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Item Restricted A study on the effects of the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program on child labor outcomes(2016-12) Galano, Aaron Christopher Anthony P. ; Yu, John Daryl B.; Jandoc, Karl Robert L.Child labor is a serious issue in the Philippines as more than 3 million children are affected – many of which are involved in hazardous work. The Pantawid Pamilya Pilipino Program (4Ps), a conditional cash transfer (CCT) program, grants cash to poor households upon the fulfillment of stipulated conditions – one of which involves sending children to school. Given its structure, the 4Ps seems to be an apt policy in dealing with issue. This study explores the impact of the 4Ps program on child labor incidence and number of working children using propensity score matching. Average treatment effects on the treated (ATTs) are computed for the given outcome variables and are compared. The 2011 results present positive ATTs that are statistically significant, indicating that 4Ps households have higher incidence and number of children working on average. In 2014, this result vanishes, suggesting a reduction in presence of child labor among 4Ps households. This is supported by lower ATT values for beneficiary households in comparison to 2011. However, the ATT values of 2014 prove to be insignificant, signaling the need for more conclusive evidence through other methods. Nonetheless, the study does hint on the potency of the program to combat child labor.Item Restricted Fiscal decentralization and regional economic growth: the case for the Philippines(2016-12) Madridejos, Joanne Nicole Marie L.; Tipan, Aaron Cielo G. ; Escresa, Laarni C.In the past years, there has been an increasing policy trend towards fiscal decentralization, especially in developing countries. This practice is expected to promote rural economic development by increasing government efficiency and responsiveness, and for that reason, it became the subject of many empirical studies. However, the existing theoretical and empirical discussions which address the question whether decentralization accelerates economic growth portray mixed results. This study aims to fill this gap by measuring the effect of fiscal decentralization in regional economic growth in the context of the Philippine economy using the different measures of decentralization introduced by Uchimura and Suzuki (2009) and another innovative measure by the researchers. Using fixed effects model in the empirical analysis of the Philippine regions from 2001 to 2011, excluding National Caspital Region (NCR) and Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), this paper demonstrates that increasing the capabilities of the local government units to self-generate their sources of revenue and their fiscal autonomy until it reaches its optimal level of decentralization have a positive effect on regional economic growth. Moreover, among all the measures of fiscal decentralization, revenue decentralization has the largest economic significance which suggests its important role on regional growth.Item Restricted The impact of meteorological disasters on price inflation: the Philippine case(2017-05) Antonio, Abigail Kyla D. ; Aranzaso, Jhio D. ; Ravago, Majah-Leah V.Due to its geographical location, the Philippines is vulnerable to the risks brought about by typhoons that are frequently experienced in the area. We aimed to shed light into the impact of meteorological disasters in the country, specifically on the Philippine financial market. Using data on the price inflation of rice, corn, meat, and fish from 2009 to 2015, we applied the Autoregressive Distributed Lags (ARDL) Model to determine the impact of disasters on price inflation. The study found that meteorological disasters have a generally upward impact on price inflation, particularly observed after 1 or more months. If not addressed, the increase in the prices of these goods may lead to a decrease in the purchasing power of the consumers who may have very well been affected by the disaster themselves.Item Restricted The impact of micro-banking offices on loan accessibility: empirical evidence in the Philippines(2019-05-28) David, Maria Khlya Lancelot C. ; Pilapil, Agatha C. ; Esguerra, Emmanuel F.Developing countries such as the Philippines have always aimed for sustainable development. A major aspect of this kind of development is poverty reduction and inclusion for all, a pro-poor growth. Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas has already specified targets, one of which is the implementation of BSP Policy No.694, “Amendment of Regulations on the Establishment of Other Banking Offices and Notes to Microfinance.” The policy includes a provision where the micro-banking offices are allowed to disburse or release micro-loans and collect loan payment and other charges. The objective is to cause household borrowers to shift from informal loan sources to formal loan sources, specifically to microfinance institutions. This paper evaluates whether the observed shift to formal loan sources between 2008 and 2014 can be attributed to the said policy. Using a multinomial probit regression, the researchers examine different socio-economic variables that could possibly affect the household head’s decision on loan source availment. Sex, total income, work type, insurance, and grants are among these. Micro-Banking Office (MBO) density per municipality is used as the policy indicator to determine if the BSP’s policy action, which took place in 2010, can explain the observed outcome in 2014. Findings show that the presence of MBOs decreases the probability of a household availing from informal sources (family and friends, informal lenders). This supports the view that the significant shift of loan availment source, informal to formal, can be attributed to the said policy. This indicates the effectiveness of BSP policy on establishment of MBOs, improving then the financial inclusion in the country.Item Restricted Local knowledge and local institutions in community-driven development: an analysis of baseline project preferences in the KALAHI-CIDSS program(2016-06) Glova, Adrian Matthew G. ; Reside, Renato Jr. E.Community-Driven Development (CDD) is a development approach that decentralizes decision-making and resource management at the grassroots level. In theory, doing so will make projects more responsive to the needs of communities compared to top-down interventions as it utilizes local knowledge. Hence, this paper attempts to shed light on local knowledge by identifying individual-varying and community-varying factors that influence project preferences using a multinomial logistic regression. Next, the possibility of elite capture and the effectiveness of local institutions in articulating community preferences are also examined. These are important queries because elite capture and ineffective institutions make it difficult to achieve CDD objectives of community empowerment and inclusive participation. This is done by comparing preferences between and within the household and barangay level data, while accounting for differences in gender, education and wealth. A probit model is also employed to identify factors making the match of household and barangay captain (representing local political elites) preferences more or less likely. In sum, local knowledge was proven to be responsive to the demands of communities as project preferences move in accordance with the needs of respondents. The possibility of elite capture was also established given the wide divergence in project preferences between community members (households) and local political elites (barangay captains). The same can be said with project choices according to differences in gender, educational attainment and wealth. Finally, the probit model also suggests that male and more educated barangay captains are less likely to reflect the preferences of their constituents. This not only reinforces the possibility of elite capture in KALAHI-CIDSS but also stresses the need to implement mechanisms to improve the capacity of local leaders and local institutions in aggregating and articulating community preferences.Item Restricted Identifying the relationship between altruism and generosity with the bandwagon effect(2018-04-23) Po, Aina Bernice U.; Cabaero, Carlos C. ; Capuno, Joseph J.The purpose of the paper is to see whether bandwagon effect contributes to a higher sense of altruism. Eighty students from the UP School of Economics were recruited to participate in a classroom experiment. The participants were first asked to answer a questionnaire detailing their socioeconomic and psychological characteristics. Then they were randomly assigned into two groups to play modified dictator games where an average contribution was announced to one of the groups to induce a bandwagon effect. The control group played four games with five rounds each, with Game 1 and 3 played where each player was given and initial endowment of ₱200.00 and Game 2 and 4 being played with individual endowments of ₱300.00. The treatment group was asked to play a similar setup, with the exception that an announcement of the average contributions of the group were given before Games 3 and 4, respectively. The increase in allocations from Games 1 to 3 and Games 2 to 4 were recorded for both test groups. Test of means between the increased allocations of each group showed that all significant differences revealed the treatment group was more generous than the control group, highlighting the possibility of a bandwagon effect. Ordinary Least Squares linear regression analysis was carried out using a model that showed the relationship of the amount allocated with the bandwagon effect, alongside key socioeconomic and psychological variables. The results show that the bandwagon effect is insignificant in influencing allocations. Instead, various socioeconomic and psychological variables, like amount of personal interactions stress in social media and school, as well as personal and familial levels of disposable income have more significant effects on an individual’s altruism and generosity.Item Restricted The impact of gender equality in the workplace on firm