16 research outputs found
The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on the Construc on Industry in the Philippines
Full text linkConstruction emerged as a casualty of the COVID-19 pandemic and the lockdowns imposed by the Philippine government aimed at curbing the community transmission of the virus. Construction activities declined by 34 percent in the second quarter of 2020, and more than half of employment losses in industrial activities came from job losses in construction. The government rolled out several programs that provided income replacement, wage subsidy, and direct cash transfers to affected and displaced workers. However, only a few received financial support from the national and local governments. Meanwhile, construction companies are still reeling from the health and economic impacts of the pandemic. Many are stilloperating at reduced capacity as they face reduction in the size of their labor force due to a host of factors. Using a uniquely designed questionnaire, the study explored how the COVID-19 pandemic and the lockdowns affected jobs, incomes, and working conditions of workers employed in selected construction projects in Metro Manila, and the forms of support they received during the pandemic. The survey findings suggest that the lockdowns resulted in work suspension for a majority of the survey respondents. Those who were able to return to work when lockdowns eased experienced reduced earnings. On the bright side, worker safety during the pandemic appears to be a top priority among the construction projects covered by the survey. Nonetheless, more needs to be done in terms of establishing occupational safety and health (OSH) committees in many workplaces and in instituting worker representation in these committees. Finally, the pandemic may have exacerbated the difficulties faced by trade unions in organizing workers in the construction industry, but the massive infrastructure programs that have been included in the Philippine government’s COVID-19 economic recovery program makes the industry a greenfield for organizing. The survey disclosed that construction workers are willing to be organized into various forms of worker organizations for the protection of their rights and security at work, especially during a pandemic
The Evolving Role of the U.S. Office of Management and Budget in Regulatory Policy
Full text linkSince the early Reagan years, critics have argued that benefit-cost analysis is used by the U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB) as a one-sided tool of deregulation to advance the interests of business. This article discloses a little-known fact: OMB also plays a powerful pro-regulation role when agency proposals address market failures and are supported by benefit-cost analysis. Drawing on four case studies from the George W. Bush Administration, the author examines how and why OMB encouraged regulatory initiatives while protecting some rulemakings from opposition by forces inside and outside of the executive branch. The case studies address the labeling of foods for trans fat content, control of diesel engine exhaust, improvement of light-truck fuel economy, and control of air pollution from coal-fired power plants. OMB's role in the 2001-2006 period was unusual by historic standards because, rather than await agency drafts, OMB played a pro-active role in both the initiation of rulemakings and the creation of regulatory alternatives for consideration. The benefit-cost framework could be much more powerful if greater investments were made in applied research to expand knowledge on key regulatory issues.
Newness as a winning formula for new political Parties
No full textPrevious studies on new political parties have assumed that they either represent new or ignored cleavages or issues, or emerge in order to cleanse an ideology deficiently represented by an existing party. Four highly successful parties analysed in this article manifestly fail to comply with these assumptions. The article proposes a parsimonious two-dimensional typology of new parties refining the one suggested by Lucardie (2000), incorporating a new type of parties based on the project of newness. We show that the four parties analysed fall into the latter category as they fought on the ideological territory of existing parties yet did not attempt to purify an ideology. It is argued that newness has been an appealing project for new and rejuvenating parties everywhere and the experiences from new democracies should be taken seriously also by those working on established democracies
Modeling Infectious Disease Trend using Sobolev Polynomials
