelers’ expenditure. The findings suggest that travelers without income (whose travel expenses might be shouldered by others) have higher expenditures than travelers with income (whose expenses might come from their own income). Traveling by land is inversely related to travel expenditures, while overnight trips have the opposite effect. The Dubin-McFadden model yielded more robust results.Item Restricted Healthcare inequalities in the Philippines: analyzing urban-rural disparities and the role of Philhealth(2025-06-03) Tañeca, Julia Marie B.; Villar, Kristen Gianne R.; Sabarillo, Anthony G.Using the Wagstaff and Erreygers Concentration Indices (or WCI and ECI, respectively), this study (i) estimates inequalities in healthcare utilization within two separate populations, urban and rural households, and (ii) measures PhilHealth’s contribution to inequality within each of these groups. In 2013, the distribution of healthcare utilization was pro-poor among urban households (WCI: -0.080, ECI: - 0.076) as well as for rural households (WCI: -0.016, ECI: -0.020). In 2017, both indices show that utilization inequality among urban households was still pro-poor but to a lesser degree compared to 2013 (WCI: -0.027, ECI: -0.022), whereas it became slightly more pro-rich among rural households (WCI: 0.003, ECI: 0.006). Based on WCI decompositions, PhilHealth coverage made the distribution of healthcare utilization more favorable to the poor in terms of relative or proportional differences between wealth classes—except in rural areas in 2017. Based on ECI decompositions, PhilHealth consistently made the distribution either less pro-poor or more pro-rich in terms of absolute differences between the rich and poor. This warrants a reassessment of PhilHealth policy reforms in the 2010s, in terms of their impact on service capacity to reach the poorest and geographically isolated populations.Item Restricted The number of children and retirement timing in the Philippines: a survival analysis(2025-05-30) Ileto, Raven Elisia T.; Reyes, Trisha A.; Sabarillo, Anthony G.This study examines the association between the number of children and the retirement timing of the Filipino elderly. Using the 2018 Longitudinal Study of Ageing and Health in the Philippines (LSAHP) dataset, the Cox Proportional Hazards model, and the Kaplan-Meier Survival Analysis, the study found that elderly with an above-average number of children (7 and above) are 25.1% less likely to retire earlier than those with a below-average number (0-4). A gender-stratified approach also revealed that female elderly with an above-average number of children have a 34.5% less likelihood of earlier retirement, while the effect for males is statistically insignificant. These results have implications for pension-system inadequacy and the financial burden from having many children.Item Restricted Does women's autonomy matter in the Philippines?: modeling fertility using a generalized poisson regression model(2025-05-29) Doctama, John Vincent D.; Ordinario, Jenny Mae A.; Sabarillo, Anthony G.This study sheds light on how women’s autonomy specifically (i) autonomy from gender norms or gender norms autonomy, (ii) autonomy for decision-making within a household or household decision-making autonomy, and (iii) autonomy in sexual decision-making or sexual autonomy—influence fertility outcomes. Using the 2022 NDHS data and a Generalized Poisson regression model, results suggest that gender role norms autonomy predicts variations in fertility in the Philippines even after controlling for confounders and socio-demographic variables. Household decision- making autonomy is found to be significant when interacted with household economic status and the female respondent’s education. Sexual autonomy is also found to be significant when interacted with religion. These findings underscore how various dimensions of women’s autonomy shape fertility outcomes in a developing-country context.Item Restricted Automation risk and job polarization in the Philippines: An occupational task-content approach(2025-05-31) Danao, Jose Vicente G.; Distajo, Kristel Jane R.; Sabarillo, Anthony G.This study investigates the contribution of automation to job polarization in the Philippines. Using employment and wage data from the merged FIES-LFS dataset (2018-2023), we first test for the presence of polarization and find a U-shaped relationship between occupation’s wage rank and employment growth characterized by rising employment in low- and high-wage jobs and a decline in middle-wage occupations. Using Generalao’s (2019) task portfolios and a distance based framework, we construct automatability indices for 443 Philippine occupations. However, empirical estimates reveal that the automatability index has limited and inconsistent effects on