Victory for Victor Calanog, 1996 BS Business Management Honors Program Graduate!
We are pleased to announce that Mr. Victor Franco M. Calanog has been awarded the prestigious Summers Prize in International Economics.
The Prize is named for Robert and Anita Summers and Larry Summers, President of Harvard University and Secretary of Treasury during the Clinton Administration. Awarded annually by the Faculty and Fellows of the University of Pennsylvania, the Summers Prize recognizes an outstanding young economist undertaking research in the areas of international or comparative economics.
Mr. Calanog was asked to talk a little about the research he is currently working on and to reflect on what has helped him become successful in his career, both as teacher and researcher.
"My
research in international economics analyzes special economic zone (SEZ)
policy in developing countries. With detailed data on foreign and
domestic firms operating in Philippine SEZs, covering multiple years, I am
able to specifically define and analyze whether the benefits generated by
supporting business in these zones outweigh the costs incurred by the host
country's government. Finally, I compare the option of
liberalization with creating SEZs: If it makes sense to lower barriers to
trade and investment in one part of the country, if it makes sense to
carve out part of the country and create SEZs, why not just liberalize and
create a "countrywide SEZ," like Singapore, Hong Kong and
Mauritius? In countries like the Philippines, efforts at countrywide
liberalization and SEZ creation are often implemented simultaneously, and
it is critical to separate the costs and benefits generated by each policy
to avoid attributing the success or failure of one to the other.
I was fortunate to have found what I loved doing at an early age, which was life and work as a teacher and researcher. I was fortunate to have found institutions like the Ateneo and the Wharton School that paid me to do what I loved. I was fortunate to have found people like my mother and wife who love me and support my efforts, mentors like Rudy Ang in Ateneo and my dissertation committee at Wharton and Harvard who believed in what I could do and relentlessly pushed me to become better at my craft. Tenacity, countless hours of hard work, commitment, focus -- all of these come easy when you love what you do."
Mr. Victor Franco M. Calanog graduated in 1996 from the BS Management Honors Program. He earned his MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania in 2000, and is presently working on his Ph.D., also at the Wharton School. He works as an economist for Reis, Inc., the leading provider of data, forecasts and analytical tools for US commercial property markets. From 1996 to 1998 (and again in 2001), he served as faculty member at the Ateneo de Manila University. He married the love of his life Christine Yeh (Ateneo BS Management Engineering 1996 / AB Economics Honors 1996; Wharton MBA 2002) in June 2000. The Calanogs currently reside in New York City, where Christine works as Manager for Bain & Company, a management consulting firm.