IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/phs/dpaper/201501.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Why Has Latin America Sped Up Ahead of the Philippines in Economic and Political Reform?

Author

Listed:
  • Rosa Alonso i Terme

    (School of Economics, University of the Philippines Diliman)

Abstract

This paper compares trends in key economic, political and social development outcomes in the Philippines with those of Latin America, particularly since the 1990s. To do so, it uses standard indicators of development, including measures of institutional quality and good governance. The paper finds that Latin America is not only at a higher level of development, but has also made faster progress in most areas than the Philippines. This is especially the case as regards GDP per capita, poverty, education, health, infrastructure, social protection, right to life and security of the person and corruption. The Philippines, however, performs significantly better as regards gender and race and in some “niche” areas of ICT, including high-tech exports, while posting slightly higher ratings in government effectiveness. Both regions do well in the areas of macro-economic management and financial sector development. Overall performance as regards the quality of democracy is also roughly comparable. The paper argues that key policy drivers of the divergence include Latin America’s: a) higher and better public spending; b) greater transparency and integrity in both the public and private sectors; and c) freer and more competitive markets.

Suggested Citation

  • Rosa Alonso i Terme, 2015. "Why Has Latin America Sped Up Ahead of the Philippines in Economic and Political Reform?," UP School of Economics Discussion Papers 201501, University of the Philippines School of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:phs:dpaper:201501
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.econ.upd.edu.ph/dp/index.php/dp/article/view/1471
    Download Restriction: no

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. William Easterly & Ross Levine, 2016. "The European origins of economic development," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 21(3), pages 225-257, September.
    2. Joseph J. Capuno, 2005. "The quality of local governance and development under decentralization in the Philippines," UP School of Economics Discussion Papers 200506, University of the Philippines School of Economics.
    3. Stanley L. Engerman & Kenneth L. Sokoloff, 1994. "Factor Endowments: Institutions, and Differential Paths of Growth Among New World Economies: A View from Economic Historians of the United States," NBER Historical Working Papers 0066, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    More about this item

    Keywords

    public economics; development economics; political economy; economic systems;

    JEL classification:

    • H11 - Public Economics - - Structure and Scope of Government - - - Structure and Scope of Government
    • O11 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Macroeconomic Analyses of Economic Development
    • P16 - Economic Systems - - Capitalist Systems - - - Political Economy of Capitalism
    • P51 - Economic Systems - - Comparative Economic Systems - - - Comparative Analysis of Economic Systems

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:dpaper:201501. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

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

    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.

    If CitEc recognized a reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with 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.

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

    IDEAS is a RePEc service hosted by the Research Division of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis . RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.