Full text linkTrend analysis plays an important role in infectious disease control. An analysis of the underlying trend in the number of cases or the mortality of a particular disease allows one to characterize its growth. Trend analysis may also be used to evaluate the effectiveness of an intervention to control the spread of an infectious disease. However, trends are often not readily observable because of noise in data that is commonly caused by random factors, short-term repeated patterns, or measurement error. In this paper, a smoothing technique that generalizes the Whittaker-Henderson method to infinite dimension and whose solution is represented by a polynomial is applied to extract the underlying trend in infectious disease data. The solution is obtained by projecting the problem to a finite-dimensional space using an orthonormal Sobolev polynomial basis obtained from Gram-Schmidt orthogonalization procedure and a smoothing parameter computed using the Philippine Eagle Optimization Algorithm, which is more efficient and consistent than a hybrid model used in earlier work. Because the trend is represented by the polynomial solution, extreme points, concavity, and periods when infectious disease cases are increasing or decreasing can be easily determined. Moreover, one can easily generate forecast of cases using the polynomial solution. This approach is applied in the analysis of trends, and in forecasting cases of different infectious diseases
Assessment of TRAIN's coal and petroleum excise taxes: Environmental benefits and impacts on sectoral employment and household welfare
No full textThe study assesses the impact of the first package of the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (or TRAIN), which includes an increase in petroleum and coal excise taxes, passed by Congress in 2017. The study also reviews the context of the energy sector in the country given that petroleum and coal are the largest sources of energy in the country. Using a computable general equilibrium- microsimulation model, this paper focused on the impact of the increase in petroleum and coal excise taxes and the whole TRAIN 1 package (which includes a reduction in the personal income tax and the broadening of the value added tax). Results from the simulations indicate a slight adverse output effect for most industries under an increase in petroleum and coal taxes scenario. Under the whole TRAIN package, the output effects are slightly positive, especially for the several agriculture and service sectors, resulting in a higher level of carbon emissions. There is a slight rise in employment under the whole package, but poverty incidence increases slightly as excise taxes have an adverse effect in terms of higher commodities prices among the poor
Assessment of TRAIN’s Coal and Petroleum Excise Taxes: Environmental Benefits and Impacts on Sectoral Employment and Household Welfare
Full text linkThis study assessed the impact of the first package of the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (or TRAIN) Law; which includes an increase in petroleum and coal excise taxes; as passed by Congress in 2017. This study reviewed the context of the energy sector in the country given that petroleum and coal are the largest sources of energy in the country. Using a computable general equilibrium-microsimulation model; it mainly assessed the impact of this increase and of the whole TRAIN 1 package (which includes a reduction in the personal income tax and the broadening of the value added tax). The results from the simulations show that there is a slight adverse output effect for most industries under an increase in petroleum and coal taxes scenario; resulting in a lower level of carbon emissions. There is a slight decline in employment; and poverty incidence increased slightly as excise taxes have an adverse effect in terms of higher commodities prices among the poor
Outlook and Policy Options for Philippine Employment Towards 2040
No full textThe Philippine labour market is characterized by a large and diverse workforce but faces significant issues, including adoption to continuing global technological changes in production. Addressing these challenges requires policies that target vital strategic industries for sustainable economic growth and job creation to fulfil its ambitions for the Filipino people in 2040. Using a computable general equilibrium model, we simulate the labour market in the 2024–2040 period, assuming growth targets with modest capital and technological factor productivity changes. The results show an increase in employment shares and presumably the share of value added overall in skilled and unskilled workers. The conduct of multi-sectoral employment planning summits from the national to regional levels as mandated by the recently passed employment law called the Trabaho Act would address issues related to productivity growth
The Effects of CPTPP on Philippine Employment and Earnings: A CGE Approach
