The Historical Roots of Unshared Growth: The Case of the Philippines

This chapter considers the historical roots of the Philippines’ developmental malaise, despite having an excellent head start over many other countries in East Asia. Moreover, it was observed that the Philippines has gone through the traditional patterns of economic development. Her post-war development could be clearly marked with the traditional phases of importation, import-substitution industrialization, and export-oriented industrialization. In terms of sectoral contributions, the Philippine economy could also be seen as moving from agriculture, then industry (manufacturing), and then services. Despite this, development of the Philippines has lagged behind its cohorts in Southeast Asia, suggesting an underlying weakness in the seemingly good patterns it went through in the course of her post-war development. We focus in this chapter on the lack of strategic sequencing which could be ultimately traced to the very skewed distribution of income and wealth in the country.