Examining the Significance of the Luzon W-Growth Corridor to Agricultural Agglomeration and Labor Productivity

Economic corridors are transport routes that form a strategic access network for economic hubs to reinforce regional growth. Transport corridors ensure the decisive movement of people and goods. The Philippines made its initial corridor development efforts aimed at prioritizing local industries and trade activity within its geographical confines. The W-Growth corridor (LWGC) on the island of Luzon passes through the provinces in Central Luzon and extends to the CALABARZON region. This research established the significance of the institutionalization of LWGC on agricultural agglomeration and labor productivity by applying particular measurements for corridor utilization and effects. Annual data on production sectors per region were utilized for corridor monitoring and agriculture productivity were utilized for corridor evaluation. The structural form of the proposed economic models apprised endogeneity bias, so the Two-Stage Least Square procedure was applied. This procedure revealed non-incidence of regional agriculture agglomeration, but that competition for agriculture labor is evident. Trade activity was also found to boost both output and labor productivity in agriculture.