One definition of political dynasties refers to members of the same family
occupying elected positions either in sequence for the same position, or simultaneously
across different positions. In the Philippines, poverty appears critically linked to the
prevalence of political dynasties at the provincial level. Either poverty brings about
political dynasties, or political dynasties fail to reduce, or even exacerbate, poverty. The
dominant direction of causation is an empirical question. This study responds by
analyzing a unique Philippine provincial-level dataset. It also uses an instrumental
variable technique to deal with endogeneity issues, and develops novel metrics on
political dynasties. The empirical findings suggest that poverty entrenches political
dynasties, while there is less evidence that political dynasties exacerbate poverty.