Letter to the Board of Regents on the age requirement for the UP Presidency
There is nothing in the law, the Charter, the Code, or the University's cherished traditions to suggest that advanced age must be a factor in the administration of the University's affairs.
Nine lives to save
PhilHealth says they enrolled nine out of ten Filipinos. This film says PhilHealth protects only one in ten.
WASH for child health: Some evidence in support of public intervention in the Philippines
Like in many developing countries, diarrheal diseases remain a top cause of child mortality and morbidity in the Philippines. Partly to address this problem, the government has undertaken programs to expand access to safe water and sanitation facilities, especially among poor households.
Where does the money go? Assessing the expenditure and income effects of the Philippines’ Conditional Cash Transfer Program
Evaluation studies on conditional cash transfers (CCT) in the Philippines found small if not insignificantly different from zero effects on household consumption.
A blow to UP’s honor
We deplore in the strongest terms the violence perpetrated last Wednesday, September 17, by a group of protesters against Secretary Florencio B. Abad outside the U.P. School of Economics auditorium.
Shocks to Philippine households: Incidence, idiosyncrasy and impact
[With Carlos Antonio Tan, Jr.] Using a nationally representative sample of households, we assess the overall incidence of different shocks, the extent to which they simultaneously affect households in the same area, and their impact.
Fiscal transfers and gerrymandering under decentralization in the Philippines
While gerrymandering in developing countries is often pushed by local authorities to secure political advantages, fiscal grants systems under decentralization may also have the same result. We investigate this issue to identify the correlates of the growth in the number of cities in the Philippines in 2001-2010.
Population, poverty, politics and the Reproductive Health bill
The population issue has long been dead and buried in developed and most developing countries, including historically Catholic countries. That it continues to be debated heatedly in our country merely testifies to the lack of progress in policy and action. The Catholic Church hierarchy has maintained its traditional stance against modern family planning (FP) methods,...
Are improved water supply and sanitation always safe for children? Implications for attaining the MDGs in the Philippines
(with Carlos Antonio Tan, Jr.)
In pursuit of Millennium Development Goal 4, the government expands its provision of water and services to more households. Using propensity score matching, we find such interventions reduce the incidence of child diarrhea, a persistent top cause of child mortality, though not always.
Perks and public provisions: Effects of yardstick competition on local government fiscal behavior in the Philippines
(with Carlos Antonio R. Tan, Jr., Vigile Marie B. Fabella) Using a panel dataset from cities and municipalities in the Philippines in 2001, 2004 and 2007, we investigate whether yardstick competition influence local government fiscal decisions.
Whose child is it anyway? Differential parental investments in education and children under kinship care in the Philippines
(with Xylee J. Javier) While education is universally held to enhance a child human development, policies must still contend with parental biases. Here, we investigate if school attendance of young household members aged 6-12 years old varies with their kinship ties to the household heads in the Philippines.
Household decisions and child health: Estimating the links between water treatment and the incidence of diarrhea using non-recursive two-equation causal models
(with Carlos Antonio R. Tan, Jr.)
The treatment of drinking water is advocated to reduce the incidence of child diarrhea. However, evaluating the impact of water treatment with only observational data leads to biased estimates since it could be the occurrence of child diarrhea that induced the household to treat their drinking water. To deal with the...