productivity(2019-12-11) Pascual, Alanis Anne B. ; Samson, Maria Mikayla D. ; Daway-Ducanes, Sarah Lynne S.Gender inequality has been a pressing issue worldwide, with a growing literature on its effects on various sectors. This study adds to the literature by exploring the relationship between firm productivity and gender diversity in the workplace, particularly in terms of ownership, top managerial positions, and overall employment in the firm. By conducting Multivariate Linear Ordinary Least Squares (OLS), Pooled OLS, and Panel regressions on the World Bank’s 2009 and 2015 Enterprise Surveys for the Philippines, the different gender diversity measures are linked to the various measures of firm productivity. The findings show the importance of the actual influence of women, not merely their presence, in realizing the positive effects of gender diversity on firm productivity. Having a female top manager has no robustly positive, significant effect on productivity per se, but may have a positive significant effect when interacted with the percentage of female workers in the workplace. The estimates associated with the firm’s overall workforce are heavily dependent on factors, such as firm size and skill-type of employees. These results highlight the importance of macroeconomic policies and legislation that encourage firms to create a conducive and welcoming environment, not only for the sake of firm growth and productivity, but ultimately, for economic development as well.Item Restricted Determining the interplay between the services and manufacturing sectors in the Philippines and the role of services in expanding global value chain participation(2018-05-31) Sawali, Akkiara Symonn May Z. ; Servida, Marielle Faye D. ; Esguerra, Emmanuel F.This paper analyzes the interconnection between the manufacturing and services sectors which are the top performing sectors in the country. It looks at the shares of services embedded in manufacturing and computes for total and services backward linkages in the manufacturing industry. It turns out that services value-added in manufacturing has held an average growth rate of 48.87 percent throughout 2000 to 2011 increasingly growing at a considerable rate, paving a phenomenon described as the “servicification of manufacturing”. The paper also looks at services’ important role in cross-border value chains and into data that show which services sub-sector accounts for the most value-added in exports, specifically manufacturing exports. Findings show that the greatest share is held by the wholesale, retail, hotels, restaurants and transportation services.Item Restricted The impact of adverse weather conditions and financial development on remittances(2017-12-18) Redelicia, Rose Margaret G. ; Tiu, Ellaiza V. ; Mendoza, Adrian R.This study tests for the behavior of remittances in times of thin financial markets and extreme rainfall condition to determine whether remittances serve as insurance or investments. Given the assumption that migrant workers are altruistic, it is assumed that remittances would increase in times of extreme weather conditions and low levels of domestic credit. But contrary to the hypothesized results, migrants decrease their remittances in times of adverse weather conditions. Furthermore, there is a positive relationship between financial development and remittances. These results are in favor of the investment motive of remittances. However, the positive relationship with the foreign exchange rate, inflation rate, and unemployment rate and the negative relationship with the interest rate suggest otherwise. They still seem to support the initial hypothesis that migrant workers remit altruistically, seeking to meet their families’ lack of disposable income and domestic credit. Evidently, migrant motives for remittances cannot be solely for insurance or investment. As presented in the model, both play into consideration.Item Restricted How effective do economic growth in countries translate into remittance growth? an analysis of the Philippines remittance flows(2019) Co, Johann Christian J. ; Concepcion, Adrian Jeremiah G. ; Jandoc, Karl Robert L.This paper seeks to understand economic performances in host countries translate into growth in remittances for recipient countries. By analyzing the determinants of remittance flows of Overseas Filipino Workers (OFW) to the Philippines, and extrapolating effect of external economic shocks on remittance flows, this paper uses oil prices as a factor to test the sensitivity of remittance flows to exogenous shocks. After categorizing the data to oil and non-oil producing OFW destination countries, a Vector Autoregression (VAR) function and an Orthogonal Impulse Response function (IRF) is employed to test the cumulative effects of multivariable relationships on GDP growth, remittances, and oil prices. Despite empirical results being largely statistically insignificant due to shocks being possibly dependent on primary driving factors, our analysis shows a growth in GDP of migrant host countries will potentially translate to a growth in remittances to the migrant homes countries.