Not for the Sona

Mahar Mangahas - @inquirerdotnet 07/29/2023

The recent Social Weather Stations (SWS) report on Self-Rated Poverty in June 2023—“Social Weather Report: 45% of Filipino families feel Poor, down from 51% in March; 33% feel Borderline, and 22% feel Not Poor,” www.sws.org.ph, 7/23/23—was coincidentally…

Is social science heeded?

Mahar Mangahas - @inquirerdotnet 07/15/2023

In choosing the theme for a forthcoming annual scientific meeting of the National Academy of Science and Technology (Nast), its six divisions—agricultural sciences; biological sciences; mathematical and physical sciences; engineering sciences and technology; health sciences; and social…

Faster income surveying

Mahar Mangahas - @inquirerdotnet 07/08/2023

The most important news on the statistics front is the upgrading of the government’s family income surveying to every two years instead of every three. The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) recently announced a budget of P590 million…

An empirical research life

Mahar Mangahas - @inquirerdotnet 06/24/2023

I’ve been very lucky in my work life; never had to look for a job. I accepted an offer as research assistant at the University of the Philippines (UP), to start the day after graduation in April…

Complete the recovery first

Mahar Mangahas - @inquirerdotnet 06/17/2023

As I read the data, the economic recovery from the great pandemic is still incomplete. It should not be jeopardized by switching attention to a financial megadeal of dubious economic impact to most of the Filipino people.…

Which way will poverty go?

Mahar Mangahas - @inquirerdotnet 05/27/2023

In 2023Q1, the national percentage of Self-Rated Poor households was 51, unchanged from 2022Q4. Last year, it had been 43 in Q1, 48 in Q2, and 49 in Q3. The halt in the rise of general poverty…

9 Shawwal 1444 AH

Mahar Mangahas - @inquirerdotnet 04/29/2023

Eid Mubarak to Filipino Muslims everywhere, and to Muslims in the Philippines. Having done an Easter piece six days after Holy Week, I will do an Eid’l Fitr piece today, my first opportunity after Ramadan, which ended…

Answering my own question

Mahar Mangahas 04/22/2023

It’s nearing expiration time, more or less, for my age cohort (born in the 1940s). Monthly, if not weekly, there’s a close relative, friend, or classmate who departs for the next world. Albert F. del Rosario. First…

Are prayers answered?

Mahar Mangahas - @inquirerdotnet 04/15/2023

Holy Saturday being Social Climate’s annual day off, my Holy Week column is always the Saturday after. Last year’s “The religiosity of Filipinos” (4/23/22) looked into “hard” versus “soft” belief in God, and into beliefs in the…

Dismal science, dismal research?

Mahar Mangahas - @inquirerdotnet 04/01/2023

Most of the people in the world are poor, so if we knew the economics of being poor, we would know much of the economics that really matters. Most of the world’s poor people earn their living…

Numbers on ‘happiness’

Mahar Mangahas - @inquirerdotnet 03/25/2023

The annual International Day of Happiness (March 20) saw the release of World Happiness Report (WHR) 2023 recently. In this 10th WHR since the Day was established by the United Nations in 2012, Finland, scoring 7.80 on…

Subjective data, objective science

Mahar Mangahas - @inquirerdotnet 03/18/2023

Subjectivity in survey data cannot be avoided. The simple act of asking a sample of people certain questions, and recording their subjective answers, entails faith that the data will be useful to you. Surveys of voters’ intentions…

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