Poverty and Income Dynamics in Philippine Villages, 1985-2004

The authors examined the long-term changes in household income structure and decline in poverty in three rice-growing villages in the rural Philippines from 1985 to 2004. They found a shift of household income structure away from farm to nonfarm sources, accompanied by a decline in the incidence of poverty by about one-half. Such a decline can be explained primarily by the rise in returns to the "quantity" attributes of human capital, measured by age composition, and, secondly, by the rise in returns to the "quality" attributes, measured by the proportion of household members completing secondary and tertiary schooling. It is clear that the poor benefited from the development of the nonfarm labor market where they were able to fully utilize their only asset, that is unskilled labor.