employment growth, while the task intensity results indicate continued growth in middle-wage occupations. These findings suggest that automation alone is insufficient to fully explain job polarization in the Philippine labor market, highlighting the need for labor policies that extend beyond technological adoption and address broader labor market challenges shaping the future of work.Item Restricted The role of internet speed in higher education: a cross- country fixed-effects analysis(2025-05-22) Carmona, Donne Alilel B.; Tayag, Juan Alfonso D.; Sabarillo, Anthony G.This study investigates the relationship between tertiary education enrollment rates and internet speed and usage across around 100 countries between 2017 and 2022. While previous literature has explored the role of digital access in educational attainment, few studies have examined the distinct effects of internet speed in a global context. Using fixed-effects panel regression models and controlling for key economic and demographic variables, this paper finds that internet speed has a statistically significant and positive association with gross tertiary enrollment, whereas internet usage alone does not show a significant effect. These results suggest that access to the internet is not enough and that the quality and speed of connectivity are crucial for enabling meaningful participation in higher education. The interaction between internet speed and usage was not statistically significant, possibly indicating no detectable complementarity effect between speed and overall usage.Item Restricted Parenting and early sexual initiation: a survival analysis(2025-06-09) Bio, Christina Hanna Jane A.; Morales, Lara Joy L.; Sabarillo, Anthony G.Building on the existing literature on family dynamics, this study provides a comprehensive survival analysis of the relationship between adolescents’ age at first sex and parenting styles in the province of Cebu. Using 2005 data from Cebu Longitudinal Health and Nutrition Survey and employing the Extended Cox Proportional Hazard model, the study finds that, relative to neglectful parenting style, authoritative paternal parenting has a statistically significant effect on delaying sexual debut. Maternal influence, by contrast, does not show statistically significant effects; instead, paternal strictness appears to be the key dimension that influences the timing of an adolescent’s first sexual encounter.Item Restricted Women empowerment in the digital world: exploring key ICT-related factors that would influence women to engage in online selling(2025-05-23) Llaneta, Christian Thio S.; Pescador, Madeleine Claire A.; Magno, Maria Cielo D.Item Restricted CocoNOT worth it? a cost-benefit analysis of the CME diesel blend mandate in the Philippines(2025-05-23) Garcia, Luis Rafael N.; Roque, Maria Isabel Y.; Magno, Maria Cielo D.Despite roughly two decades of coconut-based biofuel mandates in the Philippines, no study has comprehensively accounted for nor evaluated the full welfare effects this policy has on the economy on net. This thesis utilizes a cost-benefit framework to evaluate the Biofuels Act of 2006 from Q3 2007 to Q3 2024, and a two-stage least squares year fixed effects strategy using the exogenous fluctuations in CME feedstock use to isolate the causal effect of blending percentages on farmer wages. Results show that the policy caused a net economic loss of ₱133.37 billion from 2007 to 2024. Most of this came from using coconuts for local fuel instead of exports, which reduced foreign exchange earnings. Consumers also faced higher fuel prices, since CME has usually been more expensive than regular diesel. While the policy led to small gains in environmental and health outcomes, these were far too small to offset losses. Using these findings, the policy’s effects were projected for the proposed 4% blend mandate increase for October 2025 using a probabilistic sensitivity analysis under a Monte Carlo simulation. The sensitivity analysis showed that raising the blend rate to 4% in 2025 has a very low chance, only 3.96%, of delivering net economic benefits. Risks and expected losses increase with higher blend rates. Additionally, the regression results show that increased CME usage has no statistically significant effect on farmer wages. In contrast, coconut exports were found to have a statistically significant positive relationship with farmer wages. This suggests that diverting coconuts to local fuel production may have reduced export earnings, offsetting any potential gains in farmer income. Overall, the CME blending policy did not meet its main goals. It did not significantly improve farmer incomes. It increased consumer costs. It worsened the Philippine coconut export sector. It also carries high economic risk. Ultimately, it is worthwhile to consider halting or revising the blend mandate and exploring alternative strategies to achieve the policy’s original objectives.Item Restricted Tayo ay nasa fine dining restaurant! dining out and work hours: do longer work hours lead to higher food-away-from-home spending among household heads?