I’d like to present two items that Dr. Michael Alba, former Dean of the College of Business and Economics at DLSU, gave me permission to post online.
The first is a paper he wrote, titled Why has the Philippines Remained a Poor Country? Some Perspectives from Growth Economics. It makes for difficult reading for the layman but aside from the equations, the main points he wants to make are understandable enough. He believes that the Philippines is at a crucial point in its history, where it can either go the way of failed states or achieve a remarkable turnaround:
Is there hope for the future? Recall that, from the inference made by Jones (1997 and 2002) on the very long-run evolution of the world distribution of living standards, the Philippines is right on the demarcation line of countries headed for different futures. If it gets its act together—and this is a big if—the country may yet join the high performers that are tending toward high steady-state levels of output per worker. But to do so, it must exhibit a high growth rate (faster than that of the technological frontier) over a long period of time (as Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea, and Taiwan have done), by persistently pushing out the steady-state level of output per worker to which it is headed, not so much by achieving a higher saving rate, a lower population growth rate, and a
higher quality workforce, although these will help because of synergistic effects, but by significantly improving its total factor productivity. Growth and modern development economics tell us, however, that this is not so easily done, because it involves improving the quality of the country’s social infrastructure by taking on the vestiges of our history and culture that are growth-constraining, such as flawed leadership that values loyalty more than competence, an entrenched political and business oligarchy that unashamedly promotes and jealously protects its narrow self-interests, and an incentive structure that is
nepotistic rather than meritocratic and that rewards thievery and corruption more than honest, hard work. In particular, three absolutely essential and indispensable elements for social transformation are: an effective, efficient, and high-quality education system, a vigilant civil society that demands high accountability from the government, and a competent, corruption-intolerant government administration of firm purpose committed to reform and transformation.
I watched him distill his paper into a PowerPoint presentation, which also addressed some concerns about whether or not the economy is really improving, and whether the improvements that are taking place, are sustainable. He gamely presented his findings to high school and college students at the forum we both attended last Monday. Here’s the presentation, which I hope you will download and then we can all discuss it some more. I belive facts and numbers, economy-wise, are less mysterious to John than me, so maybe he’d like to take a look-see first.
Here is the paper.
Here is his PPT presentation: economic briefing-2.ppt
Technorati Tags: economy, philippines, politics
October 25th, 2007 at 12:36 am
In his paper, Alba mentions industrialization only once. I believe that Alba’s prescriptions, if followed would result in an improvement in human development without an acceleration of growth as in the case of Kerala. In this scenario, any acceleration in growth manifested may be due to level effects rather than an acceleration in long run growth rate.
October 24th, 2007 at 8:01 pm
Let me comment on two points being discussed here. I will label them points A and B:
Point A: Dr. Alba highlighted three factors that prevent growth of the country, pardon me if I got them all wrong:
1.) A flawed leadership–leadership that valued loyalty more than competence.
2.) Politicians that unashamedly promote and jealously protects its narrow self-interests.
3.) Political incentive structure that reward thievery and corruption more than honest, hard work.
Point B: Three elements absolutely essential and indispensable for social improvements:
1.) Effective, efficient, and high quality education.
2.) A vigilant civil society that demand accountability from government.
3.) A competent, corruption-intolerant goverment administration of firm purpose committed to reform.
Point A is present in our present government. Point B is not present. There is a vigilant civil society, but there is also the lovers of the scammers, like, for example, in this blogsite. So, if we follow the logic of Dr. Michael Alba, it is very clear why the Philippines is at the bottom of the pit. See, MC_90?
October 24th, 2007 at 6:39 pm
This is difficult reading for the layman, indeed, much more for an ordinary blogger like me. I’m sure the lovers of the scammers here will be quick to find fault with this entry here of mlq3 even without so much the benefit of enough comprehension about the content. They sure will cite justifications in order to defend their idol’s good points, however small, which, definitely, would be contrary to Mr. Alba’s thesis. As usual. For one, MC_90 would dazzle us with his eloquence again with that mirthful HA-HA-HA to spite us hater of the scammers, his way of a camouflage defense of his idol, camouflage because he’s embarrass defending someone with a statistical popularity and trust ratings of negative 30. And we all know why the Filipino people has given his idol that so low a rating, the reasons of which are exactly the points being raise here by Dr. Michael Alba. As for me, I agree with Dr. Alba.
October 24th, 2007 at 6:30 pm
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