UP School of Economics Library

Please be advised that the UPSE Library will be closed on June 4 and 5 (Thursday and Friday). During this time, the library staff will be participating in our Strategic Planning.

Regular operations and services will resume on Monday, June 8.

We encourage everyone to plan their library visits, book returns, and research needs accordingly. Thank you for your understanding and continuous support as we work on serving the UPSE community better! 🏛️✨

📢 𝗡𝗲𝘄 𝗨𝗣𝗦𝗘 𝗗𝗶𝘀𝗰𝘂𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗣𝗮𝗽𝗲𝗿

🎯 DP No. 2026-05: Financing the Philippines’ Low Carbon Transition: Status and Prospects

📝𝗔𝘂𝘁𝗵𝗼𝗿: T.C. Monsod

📕𝗔𝗯𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗰𝘁: We set out to understand the resource requirements of the Philippines’ low-carbon transition, the sources of low-carbon finance, and the chances that the supply of low-carbon finance will be responsive to demand at scale. We find that the country will require an initial USD 94.2 billion for measures that are expected to contribute an emissions reduction of 990 mmtCO2e out of a pledged 2,505 mmtCO2e, or 39.5 percent of the country’s Nationally Determined Contribution, and that private and public capital are expected to cover this amount in a 63–37% split.
We determine that prospects are relatively high for an overwhelming 95.4% of the required amount, an assessment that rests on the positive market response to energy sector initiatives and management, and hinges critically on the government’s ability to extract prerequisite transmission investments from its privately owned transmission service provider in a timely manner. For 1.8%, prospects are fair and involve technologies dependent on nascent markets or behavioral change, such as accepting energy efficiency as the “first fuel” in the energy mix and all that this implies. For the remaining 2.8%, prospects are low, hindered by governance dysfunctions that have long undermined efficiency in the agriculture, waste, and road-based public transport sectors.
While representing just 2.8% of the required amount, these programs and measures account for 30% of the 990 mmtCO2e emissions reduction targeted and, more importantly, feed into or coincide with food and water security strategies prioritized under the country’s climate change adaptation plan. Securing the 2.8% is not optional, in other words. Thus, fixing institutions is the first and most important finance strategy moving forward.

📍 Link to the paper:
https://pre.econ.upd.edu.ph/upsedp/index.php/dp/article/view/1572/1060

📢 𝗡𝗲𝘄 𝗨𝗣𝗦𝗘 𝗗𝗶𝘀𝗰𝘂𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗣𝗮𝗽𝗲𝗿

🎯 DP No. 2026-06: Pax Silica and the Philippine Industrial Upgrading Challenge: A Tatak Pinoy Strategy Perspective

📝𝗔𝘂𝘁𝗵𝗼𝗿: E. Annette Balaoing-Pelkmans

📕𝗔𝗯𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗰𝘁: This discussion paper examines the emerging Pax Silica initiative from the perspective of the Philippine Tatak Pinoy Strategy (TPS) and associated consultations involving the semiconductor, electronics, and IT-BPM sectors. It argues that the developmental significance of Philippine participation will depend less on investment attraction alone than on whether the country can progressively deepen domestic technological, engineering, and organizational capabilities within emerging semiconductor and AI-related ecosystems.

Drawing from stakeholder consultations and comparative industrial-policy literature, the paper identifies fragmented institutional support systems, weak cross-agency coordination, financing constraints, workforce mismatches, and discontinuities in government-industry collaboration as major barriers to industrial upgrading. At the same time, the consultations also point to the gradual expansion of higher-value capabilities in engineering services, cloud systems, cybersecurity, analytics, industrial software, and advanced digital operations.

The paper argues that semiconductor and AI-related industries are substantially more coordination-intensive than earlier generations of export manufacturing. Long-term competitiveness increasingly depends on workforce systems, applied research capability, supplier development, financing systems, digital infrastructure, and sustained institutional coordination across firms, universities, industry organizations, and government agencies. From this perspective, Pax Silica should be approached not simply as an investment-attraction initiative but as a potential platform for long-term capability deepening, ecosystem integration, and institutional learning.

📍 Link to the paper:
https://pre.econ.upd.edu.ph/upsedp/index.php/dp/article/view/1573/1061

Heads up, UPSE community!

The Main Library just launched a trial for Taylor & Francis eBooks, and it’s packed with resources perfect for your research, problem sets, and thesis writing.

Explore thousands of titles covering economics, econometrics, development, and more.

