Will CREATE Resolve the Philippines’ Unemployment Woes Amidst the COVID-19 Pandemic?

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, there is a proposal to amend the Corporate Income Tax and Incentives Reform Act (CITIRA) into the Corporate Recovery and Tax Incentives for Enterprises Act (CREATE) Act. The proposed amendments are as follows: (a) An immediate five percentage point cut into the corporate income tax (CIT) rate starting July 2020; (b) Maintaining for up to nine years the status quo for registered business activities enjoying the 5% tax on gross income earned (GIE) incentive; and (c) More flexibility for the President to grant a combination of fiscal and non-fiscal incentives, which will be critical as the country competes internationally for high-value investments (Department of Finance (DOF), 2020)

The Economic Impact of the Metro Manila (NCR) Enhanced Community Quarantine

Metro Manila (NCR) comprises 37.5 percent of the Philippine gross domestic product (GDP) and the 30-day enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) will cause a significant decline in the national economy. This policy brief is based on a persistent inoperability input-output model to estimate two metrics: inoperability and economic losses. This takes into account the interdependent nature of the different sectors of the economy and considers the impact of the pandemic on the productivity of sectors directly affected by the ECQ such as the manufacturing, construction, trade, finance, private sector services, and transport sectors. Unlike previous model, PIIM results will provide insights on the impact of the prolonged inoperabilities on the economy. Results show the degree by which each sector is affected and how much economic losses they incur. Such information will be essential in developing strategies for recovery

A Proposed Method of Correcting the Construction Entries in the 2006 Philippine Input-Output Table

The construction of national input-output (IO) tables follows internationally acceptable standards such as the United Nations Systems of National Accounts (UN SNA) and European System of Accounts (ESA). These standards are used to ensure tractability and coherence between country tables. The 2006 Philippine IO table published by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) assumes that the construction sector does not provide any input to the production of output for any economic sector. With the booming infrastructure development in the Philippines, this assumption that intermediate demand for construction output has a value of zero is unreasonable. This study proposes a corrective approach to determine the entries for the construction sector by utilizing the sectoral shares of intermediate demand from the 2000 Philippine IO table. This yields a more realistic inter-industry transactions matrix that will provide better insights for economic planning and impact analysis

Philippine Air Transportation: Impact and Challenges

With the Philippines’ archipelagic geography, air transport is the most efficient way to connect its islands and boost economic activities. Using the latest Philippine input-output tables (National Statistical Coordination Board, 2006; Philippine Statistics Authority, 2014, 2017), the air transport sector proves to be the leading driver of economic activities. Ranking first relative to all other sectors in the economy, in terms of backward linkages, indicates its general dependence on the rest of the economy for inputs to the services that it provides

Mitigating Emissions Associated With the Production of Traded Goods

The environmental impact of international trade is a concerning issue in the fight against climate change. Trade liberalization—combined with globally fragmented environmental policies—is often associated with the formation of pollution havens. This is because trade enables emissions leakages, which is defined as the outsourcing of emissions-intensive production to countries with weaker environmental regulations. Therefore, literature on this subject has suggested that a globally coordinated policy response is necessary to mitigate the impact of trade on climate change (Aichele & Felbermayr, 2012; Ben-David et al., 2020; Felbmermayr & Peterson, 2020). However, some studies have found that unilateral policy actions have no tangible effect on the volume of emissions associated with trade and, in some cases, the reduction of emissions volume associated with trade (Baylis et al., 2014; Kumar & Prabkahar, 2016; Hoekstra et al., 2016). This policy brief aims to provide insights on unilateral or multilateral actions countries can take to mitigate the impact of embodied emissions associated with the production of traded goods

Analysis on the Credit Accessibility and Growth of Manufacturing Firms in the Cases of Indonesia, Philippines, and Vietnam

Micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) contribute to income and employment generation, poverty reduction, and industry growth in the ASEAN region (Mendoza, 2015). Their significant contributions to economies have led countries to emphasize the importance of firm growth, which is influenced by credit accessibility. Majority of existing enterprises in Indonesia, the Philippines, and Vietnam are composed of MSMEs with limited financial resources to foster growth (Paratama, 2019). This hinders the potential of manufacturing MSMEs to have sufficient funding. However, existing literature suggests that credit access significantly provides a positive impact on firm growth only until a certain threshold point (Nizam et al., 2020). The threshold regression analysis results convey the significance of considering the potential existence of credit access thresholds, particularly with regard to firm size. This policy brief aims to provide a suggestive analysis by assessing the applicability of the established relationship and threshold levels to existing economic policies and the formulation of future programs

The Determinants of the Underemployment Gender Gap in the Philippines: A Decomposition Analysis

Underemployment is a prevalent labor market issue around the globe. It reflects how an individual can be employed but is unable to work to their desired number of hours, receive sufficient wages, or fully utilize their skills, leaving them in precarious working conditions. Studies on underemployment and its gendered impact in the Philippines remains limited with most labor studies primarily addressing wage and unemployment. This study addresses this gap by identifying the factors contributing to underemployment and gender-based inequalities in the Philippines. Using quarterly data from the Labor Force Survey from 2012 to 2021, we distinguished between visible and invisible underemployment based on the number of hours worked per week. To analyze the determinants of these two forms of underemployment, we employed a probit model with Heckman’s two-step sample correction that considers workers\u27 individual, organizational, and social characteristics. We then executed an Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition to estimate the visible and invisible underemployment gender gap and its component. We found that men have a higher probability of visible and invisible underemployment compared to women primarily because of endowments in education and occupational choice, although there is evidence men are rewarded more in the labor market than women. One policy recommendation is to improve upskilling, reskilling, and education programs for workers, especially for highly vulnerable demographics such as less-educated rural male workers

Artificial Intelligence and its Potential Adverse Impacts on the Philippine Economy

Recent developments in artificial intelligence (AI) and deep learning techniques are expected to reshape the nature of the working environment in many economic sectors through the automation of many white collar jobs. This technological breakthrough poses threats of job obsolescence in several industries, particularly for a labor abundant country such as the Philippines. With human capital as one of its largest resources, the services sector is a major contributor to the country’s economy, contributing around 60% of the total gross domestic product and employing about 22.8 million workers (Philippine Statistics Authority, 2017)

A communal catalogue reveals Earth's multiscale microbial diversity

Our growing awareness of the microbial world's importance and diversity contrasts starkly with our limited understanding of its fundamental structure. Despite recent advances in DNA sequencing, a lack of standardized protocols and common analytical frameworks impedes comparisons among studies, hindering the development of global inferences about microbial life on Earth. Here we present a meta-analysis of microbial community samples collected by hundreds of researchers for the Earth Microbiome Project. Coordinated protocols and new analytical methods, particularly the use of exact sequences instead of clustered operational taxonomic units, enable bacterial and archaeal ribosomal RNA gene sequences to be followed across multiple studies and allow us to explore patterns of diversity at an unprecedented scale. The result is both a reference database giving global context to DNA sequence data and a framework for incorporating data from future studies, fostering increasingly complete characterization of Earth's microbial diversity.Peer reviewe

A communal catalogue reveals Earth’s multiscale microbial diversity

Our growing awareness of the microbial world’s importance and diversity contrasts starkly with our limited understanding of its fundamental structure. Despite recent advances in DNA sequencing, a lack of standardized protocols and common analytical frameworks impedes comparisons among studies, hindering the development of global inferences about microbial life on Earth. Here we present a meta-analysis of microbial community samples collected by hundreds of researchers for the Earth Microbiome Project. Coordinated protocols and new analytical methods, particularly the use of exact sequences instead of clustered operational taxonomic units, enable bacterial and archaeal ribosomal RNA gene sequences to be followed across multiple studies and allow us to explore patterns of diversity at an unprecedented scale. The result is both a reference database giving global context to DNA sequence data and a framework for incorporating data from future studies, fostering increasingly complete characterization of Earth’s microbial diversity