Socioeconomic Changes and the Decline in Poverty: A View from Three Villages in the Philippines, 1985–1997*

The present paper examines socioeconomic changes and decline in rural poverty using a panel dataset collected in the Philippine villages in 1985, 1993 and 1997. The most important finding is the transition of the rural economy away from a regime of low nonfarm income to a regime of high nonfarm income accompanied by a marked decline in poverty. The relative contribution of access to land on rural poverty reduction declined, whereas the relative contribution of human capital, more importantly represented by college schooling, increased over time.