🔗 Check it out here: https://mainlib.upd.edu.ph/taylor-francis-ebooks/

What you need to know:
🌐 Coverage: A single destination platform hosting award-winning digital resources across all major subject areas and sub-disciplines, now upgraded with better search features.

📍 Access: On-campus (within the UP System) and remote/off-campus.
🗓️ Trial Expiry: 30 June 2026

We have hired this cat to stare at you... Check out this ebook and a thousand more titles in our new database on trial, Taylor & Francis eBooks! URL - https://mainlib.upd.edu.ph/taylor-francis-ebooks/

A single destination platform which hosts a range of award-winning digital resources and a fully comprehensive eBooks platform, covering all major subject areas and sub-disciplines. The Taylor & Francis eBooks website has been upgraded with new features to help you explore our eBooks titles and find the content most relevant to you.

» Access: On campus within UP System and remote (off-campus)
Expiry: 30 June 2026

Please be advised that the School of Economics Library will be closed tomorrow, May 7, 2026, in observance of Eid'l Adha.

We encourage everyone to plan their research and study sessions accordingly.

☝️ ANOTHER ONE!
📣 SAVE THE DATE!
6️⃣ For the 6th CFME Talk!

The Center for Financial and Monetary Economics (CFME) invites you to a timely discussion on:

“Why Should Central Banks Care About Financial Literacy?”

Listen to what our leading expert has to say about this oft overlooked yet societally crucial topic!

THE LECTURE IS ON:
🗓 24 June 2026
🕓 11:00 A.M.
💻 Via Virtual Lecture

Register now by scanning the QR code below, or by clicking on this link:
https://bit.ly/3RL7hHq

👀 See you there!

📣 CALLING ALL UPSE ALUMNI: Help us preserve our history! 🎓✨

Attention, UP School of Economics Classes of 1987, 1988, 1989, 1992, 1993, 1995, and 2004!

Do you still have a copy of your Haraya? The UPSE Library is on a vital mission to complete our digital archives, and we need your help to fill in the missing pieces of our history.

Don’t worry, we don’t want to keep it! 😉
We just want to borrow your copy for a brief time to create a high-quality digital scan. Your physical yearbook stays safely with you.

Let’s ensure the legacy of your batch is preserved for future generations of Iskos and Iskas. 🏛️❤️

How you can help:
📞 Call us: (02) 8981-8500 local 3478
✉️ Email us: [email protected]
📍 Drop by: UPSE Library, UP Diliman, QC

𝙃𝙖𝙥𝙥𝙚𝙣𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙤𝙣 𝙏𝙪𝙚𝙨𝙙𝙖𝙮, May 19, 2026. 4:00 PM, at the Classes of 1979 and 1980 Seminar Room (Room 301), Encarnacion Hall, UP School of Economics

🎓 UPSE-PCED Seminar, Dr, Tristan Reed, is an applied economist at the World Bank's Development Research Group working on questions about industrial organization relevant to economic growth and development. Prior to joining the World Bank, he was an associate of McKinsey and Company’s Africa office. A native of California, he holds a PhD in economics from Harvard University and a BA summa cm laude from the University of California, Los Angeles. He is a board member at The Sadie Collective, a non-profit that brings exceptional candidates to rewarding careers in economics and related fields.

🧠📚💡Abstract: Amidst slower global growth, a shifting labor market, and rising protectionism, governments around the world are increasingly turning to a once controversial policy. Industrial policy—the range of policy tools governments use to shape what an economy produces, rather than leaving it to markets alone—is back with a vengeance.

Contrary to recent headlines, advanced economies are not the heaviest users of industrial policy. As this report documents, developing economies use it more intensively. New data show that total business subsidies among upper-middle-income economies now average 4.2 percent of GDP—the highest on record. Middle-income economies have higher average import tariffs and more dispersion of tariffs across individual products compared to high-income economies—evidence of stronger targeted protection of certain industries. A review of the latest national development plans across 183 economies finds that low-income economies target growth in 13 industries on average, more than twice the number in high-income economies.

This report offers the first comprehensive guide to industrial policy for development in the 21st century, distinctive in four respects: it covers 15 policy tools—well beyond the existing literature's focus on tariffs and subsidies; it provides practical guidance on design and implementation, including how to target industries and design effective institutions; it draws on new evidence from more than 60 economies; and it identifies targeted approaches for governments using industrial policy to pursue specific goals, from earning foreign exchange and creating jobs to reducing pollution and strengthening security and resilience.

📝 Seats are limited, so please register using the link below or by scanning the QR code in the poster:
📍 Onsite: https://tinyurl.com/bd94c7v3

👀 We'd love to see you there!