Date and Time
November 6, 2006
12:00 PM - 1:30 PM

Availability
Open to the public
No RSVP required

Speaker
Amado Mendoza, Jr. - Associate Professor of Political Science and International Studies at the University of the Philippines

Aggregate economic analysis can be misleading. This talk will review and compare four distinct but interacting types of materially gainful work: formal, informal, criminal, and war-related. Economic actors can and do engage in more than one, or even all, of these activities as they see fit, especially in states with feeble institutions. Joseph Estrada exemplified such behavior during his presidency. He subverted and coopted modern institutions such as the stock exchange and commercial banks, and used state machinery to conceal the damage. Prof. Mendoza will show how non-formal activities have contributed to a lackluster economy and persisting armed conflict in the Philippines.

Prof. Mendoza has written extensively on Philippine political economy, including editing Debts of Dishonor (1992)and From Crisis to Crisis: A History of BOP Crises in the Philippines (1987). His current research is on the political economy of organized crime and anti-state violence in the Philippines. He has been a visiting fellow at the Universities of Amsterdam, Manchester, and Turku (Finland). In addition to his academic career, he has worked as a business journalist, merchant banker, stock broker, NGO development worker, and policy advocate.