The Influence of Fiscal Position to the Socio-Economic Development of the Provinces in the Philippines

Abstract

This study on the Influence of fiscal position to the socio-economic development of the provinces in the Philippines is a quantitative research. Universal sampling was employed wherein all of the 83 provinces in the Philippines were included. Through the use of secondary data from various government agencies, the ultimate goals of this study are to determine the fiscal position of the provinces in terms of the 6 parameters namely, national government subsidy, income, operational expenditures, total assets, public debts, and budget surplus; to determine the socio-economic development of the provinces in terms of poverty incidence, attended mortality rate, professionally attended birth rate, and labor force participation rate; to determine if correlation exist between fiscal position and socioeconomic development using the Pearson product-moment correlation analysis; and to determine the degree of influence of fiscal position to socioeconomic development through multiple linear regression analysis. The research undertaking concluded that in terms of fiscal position, Luzon regions are the richest while and Mindanao regions are the poorest; poverty incidence is lowest in Luzon regions especially in the NCR while highest in Mindanao most particularly in the Zamboanga Peninsula and in ARMM. Correlation analysis revealed that there is a strong negative relationship between fiscal position and poverty incidence; a very strong positive relationship between fiscal position and attended mortality rate; and a moderate positive relationship between fiscal position and professionally attended birth rate. Multiple linear regression analysis revealed that the influence of budget surplus to poverty incidence is statistically significant; and the influences of assets and public debts to professionally attended birth rate are statistically significant, assets having the greater influence. Meanwhile, none of the influences of fiscal position parameters to attended mortality rate is statistically significant.