Mahar Mangahas, a Filipino economist (PhD, University of Chicago, 1970), has done research on rice economics, land reform, poverty, hunger, income inequality, quality-of-life, governance, and public opinion.

He was Professor of Economics at the University of the Philippines, Vice-President for Research of the Development Academy of the Philippines, and UNICEF Consultant on Social Indicators for the Governments of Malaysia and Indonesia.He waseditor of the Philippine Economic Journal;president of the Philippine Economic Society and the Marketing and Opinion Research Society of the Philippines; co-founder of the Philippine Agrarian Reform Foundation and the Foundation for Economic Freedom; Philippine national representative of the World Association for Public Opinion Research (WAPOR); and board member of the International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies.

In 1985, Mangahas co-founded and has since been president of Social Weather Stations (SWS) ( the Philippines’ leading institute in quality-of-life monitoring, opinion polling, and social survey archiving.

In 2001, he received WAPOR’s Helen Dinerman Award, the public opinion profession’s highest honor, for “championing the rights and freedoms of survey researchers in the Philippines,” after SWS successfully petitioned the Philippine Supreme Court to nullify a provision of the Fair Election Act banning the publication of pre-election surveys, for being a violation of freedom of expression.

In 2011, he received the University of Chicago Alumni Award for Public Service, for being “a powerful influence in helping to define a nation’s identity and to restore democracy by demonstrating the public will through numbers. … [His] work—much of which was done under difficult political circumstances—has led to important public dialogue and policy changes for his nation.”

Education

1962 AB,University of the Philippines

1965MA, University of the Philippines

1970 PhD (economics), University of Chicago

Current positions

1985- presentCo-founder and President of Social Weather Stations, a private, nonstock, nonprofit organization, the Philippines’ leading institute in quality-of-life monitoring, public opinion polling, and social survey data archiving. Webpage:

July 2007-presentColumnist, Philippine Daily Inquirer

Previous positions

Asia Foundation Consultant

2005 Surveying religion, security, and development in Bangladesh

2004Local conflict survey in Cambodia

1994Public opinion polling in Bangladesh

2004, 2006 and 2007 Global Integrity Reports,Philippine expert

Columnist

1995-2002Manila Standard

1996-97Evening Paper

1988-93Manila Chronicle

1989ESCAP Consultant on Quality-of-Life Indicators in Asia and the Pacific

1987National Economic & Development Authority Consultant on Agrarian Reform

1981-1984Development Academy of the Philippines, Vice-President/Research for Development

UNICEF Consultant on Social Indicators

1977-78Government of Malaysia

1981 Government of Indonesia

University of the Philippines at Diliman

1962-81School of Economics faculty member; final post, San Miguel Corporation Professor of Economics.

Awards

2011The Universityof Chicago Alumni Award for Public Service, for being “a powerful influence in helping to define a nation’s identity and to restore democracy by demonstrating the public will through numbers. … [His] work—much of which was done under difficult political circumstances—has led to important public dialogue and policy changes for his nation.”

2001 The Helen Dinerman Award, the highest awardof the World Association for Public Opinion Research, for championing rights and freedoms of survey researchers in the Philippines (Rome)

1993TheElizabeth H. Nelson Priz,World Association for Public Opinion Research,for Best Conference Paper from the Third World (Copenhagen).

1986The Development Academy of the Philippines Concept Award for Development and Implementation of Social Indicators

1984-85The Rockefeller Foundation’sReflections in Development Research Award

1975-79The Philippine Social Science Council’s Award for Best Philippine Social Science Journal for 1975-79,tothe Philippine Economic Journal, under his editorship

Books

The Code of Muslim Personal Laws in Practice: What Influential Muslms and Shari’a Lawyers Think (with Linda Luz Guerrero, Hamid Barra, and Vladymir Joseph Licudine), Social Weather Stations, 2007.

SWS Surveys and the 1998 National Elections, Social Weather Stations, 1998.

Monitoring the State of the Judiciary and the Legal Profession (with A. La Viña, S. Rood, A. Casambre, and D. Arroyo), Social Weather Stations, 1996.

The Philippine Social Climate: From the SWS Surveys, Anvil Publishing, 1994.

Measuring Philippine Development: Report of the Social Indicators Project (Ed.). Development Academy of the Philippines, 1976.

Tenants, Owners, Lessees: Welfare Implications of Tenure Change (with V. Miralao and R.P. de los Reyes), Ateneo de Manila University Press, 1976

Selected Papers

The Challenge of Election Surveys: SWS Experience in the Philippines. Paper for the Second International Conference on Public Opinion Polls, Public Opinion Polls in a Changing Society. Cairo, Egypt, 8-10 November 2009, available on

SWS Monitoring of Self-Rated Deprivation. PIDS-NEDA-UNDP project, Comprehensive Documentation and Analysis of Issues on the Official Poverty Estimation Methodology of the Philippines. 24 July 2008, available on

Two decades of social weather reporting in the Philippines. (with Linda Luz B. Guerrero), In Møller, V., Huschka,D., and Michalos, A. C. (Eds.).Barometers of Quality of Life Around the Globe: How Are We Doing? Social Indicators Research Series, X, Springer, 2008 forthcoming.

Election survey freedom in the Philippines.International Journal of Market Research, 48, Quarter 1, 2004.

Self-sustained quality of life monitoring: The Philippine Social Weather Reports” (with Linda Luz B. Guerrero) (2002).InZumbo, B. D. (Ed.).Advances in Quality of Life Research, Special Issue of Social Indicators Research, 60 (1-3).

Subjective poverty and affluence in the Philippines. (2002). In Glatzer, W. (Ed.). Rich and Poor: Disparities, Perceptions, Concomitants, Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers.

Self-rated poverty in the Philippines,1981-1992.International Journal of Public Opinion Research, 1995 [winner of WAPOR’s Nelson Prize].

Monitoring the economic and social weather in the Philippines.(1991). In K. J. Arrow, K. J. (Ed.).Issues in Contemporary Economics, Volume 1: Markets and Welfare,London: International Economic Association.

Study on the Development of Quality of Life Indicators in Asia and the Pacific, United Nations, New York, 1990 (ST/ESCAP/868).

Distributive justice in the Philippines: Ideology, policy and surveillance.In Lim Teck Ghee, L. T. (Ed.).Reflections in Development in Southeast Asia, ISEAS, Singapore, 1988 [cf. the Rockefeller Foundation’s Reflections in Development Award].

Membership in Professional, Civic, and Academic Organizations

1995-2011World Association for Public Opinion Research: National Representative, Philippines

2006Member, WAPOR Exit Poll Committee

1997-present Member, International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies

2001-02, 05-13Board Member, International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies

2005-2007Member, Editorial Review Board, Applied Research in Quality of Life, 2005-07.

1993-presentMember, American Association for Public Opinion Research

1992President,Marketing and Opinion Research Society of the Philippines

1999-2006Executive Committee, Bishops-Businessmen’s Conference for Human Development

1996Co-founder,Foundation for Economic Freedom

1993Co-founder,Philippine Agrarian Reform Foundation

1985-present Honors and Awards Committee Member,Ateneo de Manila University

1980President, Philippine Economic Society

1975-85Editor,Philippine Economic Journal

1980-81Vice-Chairman,Philippine Social Science Council

2002-present Member,Philippine Eagle Foundation