No full textThe objective of the study is to determine the potential impact of Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) on the Philippines using a CGE-microsimulation model. From the standard Global Trade Analysis Project (GTAP) Database, the paper first considers the impact of CPTPPP on the Gross Domestic Product, sectoral exports and imports and welfare in terms of incomes or consumption. After looking at the aggregate market- level reactions, the study then measures the adjustments at the worker level and determines how the exposure to trade with a particular region such as the CPTPP affected these adjustments. The results of the empirical analysis indicate benefits and costs from joining the CPTPP. The benefits are: (a) Shifts towards unskilled labor employment relative to other inputs; (b) Increases in employment, both skilled and unskilled; (c) Increases in returns for primary factors, particularly labor; and (d) Increased employment in NCR, Central Luzon, but also in Western Mindanao and BARMM. The costs however are: (a) Lower GDP (as higher value-added industries decline); (b) Greater trade deficits (due to accessibility of more imports); and (c) Lower consumption surplus given more countries in the bloc but higher surplus if bloc is limited to original members (trade diversion due to the participation). Participation in CPTPP is expected to result in losers and winners, which in this case are laborintensive industries. The losses however can be mitigated through government support by moving these industries towards the favored ones. Apart from taking advantage of the abundant unskilled labor resources in the country and reducing wage inequality between skilled and unskilled workers, participation in CPTPP also indicates export diversification
Rudolf Marschall and Ivo Kerdić
Full text linkAutor posvećuje pozornost životu i radu glasovitoga bečkog medaljera i kipara Rudolfa Marschalla, čiji je učenik bio i Ivo Kerdić. Dvije Marschallove plakete izrađene su za naše krajeve: ona iz 1901. u povodu otvaranja bosansko-hercegovačke željeznice prema Dubrovniku i ona iz 1905. u povodu Strossmayerove smrti.Rudolf Ferdinand Marschall (Vienna, 1873 – Vienna, 1967) was one of the most celebrated among the many medallists of the Sezession in Austria. He modelled medals with the portraits of two Austrian emperors, the German Emperor, the Czar of Bulgaria, the popes from Leon XIII to John XXIII, and many more illustrious persons of the first half of the 20th century. In 1905 he was involved into the so-called “Affaire Marschall”. Namely, when his teacher Joseph Tautenhayn retired the Emperor appointed R. Marschall as his successsor, the hell broke loose, including an unseen general strike at the Academy of Fine Arts. Since the Emperor’s decree could not be annulled, the Austrian minister of Religion and Education founded a new school for engravers and medallists in 1905 and appointed R. Marschall its director, a post he held until the Anschluss in 1938, when he was retired and the school closed. The Marschall Affair was also described by one of the eyewitnesses, Ivo Kerdić, the Croatian pupil of Marschall’s in his unpublished memoirs “Moj život i uspomene” (My life and memories). For the history of Croatian medal R. Marschall has some significance, because he was the author of several important plaquettes. One of them was struck on the occasion of the inauguration of the Bosnian-Dubrovnik narrow-track railway in 1901. It connected Bosnia with the coast of Dubrovnik, running from Sarajevo, via Mostar, Metković, Gruž in Dubrovnik, to Zelenika in the Bay of Kotor. The other plaquette was made in 1905, and originally it was planned to mark the 90th birthday of the famous Roman Catholic bishop Josip Juraj Strossmayer, whom R. Marschall had portrayed while still alive. However, the bishop died and the plaquette was issued on the occasion of his demise
Competing societal objectives in epidemic mitigation: a modelling study of COVID-19 in the Philippines
No full textSchool closures and suspension of non-essential economic activities are highly effective respiratory-pandemic mitigation strategies because they effectively interrupt disease transmission. However, they come with high societal costs. Most of these costs are borne by workers who lose their income, especially those who are not supported by welfare benefits, and students whose future income depends on their education. In countries where many households live close to the poverty line, closures should be designed to minimise impacts on the most vulnerable. The objective of this study is to learn and compare policy responses that minimise the number of householdspeople that fall below the poverty line, maximise GDP, or maximise societal welfare in a model of the COVID-19 outbreak in the Philippines. Towards this objective, we construct social welfare functions that take into account lives, education, poverty, and GDPquantify societal welfare in terms of lives, education, GDP, and we introduce poverty as a novel fourth dimension. We then use a population microsimulation model together with an economy-structured, an epidemiological model, and GDP and education projections to determine intervention strategies involving the partial closure of schools and economic sectors with the objective of mitigating the epidemic while minimising societal losses. We find the cost of reducing poverty is substantial in terms of the other outcomes, making a case for poverty reduction as an important tool for increasing societal resilience and preparedness for crises such as pandemics. From a modelling perspective, we identify the need for timely data collection in order to create tools to assist in future epidemics
