IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/phs/prejrn/v46y2009i2p183-219.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Geography and the evolution of rural nonfarm sector in the Philippines, 1988-2006

Author

Listed:
  • Jonna P. Estudillo

    (Foundation for Advanced Studies on International Development, Tokyo, Japan)

  • Charity Gay Ramos

    (Joint Graduate Program, Tokyo, Japan, and National Economic and Development Authority, Philippines)

  • Keijiro Otsuka

    (Foundation for Advanced Studies on International Development, Tokyo, Japan)

Abstract

This paper aims to assess the changing impact of distance on the development of rural nonfarm sector by exploring the changing allocation of rural labor force between the farm and nonfarm sectors in the Philippines using provincial-level data from 1988 to 2006. The impact of distance of a province from a major city on the growth of its rural nonfarm sector did not change over time because of the concentration of infrastructure developments in provinces located near the major cities. A well-developed infrastructure system and the availability of an educated labor force appear to be the most potent stimuli in the transformation of the rural economies as these two factors have simultaneously induced the reallocation of rural labor force away from the farm toward the non-tradable sectors such as construction, trade, and transport. The labor absorption capacity of the rural tradable sector (e.g., manufacturing) has been critically affected by the improvements in electricity and concrete roads, not by the quality of human capital, as this sector continues to employ unskilled labor.

Suggested Citation

  • Jonna P. Estudillo & Charity Gay Ramos & Keijiro Otsuka, 2009. "Geography and the evolution of rural nonfarm sector in the Philippines, 1988-2006," Philippine Review of Economics, University of the Philippines School of Economics and Philippine Economic Society, vol. 46(2), pages 183-219, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:phs:prejrn:v:46:y:2009:i:2:p:183-219
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://pre.econ.upd.edu.ph/index.php/pre/article/view/1/676
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    More about this item

    Keywords

    development of rural nonfarm sector; modernizing factors; modern agricultural technology; Philippines; Asia;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • O15 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Economic Development: Human Resources; Human Development; Income Distribution; Migration
    • O18 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Urban, Rural, Regional, and Transportation Analysis; Housing; Infrastructure
    • O33 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Technological Change: Choices and Consequences; Diffusion Processes
    • O53 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economywide Country Studies - - - Asia including Middle East

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:phs:prejrn:v:46:y:2009:i:2:p:183-219. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: RT Campos (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/seupdph.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.