Differences in performance of rural financial markets in Taiwan and the Philippines

By the early l990"s, however, farmers in Taiwan were much more prosperous than their rural counterparts in the Philippines. Likewise, rural financial markets in Taiwan were performing much better than those in the Philippines. The authors of this paper argue that this difference in performance was largely due to the dissimilar ways in which financial markets were used in the two countries. They conclude that it will be difficult for farmers in the Philippines to effectively compete with farmers in Taiwan without the support of a much larger and more efficient rural financial market. (Author abstract)