Population: Does It Matter? Revisiting an Old Issue

For many years, the Philippines has neglected the issue of population growth, consequently finding itself now virtually alone among middle-income developing countries as not having made any significant demographic transition. Because of this, the Policy Notes implies that the country has remained in a low-level equilibrium trap which involves a chain of low economic growth, high unemployment, low productivity, persistent poverty, declining human capital and high fertility feeding back into low economic growth and so on and so forth. To break this vicious chain, a clear and consistent population policy, matched by an adequately funded action program, is said to be needed.population, population and poverty

Why Slowing Population Growth in the Philippines is an Imperative

Sometime in the early 1970s, the Philippines and Thailand had about the same population size. Today, the Philippine population has grown so much bigger than that of Thailand. Why? Because Thailand pursued a population program with such vigor that it was able to bring down its annual population growth rate. In the mid-1960s, the Philippines had a higher per capita income than Thailand. Today, Thais have per capita incomes almost two-and-a-half times higher than Filipinos. Is there a connection somewhere?demographic economics, population and family relation

Feminismo y su relación con la prostitución

Cuando se va a tratar temas tan estigmatizados como es el feminismo y la prostitución o trabajo sexual, uno se encuentra frente a la difícil tarea de como abordar el tema. Es realmente particular que dos posiciones que en muchas ocasiones se han enfrentado sufran de un mismo mal, ser prejuiciadas, y en mayor o menor grado, de forma directa o indirecta considerados tabú, de lo que no se habla, para no ser considerada como una extremista que odia a los hombres, con tendencias lesbianas y frígidas, como es el caso del estereotipo de feministas, u ofender la moral e ir en contra de las buenas costumbres y hablar de la prostitución. Este trabajo busca no encontrarse influenciado por ningún de los estigma antes mencionados, se trata de ser objetivo, dentro de las limitaciones que cualquier persona puede tener

Population management, RH law, and inclusivity

Taking off from the self-evident fact that the population variable centrally figures in both labor and product markets, this paper argues that the growth rate of population, its age structure and spatial distribution should be key considerations in a country's development strategy to promote rapid and sustained economic growth, full employment, poverty reduction, and social inclusion. This represents a shift from the inordinate emphasis on the demand for labor, i.e., job creation. Significantly reducing unemployment and poverty can be achieved not solely through job generation but also by managing the quantity and quality of the work force, which is determined, with a lag, by the growth rate and structure of the population. The paper provides a perspective on population as it impacts the labor market and poverty. It then discusses issues of fertility and unmet needs for family planning and reproductive health services in relation to poverty. A sidelight on pressing concerns (gender-based violence and lack of RH services) brought about by Super-typhoon Yolanda is presented. This is followed by a glimpse into regional experience in population policy, family planning and poverty as exemplified by Thailand and Bangladesh. The penultimate section provides simulations and projections using different assumptions of contraceptive prevalence rates that result in various scenarios of fertility and population growth

Population, Poverty, Politics and the Reproductive Health Bill

Following an earlier paper titled “Population and Poverty: The Real Score” (UPSE Discussion Paper 0415, December 2004), the present paper was first issued in August 2008 as a contribution to the public debate on the population issue that never seemed to die in this country. The debate heated up about that time in reaction to a revival of moves to push for legislation on reproductive health and family planning (RH/FP). Those attempts at legislation, however, failed in the 13th Congress, and again in the 14th Congress. Since late last year, the debate has been heating up further on the heels of President Noy Aquino’s pronouncements seeming to favor RH/FP, though he prefers the nomenclature “responsible parenthood”. With some updating of the data, this paper remains as relevant as ever to the ongoing public debate. It is being re-issued as a Discussion Paper for wider circulation.population, reproductive health, poverty, Philippines

Factors Affecting the Choice of Location: A Survey of Foreign and Local Firms in the Philippines

This paper addresses the locational behavior of foreign firms and of local enterprises, including the more important determinants of industrial location. The overall findings reveal that the factors considered decisive by the majority of firms are largely of the social overhead type.location decisions

Population as public interest

The population issue - now passé elsewhere in the developing world, even in the poorer countries - remains a durable puzzle in the Philippines. On the one hand, a majority of Filipinos regard rapid population growth as an impediment to socioeconomic development, requiring policy intervention; on the other hand, virtually nothing is being done about it as the government appears immobilized owing to opposition from the conservative Catholic Church hierarchy. Central to the population issue are the negative externalities that sustained high fertility brings to bear on economic growth, the environment, inequality and poverty. These externalities plus the fact that women, particularly in poor households, are having more children than their desired number, as repeatedly shown by surveys, constitute strong grounds for an unambiguous population policy. Population is evidently a public interest issue that the national government must address squarely objection from some religious groups notwithstanding

Probing Beneath Cross-national Averages: Poverty, Inequality, and Growth in the Philippines

"Recent research employing cross-national regressions shows that the incomes of the poor move one-for-one with overall average incomes, suggesting that economic growth is virtually sufficient for poverty reduction. This paper attempts to probe beneath cross-country averages by analyzing provincial data on the poverty–growth nexus in the Philippines. The results show that economic growth explains a lot but not all about poverty. The balance that seems fairly large can be accounted for by other factors (e.g., infrastructure, human capital, and location-specific characteristics) and institutions (e.g., political economy and agrarian reform). Thus, while growth is indeed good for the poor, it is not good enough. How much is not good enough is illustrated by this paper and will become clearer as subnational analysis is extended to more countries. For policy purposes, an intracountry examination of the determinants of poverty reduction seems clearly superior to cross-country analysis.

Migration remittances, poverty and inequality: The Philippines

The paper looks into the effects of international migration and remittances on household incomes and well-being, poverty reduction, human capital investment, saving, and regional development in the home country. Remittances appear to raise average incomes for all income groups but more so for the richer households than for the poorer ones, a finding that is consistent with that in several Latin American countries. Such eyeballing of the data is supported by econometric analysis which further reveals that remittances enhance household savings, spending on education and health care, and help the poor move out of poverty. Analysis at the regional level shows that, ceteris paribus, remittances also appear to contribute importantly to regional development, although overall increases in regional incomes do not seem to benefit low income households as much as the upper income ones

Is labor export good development policy?

Labor migration began to be promoted in the late 60s or early 70s by a number of Asian countries burdened by problems of unemployment, poverty, and scant foreign exchange. However, labor export was generally intended to be a stop-gap measure while governments were trying to implement policy reform to whip their economies into shape. Indeed, labor migration as policy has largely faded in many of our Asian neighbors but remains a major development policy plank in our country. What has made the Philippines specially cut out to be a labor exporter? What are the benefits and costs of migration? Is the export of labor sustainable? Are we content with being a labor exporter? Is there a need to rethink the country's labor export policy