Majah-Leah Ravago
Sex: Female
Education:
Doctor of Philosophy in Economics, University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2011
Master’s Degree in Economics, University of of the Philippines, 2002
Bachelor of Science in Economics, University of the Philippines, 1997
Field of Specialization
Development Economics
Energy Economics
Economics of Disasters
Resource Economics
Research:
Article title: Does quality of electricity matter? Household-level evidence from the Philippines
Authors: Vanessa Mae Pepino, Majah-Leah Ravago, Karl Jandoc
Publication title: Journal of Asia Pacific Economy, November 2020
Abstract:
The Philippines is a country that faces many development challenges, including providing reliable and good quality electricity. Access to good quality electricity connection matters because it affects many aspects that increase productivity (e.g. education, health and business) and can make lives easier and more comfortable. While access has improved over time, many households still suffer from poor quality of their connection brought about by incidents of power outages, fluctuations and low voltage. This article attempts to examine whether better electricity quality improves household welfare. We apply a two-stage probit-ordered probit model to overcome endogeneity caused by reverse causation between electricity quality and household income. We find that households experiencing better electricity quality decrease the probability of remaining in the lowest income category by 23%.
Full text available upon request to the author
Article title: Localized disaster risk management index for the Philippines: Is your municipality ready for the next disaster?
Authors: Majah-Leah Ravago, Dennis S. Mapa, Angelie Grace Aycardo, Michael R.M. Abrigo
Publication title: International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction 51(101913), October 2020
Abstract:
We developed a Localized Disaster Risk Management Index (DRMI) that measures how well local government units (LGUs) in the Philippines prepare for a disaster. Focusing on LGUs that have experienced at least one of the four hydrometeorological hazards, strong winds and rain, floods, landslide/mudslide, and big waves, we capture in one number the ex post and ex ante risk management strategies that influence post disaster outcomes. Given the nature of our data, we used the iterative principal component analysis to compute for the LGUs' Localized DRMI, which was then correlated with conditions, outcomes, and social indicators. Our results show a negative correlation between localized DRMI and recovery, which means that LGUs with high Localized DRMI scores are also those that have not fully recovered. This does not mean that these LGUs would be better off having lower scores. This result implies LGUs that perform well in terms of Localized DRMI scores are also those that frequently experience very severe disasters due to hydrometeorological hazards. Just as they are recovering from a disaster, another one hits them. This is corroborated by other correlation results: positive for severity and frequency, positive for poverty, and negative for LGUs’ revenue.
Full text available upon request to the author
Article: Awards and recognition: Do they matter in teachers’ income trajectory?
Authors: Majah-Leah Ravago and Dennis S. Mapa
Publication title: Studies in Educational Evaluation 66:100901, September 2020
Abstract:
Do teaching awards affect the growth in income of teachers recognized for excellence? Our study is one of the firsts to use income as the primary indicator of success when evaluating the impact of an award. Taking the case of Metrobank Foundation Award for Outstanding Teachers in the Philippines, our analysis reveals that the award had a higher impact on the income of winners who were in the middle of their career when they received the award. This implies that timing as to when an award is received matters. Relatively younger winners, in their mid-career, have more years in their professional career to capitalize on the award.
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Article: Survey data of finalists and winners in the search for outstanding teachers in the Philippines, 1988-2010
Authors: Majah-Leah Ravago and Dennis S. Mapa
Publication title: Data in Brief 32:106238, August 2020
Abstract:
The data derives from a survey of teachers who competed at the national level in the Metrobank Foundation, Inc. Search for Outstanding Teachers in the Philippines from 1988 to 2010. Conducted in March-September 2014, the survey has complete information from 252 national winners and finalists. The survey collected data on teachers’ professional profile, socio-demographic characteristics, community involvement, socioeconomic characteristic of the teachers’ household including income and expenditure, and their overall perception on the search for process. It also collected information from school heads. The data collected by the survey from the school head include statistics on the educational profile of their teachers, performance indicators of the school, physical characteristics of the school, and school head's general assessment of colleagues and overall perception on the search process. The survey also includes information about the financial literacy of teachers. The dataset is in comma-separated values file (.csv) with accompanying data dictionary (.txt). The questionnaire is also included in data supplementary appendix. This data article is related to the research article, “Awards and Recognition: Do they Matter in Teachers’ Income Trajectory?” Ravago and Mapa, 2020, where data interpretation and analysis can be found.
