Boston Hospitality Review: Winter 2018

Table of contents: Blockchain Technology & its Implications for the Hospitality Industry By Tarik Dogru, Makarand Mody, & Christie Leonardi -- How Does My Neighbor Feel About my Airbnb? By Makarand Mody, Courtney Suess & Tarik Dogru -- 5 Keys to Successful Hospitality Leadership By Sarah Andersen -- Cutting Through the Online Hospitality Clutter: 10 Best Practices for Organic Visibility By Leora Lanz & Juan Lesmes -- When is a Group a Chain, and a Chain a Brand? By Christopher Muller -- À la Carte Dining in a Banquet Setting: Is it Feasible? By Peter Szende and Ally Run

The Role of PIDS and Its Contribution to Research and Policymaking in the Philippines

Established in 1977, the Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PIDS) has been an important research resource in the country. It has served to bring together an unprecedented concentration of intellectual minds from institutions and organizations all over the country and abroad--to engage in an independent agenda that has generated a prolific body of work with a strong orientation and focus on policy. But how effective has this been? The author gives a brisk overview of why the wealth of insights and recommendations have not translated into enhanced developmental outcomes and laments that Philippine governments since at least Macapagal and Marcos have never built on each other--they "just selectively chose what they liked, not what the country needed."policy research, Philippine development

The Recent Recession and Rising Protectionism in Developed Countries: Some Thoughts on the ASEAN Economies

This paper has been presented at the Southeast Asia Program luncheon seminar in Cornell University, Ithaca, New York on April 11, 1985. Analysis suggests that bilateral trade grow rapidly during 1962-1981. To realize the country’s full potential, internal barriers and trade regime prove to be an important areas of concentration.trade sector, General Agreement on Tariff and Trade, ASEAN, recession, protectionism

China's WTO Entry: Effects on Its Economy and Implications for the Philippines

This paper investigates the implications of China’s accession to the World Trade Organization in December 2001 for the Philippines based on an analysis of Philippine-China bilateral trade structure, a presentation of the commitments made by China for its WTO accession, and a discussion of this significant event on China’s own economy. It points to finer applications of the theory of comparative advantage, e.g., identifying niche markets, building brand images, and engaging in strategic cooperation or competition with international partners, as the ways to survive in, if not profit from, the emerging world order.competitiveness, foreign direct investment, China, WTO entry, bilateral trade structure

Development and the Upland Resource Base: Economic and Policy Context, and Lessons from a Philippine Watershed

Economic growth and environmental damage are associated, but the relationship is neither linear nor even monotonic. The nature of the growth-environment link depends on the changing composition of production and consumption and on growth-related changes in techniques and environmental policies. The definition and enforcement of property rights over natural resources and environmental quality is another important element. Moreover, environmental and economic policies interact: in effect, every economic policy that affects resource allocation is a de facto environmental measure. In increasingly commercialized and decentralized economies, the responsibility for environmental management and the design and implementation of environmental policy are shifting from central government to communities and local administrations. This is especially true of Asia's uplands, where market-driven pressures for agricultural expansion and intensification collide with an increasingly urgent need to manage the natural resource base and minimize local and external environmental damages associated with growth. This paper provides a brief survey of these issues as a way of introducing the papers in this special issue of the Philippine Journal of Development on the local management of agricultural and natural resources and the environment. It concludes with some remarks on the experience of the SANREM-CRSP/Southeat Asia, a research and outreach project aimed at enabling better resource and environmental management decisions by upland communities in the Philippines, and the sponsor of these papers.natural resources and environment, environmental management, uplands, economy-environment linkage

An Assessment of the Capacity and Financial Performance of Microfinance Institutions: The Philippine Case

Despite the government’s credit program approach, access of poor households to microfinancial services has remained limited. This paper explains the microfinance policy environment in the Philippines and evaluates the institutional and financial capacity/performance constraints of MFIs. This also addresses four areas that will allow MFIs to be self-sustaining financial institutions for the poor.microfinance, poverty alleviation, microfinance institutions

Import Smuggling in the Philippines: An Economic Analysis

This study attempts to generate an estimate of import smuggling using Philippine data on import trade. Through the development of microeconomic model, it tries to explain the level of smuggling activity in terms of factors impinging on the trader’s decision to engage in smuggling.trade sector, overvaluation, import commodities, smuggling

A Note on the Competitiveness Debate

This article deals with the concept of competitiveness. Competitiveness is technically a firm-level concept. However, it is oftentimes extended to the national level--the idea of a country's 'international competitiveness' with the following analogies: market share-->export share of country; price-->real effective exchange rate or unit labor cost; profitability-->long-run economic growth. The concept of national competitiveness is faulty, in the words of Paul Krugman it has become a 'dangerous obsession.' However, national or government policies do have an impact on firm level competitiveness. The only concept related to firm level competitiveness that can be extended to the national level without ambiguity is technological capability. Since technological capability is at the heart of competitiveness, countries must address this issue squarely. One course of action is to adopt a strategic approach to foreign direct investment--as opposed to a passive strategy--similar to what Malaysia and Singapore did.competitiveness, technology capability

Fiscal Incentives Revisited

This short paper attempts to clarify some of the issues and provide suggestions for reforms in the fiscal incentive system. In particular, it focuses on the Investment Incentive System embodied in the Omnibus Investment Code. The paper attempts to provide some estimate of revenues forgone, specifically from income tax holiday under different assumptions. It urges that the government should be aware of these costs, be very choosy in granting incentives, and should make sure that social benefits from preferred activities compensate for the costs. Toward this end, the paper proposes a two-tiered approach for reforms--generic and special incentives.investment incentive system, fiscal incentives

Liberalization in Directed Credit Programs for SMEs

To evaluate the effectiveness of approaches to improve policies toward the development of small and medium enterprises, this article assesses the efficiency of directed credit programs and the impact of a liberalized design of a specific project.credit program, borrowing behavior, borrower