Recent empirical findings in growth economics suggest that economic policies have no effect on long-term growth.

Indeed, the emerging consensus is that some policies may work for some countries and others may work in some periods, but no set of policies—the Washington Consensus notwithstanding—work in all countries over all periods.

Accordingly, the new view of economic development is that it is not an inevitable process, but only a possible trajectory that comes about not so much because of factor accumulation but because of organizational changes that enable a country to solve coordination failures.

And a growing number of studies contend that social institutions (as conditioned by a country’s environment, culture, and history, and which may be manifested in economic policies) are the deep determinants of economic growth and development.

These ideas resonate with special significance in the Philippines—with its record of at least a half century of poor growth performance, made all the more dismal when juxtaposed against the remarkable successes of other countries in the region.

What lessons can the Philippines draw from the new findings in growth, development, and the new institutional economics that can help it buck past trends?