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Article: The Role of Power Prices in Structural Transformation: Evidence from the Philippines
Authors: Majah-Leah Ravago, Arlan Ilagan Brucal, James A. Roumasset, Jan Carlo Punongbayan
Publication title: Journal of Asian Economics 61:20-33. February 2019
Abstract:
The Philippines provides an extreme example of Rodrik's observation that late developing countries experience deindustrialization at lower levels of per capita income than more advanced economies. Previous studies point to the role of protectionist policies, financial crises, and currency overvaluation as explanations for the shrinking share of the industry sector. We complement this literature by examining the role of power prices in the trajectory of industry share. We make use of data at the country level for 33 countries over the period 1980–2014 and at the Philippine regional level for 16 regions over the period 1990–2014. We find that higher power prices tend to amplify deindustrialization, causing industry share to turn downward at a lower peak and a lower per capita income, and to decline more steeply than otherwise. In a two-country comparison, we find that power intensive manufacturing subsectors have expanded more rapidly in Indonesia, where power prices have been low, whereas Philippine manufacturing has shifted toward less power intensive and more labor intensive subsectors in the face of high power prices.
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Article: Games with Dynamic Externalities and Climate Change Experiments
Authors: Tatsuyoshi Saijo, Katerina Sherstyuk, Nori Tarui, Majah-Leah Ravago
Publication title: Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists 3(2):247-281, April 2016
Abstract:
We report on laboratory experiments with series of games with dynamic externali-ties, where the current actions of each player affect not only the player's payoff today, but also the group payoffs levels of the game that will be played tomorrow. The mo-tivating example is the climate change problem, where welfare opportunities (payoff levels) in the present depend on the stock of greenhouse gases (GHG) accumulated in the past, with higher current emissions leading to lower future payoffs. We investigate whether socially optimal actions may be sustained in such dynamic externality games with changing payoffs if no explicit enforcement mechanisms are present. Two main experimental treatments are studied. In the Long-Lived treatment, the dynamic game is played by the same group of subjects who interact for many periods (generations). This represents an idealistic setting where countries' decision-makers and citizens are motivated by long-term welfare of their countries. In the Inter-Generational treat-ment, the dynamic game is played by several groups (generations) of subjects, with later generations having access to history and advice from previous generations. This represents a more realistic setting in which the countries' decision-makers and citizens may be motivated more by the immediate welfare and may care only partially about the future generations' payoffs. Experimental results indicate that in the Long-Lived treatment, many groups of subjects were able to avoid the myopic Nash outcome and to sustain or come back close to the socially optimal emissions and GHG stock levels. In the Inter-Generational treatments, subject decisions were often myopic. These findings suggest that international dynamic enforcement mechanisms (treaties) are necessary to control GHG emissions.
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Article: Lighting Up the Last Mile: The Benefits and Costs of Extending Electricity to the Rural Poor
Authors: Ujjayant Chakravorty, Kyle Emerick, Majah-Leah Ravago
Publication title: SSRN Electric Journal, January 2016
Abstract:
Approximately one billion people live without access to electricity. However, there has been no study that rigorously estimates both the realized benefits and costs of electricity provision. In this paper, we document substantial short-run welfare gains from electricity expansion in the Philippines. We first project the expansion of the electricity grid under a least-cost first principle. Using this projected expansion as an instrument, we estimate large impacts of electricity infrastructure on household income and expenditures. We then use data on costs of electrifying individual villages to show that in a majority of cases, the physical cost of expanding electricity infrastructure is recovered after only a single year of realized expenditure gains. Finally, we find that electricity does not increase employment, suggesting that increased labor force participation is not the relevant mechanism. Rather, increases in agricultural income appear to account for a meaningful share of the income gains from electrification. These findings suggest that the benefits to rural electrification may be significantly high, even in the very short run.