(2025-06-05) Ellano, Franz Apdan; Viray, Allyana Camille Gallegos; Magno, Maria Cielo D.With the growth and shifts in Philippine labor conditions and food consumption patterns, this study aims primarily to shed light on the interplay between the number of hours worked by Filipino household heads in a week and their corresponding food away from home (FAFH) consumption behavior. Using a manually merged dataset consisting of the 2023 version of Family Income and Expenditure Survey (FIES) and Labor Force Survey (LFS), this study employed a Heckman two-step selection model, multinomial logistic regression (MLR), and marginal effects analysis to investigate how various employment-related and socio-demographic factors influence FAFH participation, expenditure levels, and type preferences across four FAFH categories: full service, limited service, canteens, delivery/others (with full service as the reference). Heckman results show that overworked household heads (those who work more than 40 hours per week) are more likely to participate in and spend more on FAFH, controlling for income and other variables. Furthermore, the results indicate that income has a positive effect on participation and expenditure (but with diminishing returns at higher levels), as well as urban locations (particularly in CALABARZON and NCR). On the other hand, older HHHs, larger family size, and male-headed households are more likely to participate on FAFH and spend less when they do. Moreover, results from MLR and marginal effects analysis show overworked HHHs are slightly more likely to prefer canteens and less likely to choose delivery, but the statistical significance of this relationship is weak. Work arrangements also affect preferences: home-based workers favor the delivery option, job rotation workers prefer full-service dining, and reduced hours workers do not prefer delivery use. Lastly, income plays a much stronger role where HHHs with higher earnings are more likely to opt for formal dining. Meanwhile, factors like age, education, gender, and family size, appear to have only a minor effect on the type of preferred food establishments.Item Restricted Exploring the role of economic empowerment and husband’s controlling behavior in spousal abuse: an analysis of Filipino women’s household dynamics(2025-05-23) Alcoran, Ira Marinelle A.; Fabellon, Nice Lauren R.; Magno, Maria Cielo D.This paper examined the association between the Women Economic Empowerment Index (WEEI) and the incidence of abuse among Filipino women, with a particular focus on married women. Findings display the protective role of women’s economic empowerment in reducing the likelihood of spousal abuse, especially when moderating husband characteristics (drinking alcohol and controlling behavior). Descriptive statistics revealed substantial disparities in the levels of economic empowerment and abuse risk across different marital statuses. It underscored how marital transitions reduce socioeconomic security and expose women to vulnerability. Remarkably, while physical and sexual abuse were widespread experiences, emotional abuse emerged as the most prevalent form, affecting women's mental health regardless of their marital status, indicating that no status is fully shielded from the risk of violence. Employing the logistic regression model through the baseline and extended model, the study confirms that husband characteristics are positively associated with spousal abuse, but increasing economic empowerment of women significantly decrease the risk of spousal abuse, affirming the importance of economic empowerment as a strategy in mitigating violence within the household and promoting women’s safety.Item Restricted Navigating uncertainty: the effect of West Philippine Sea geopolitical risk on Philippine Stock and Foreign Exchange Markets through OLS, GARCH, and Event Study(2025-06-06) Alcantara, Adrian M.; Tanjuatco, Rafael Emmanuel H.; Magno, Maria Cielo D.This study aims to find out the effect of geopolitical risk, specifically the West Philippine Sea dispute, on the Philippine stock and foreign exchange markets. The West Philippine Sea dispute continues to be a major concern for the Philippines and the sovereignty of territory. The study hypothesizes that the increased geopolitical risk due to the West Philippine Sea dispute lead to decreased market returns, PHP depreciation, and increased market volatility. Utilizing a custom West Philippine Sea Geopolitical Risk Index consisting of local news