The Petite bourgeoisie Philippine income dynamics towards the middle of the pyramid

• Main Authors: Joveres, Katrina Fatima N., Ona, Nadia Kristina M., Ortiz, Patricia G., Salaysay, Larisa Jane L.
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Animo Repository 2013
• Subjects: Social classes; Social mobility; Economics
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/etd_bachelors/10583
• Institution: De La Salle University

The Theory of Social Mobility establishes that individuals move along the social structure after spending a certain amount of time in one class. It explicitly describes the phenomena of social mobility however, it does not attempt to explain the relevant implications. This study aims to measure the income mobility, as a subset of social mobility, of the Philippine population towards the middle class and determine its vulnerability and sustainability as a key driver of economic growth. The data will be sourced from the Family Income and Expenditure Survey of the National Statistics Office and will encompass the seventeen regions over a period of 2003-2009. Using a multinomial logit regression along with other statistical estimation procedures, the factors affecting downward and upward mobility and their impact on the households are determined. Despite an impressive shift of the sample data along the income strata, a closer look at the movement of the households reveal that a significant percentage of households remained in their income decile relative to the entire population. More alarming results show that in a span of six years, a period characterized by impressive economic progress, the middle class have shrunk indicating that it is still not sustainable in terms of nurturing the growth of the economy of the Philippines.