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Article: Islands of Sustainability in Time and Space
Authors: Kimberly Burnett, Lee H. Endress, Majah-Leah Ravago, James A. Roumasset, et al.
Publication title: International Journal of Sustainable Society 6(1 - 2): 9-27, January 2014
Abstract:
We review the economics perspective on sustainable resource use and sustainable development. Under standard conditions, dynamic efficiency leads to sustainability of renewable resources but not the other way around. For the economic-ecological system as a whole, dynamic efficiency and intergenerational equity similarly lead to sustainability, but ad hoc rules of sustainability may well lead to sacrifices in human welfare. We then address the challenges of extending economic sustainability to space as well as time and discuss the factors leading to optimal islands of preservation regarding renewable resources. Exogenous mandates based on moral imperatives such as self-sufficiency and strong sustainability may result in missed win-win opportunities that could improve both the economy and the environment, as well as increase social welfare across generations.
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Article: Eastern Visayas after Yolanda: Evidence from Household Survey
Authors: Majah-Leah Ravago and Dennis S. Mapa
Publication title: Philippine Center for Economic Development: Policy Notes 2014-05, November 2014
Abstract:
No available
Article: Payment schemes in random termination experimental games
Authors: Katerina Sherstyuk, Nori Tarui, Majah-Leah Ravago, Tatsuyoshi Saijo
Publication title: Climate Change Experiments, April 2011
Abstract:
No available
Article: THE AFTA-CEPT and the ASEAN-China Early Harvest Program: An Assessment of Potential Short-run Impact
Authors: Ann Pimentel-Prenio, Majah-Leah Ravago, Erlinda Medalla
Abstract:
Theoretical and empirical support for a more liberal trading environment has grown increasingly over the years. In the last decade, many countries have aggressively pursued unilateral trade liberalization. Based on decadal growth rates, globalizing developing countries has outpaced growth of non-globalizing developing economies in the 1980’s and 1990’s. Aside from participation in regular WTO Ministerial to discuss multilateral trade issues, many countries have also entered into bilateral and regional trade agreements (RTA’s). Since 1995, the WTO has received 130 notifications regarding the creation of RTA’s which is slightly higher than the notifications received by GATT over its almost fifty years of existence. In this paper, we aim to sift thru the effects of trade policy on agriculture, focusing in particular on the possible short-run impact of the Common External Preferential Tariffs under the ASEAN Free Trade Agreement (AFTA-CEPT) and the ASEAN-China Early Harvest Program (EHP). While few would argue about the long-run benefits from a liberal trade regime, fewer still would deny the possible short-run adjustment costs that could accompany trade reforms. As such, it would help policy makers to be cognizant of the possible ramifications of pursuing a particular trade strategy. We provide an overview of the Philippine trade policy leading to the AFTA-CEPT and the EHP and isolate their impact. The immediate impact of trade policy is on the effective rate of protection it provides to various sectors. How uniform it is or how diverse reflects the relative protection, how much one sector is favored over another. Ultimately, the resulting trade protection structure would impact on output, income and employment. We measure how the EHP and AFTA impact on these variables. We employ a simulation model following an earlier study under the Joint Tariff Commission-PIDS (TC-PIDS) Study. The simulation analysis is done for three scenarios: (1) the Early Harvest Program, (2) the AFTA-CEPT, and (3) a hypothetical Base scenario reverting tariffs to 1994 levels which allows for comparative analysis that can be useful for policy formulation.
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