Poverty Diagnostics in the Philippines: Assessing Impacts of Programs through Generalised Linear Models (GLMs)

<p>The Philippines is a country where a quarter to one-third of the population is poor. Although the nation has managed to lower poverty incidence in some years, its booming population increases the poor population dramatically. This is why alleviating poverty is a pinnacle program in the country. In aid of poverty alleviation endeavor, this study focuses on assessing which programs had been effective in alleviating poverty given other family characteristics. Aside from descriptive methods, employing Generalised Linear Models (GLMs) and categorical data analysis are the focus in analysing the effects of existing intervention programs on status of improvement and income of families. In addition, varying effects of programs depending on values of other covariates are also analysed. Descriptive analysis and modeling are applied on the panel data of families. Intervention programs namely scholarship, Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) and government housing or other housing financing program (GHFP) have been run together with other family characteristics to describe improvement in welfare and income. Interaction effects, between access to intervention programs and other aspects of the family, have been derived to give a richer picture of the phenomenon. The study has come to conclude that the programs are indeed effective in improving lives of families, with some effects varying on some levels of other explanatory variables.</p>