Socio-Economic Scale (SES) as a Measure of Economic Well-Being: A Case in Barangay Lumbia, Cagayan De Oro City, Philippines

Abstract

In recent years, there have been increasing concerns on the adequacy of traditional macroeconomic statistics, like gross domestic product (GDP) as measures of current and future living conditions. Cases that made GDP an inaccurate measure for economic wellbeing rouses inquiry to utilize the information gathered from Community Based Monitoring System (CBMS) of the 629 respondents of 30 sitios of Barangay Lumbia. The barangay is one of the upland barangays in Cagayan de Oro City, Philippines. Faster pace of economic activity is visible nearer the barangay hall or the city main road where schools, barangay hospitals, church and few business establishments are situated. Few kilometers away from the main political and business zone, activities are slower and laidback while support services are either insufficient or non-existent. Study explore on the socioeconomic condition of the residents of the 30 sitios by looking into the four socioeconomic components: poverty level, income, educational attainment and housing tenure. To further the analysis, the research derived the standardized score of the four socioeconomic components and combined them into a single socioeconomic scale normalized to a base of 100. Socioeconomic scores are reported on a seven-point categorical scale. Findings indicate that residents in the sitios with poor socioeconomic status as sitios with low socioeconomic scale. Results further signifies that the greatest number of the residents in the community has low capability to collectively sustain from shocks and are not able to take advantage to opportunities given the various resources in the community.

DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2015.v6n2p103