sources, namely The Manila Times, INQUIRER.net and Business Mirror, these hypotheses were tested using OLS, GARCH and event study empirical models. Results show that geopolitical risk from the WPS does not have a statistically significant effect on both the returns and volatility of the PSEi and USD/PHP exchange rate. In addition, the event study showed no significant abnormal returns around major WPS-related incidents. The Philippine markets are relatively insensitive to the local geopolitical events in the WPS. This can be likely due to investor sentiment in emerging markets having a stronger influence from global factors. The study contributes to the existing literature on emerging markets sensitivity to geopolitical risk in the context of the Philippines and West Philippine sea dispute.Item Restricted Occupation-based inequalities in retirement-aged Filipinos: evidence from the retirement consumption puzzle(2025-05-30) Irlandez, Rexian L.; Quillian, Francine D.; Solon, Orville Jose C.The retirement consumption puzzle refers to the unexpected decline in consumption following retirement, which contradicts the consumption-smoothing behavior predicted by the traditional Life Cycle Hypothesis. While existing literature attributes this drop to factors such as the substitution of food expenditures with home production, declines in work-related expenses, lack of retirement planning, and health shocks, most studies focused on developed countries. This study extends the discourse to a developing country context by examining the case of the Philippines, where social protection schemes like SSS and GSIS are not universal. Using a regression discontinuity design, we test for significant changes in household expenditure at potential retirement ages and find no population-level consumption drop, despite clear changes in employment and pension uptake at age 60. Disaggregating by occupation, however, we find significant consumption drops among elderly household heads in Skilled Agricultural, Forestry and Fishery Workers and Elementary Occupations groups that are largely rural, low-income, and less educated. We expand the regression discontinuity model accounting for age, income demographic factors and pension income to simulate the expenditure effects of retirement and find that the most common sample household with heads working in Skilled Agricultural, Forestry and Fishery Workers and Elementary Occupations need ₱8,867.60 and ₱7,189.52 additional pension per month respectively to maintain pre-retirement consumption levels. Given these results, we urge policymakers to develop targeted, occupation-specific measures to assist vulnerable groups in accessing social protection, as expanding access to low-cost pension schemes can help promote equitable retirement outcomes and ensure consumption stability among the most economically insecure elderly Filipino household heads.Item Restricted The differential effects of physical activity timing on academic performance between private and public schools(2025-05-29) Monterola, Jose Marie Manzanilla; Solon, Orville Jose C.Research in education and health economics (Montecalbo-Ignacio et al., 2017; Lotfi et al., 2024) points out that physical activity is positively linked to academic performance, primarily through better cognitive functioning. Furthermore, disparities in physical activity across schools can be understood as a function of investments in spatial, physical, and academic infrastructure. This study aims to examine if underinvestment in public schools can explain differences in academic performance between public and private schools. We utilized the education production function framework in understanding student behavior in maximizing academic performance (Bowles, 1970). Ordinary least square (OLS) estimates with balanced repeated replication (BRR) were used to regress physical activity categorized as before and after school—on academic performance across the three PISA domains: mathematics, science, and reading, controlling for student- and school-level covariates. We find that physical activity after school is positively correlated with all measures, and there exists a wide disparity between public and private school students. This difference persists even after controlling for other possible investments such as student ESCS, school infrastructure, and student-teacher ratio. We find that the main drivers of academic performance among private school students are well-structured physical activities, higher socio-economic status, and access to academic infrastructures. Policymakers could minimize this academic performance gap by reallocating resources toward improving infrastructure quality and access (both in academic and physical education) in public schools while addressing socio-economic barriers.