How important is trade liberalization in fostering development and growth?Trade liberalization plays a great role in fostering an economy's development. For example, Mexico made many efforts to liberalize trade, recovering from a recession that hit 1981 when world oil prices collapsed. It undertook substantial reforms that targeted the creation of ( Read more... )

How does debt affect economic growth?We can't not mention Reinhart and Rogoff when discussing debt and growth: too much debt means the economy can't grow. Even after Herndon, et. al., the conclusion still holds. Economies whose debt are 90% more than their GDP experience slower growth than countries whose debt levels are lower. Very low levels of ( Read more... )

I've been enrolled in graduate school for half a semester. Midterms are over, but the results aren't out ( Read more... )

I used to work in the Phillipines' agency for transportation, and I can say from experience that a lot of countries, especially Japan and Korea, are offering assistance in infrastructure projects through ODA. There are many projects in the pipeline for which our government is considering ODA - many new airports, modernization of rails, and the ( Read more... )

Consider/comment on the extent to which fiscal policy is pro-poor in your country or in one with which you are familiar.While the rest of the world zigs, the Philippines zags. In the era of East Asian growth, when our neighbors grew into industrialization, we fell short of all expectations and became "the sick man of Asia." In theories of growth of ( Read more... )

Consider the advantages and disadvantages of this measure. What are your thoughts on the Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI)? Income is a pretty great measure of poverty. For all its shortcomings, it gives us indications of people's circumstances, allowing policymakers to establish poverty reduction programs that in fact, lift some above the ( Read more... )

The moment the (kinda cute) white guy behind the counter at the US Embassy told me my visa was approved, I went pretty crazy. My mom had been planning for us to go to California in December, but my mind went into overdrive and I knew, I knew that Phoenix and Passion Pit were going to play in LA in October. I thought, sembreak is in October. If I go ( Read more... )

For about eighteen years of my life, I've never really gotten sick, not the usual colds or fever or cough that my classmates usually go absent in classes for. I mean, sure, there was chicken pox, but I had it in the summer, and I remember it being really mild. Of course I've had cough and colds, but really, they were nothing.

So I've always ( Read more... )

I think I'll see you again soon, and it will be strange. And you will probably be introduced by a friend of a friend. But you won't think I'll be sad the entire time, because you would be trying to remember my name. I will be sad, just so you know. I choose to feel things sometimes, but mostly when the thing itself filled with memories jumps at my ( Read more... )

Do you ever just want to cry, because you want too much? Because you want things that are too difficult to get, and when you try, you just can't pour out every emotion into it, because you know you will never be good enough, and anyway, you really just can't? Because what you want is too impossible, maybe not even for you? But you want it so badly ( Read more... )