Journal Article
Macroeconomic Volatility, Investment Anemia and Environmental Struggles in the Philippines

While its sacrifice of resource endowments is comparable to that of other developing countries, the Philippines does not have the strong record in capital accumulation and structural change of its Asian neighbors. A crisis-prone macroeconomy, traceable to a heavy dependence on volatile external finance and short-sighted macroeconomic management, explains the feeble rate of accumulation. Environmental losses can be traced both to extensive factors (economic and population growth) and intensive factors (unequal distribution and access to market resources). In the concluding section, this paper examines the feasibility of an alternative macroeconomic stance which invests in environmental regeneration and accepts a lower and steadier national economic growth rate.