The Risk of a Face-to-Face Economy

COMMENTARY

Antoinette R. Raquiza

Dr. Antoinette R. Raquiza, Associate Professor at the UP Asian Center and Convenor of the UP CIDS Political Economy Program (PEP), offered her insights on the clamor to reopen the economy and the risks that come with it in a commentary published in Inquirer.net. Dr. Raquiza argues that calls to reopen the Philippine economy amid the continuing onslaught of the COVID-19 pandemic miss the fact that “[t]he economy’s vulnerability lies in the interaction between the nature of the virus and the structure of the Philippine economy.” With most economic activities in the country involving face-to-face transactions and migrant labor being a significant force in the current configuration of the Philippine economy, Dr. Raquiza advises the “redoubling of preventive and treatment measures to contain the pandemic as restrictions on mobility ease.”

Read the rest of Dr. Raquiza’s commentary here.

The UP CIDS Political Economy Program (PEP) seeks to contribute to building the momentum for development policies and programs that promote domestic production, higher productivity, and the just distribution of development resources. Among its aims are to advance specific policy reforms through interdisciplinary problem-based research; to initiate industry and issue-based dialogues among policymakers, academe, business, and other stakeholders, and to popularize the political economy framework in the national debates on policy options.