Toby Melissa Monsod is an Associate Professor at the UP School of Economics. She finished her PhD in Economics at the UP. Her research interests are in the fields of public economics, development economics, regional and housing economics, and impact evaluation. She is a member of the Philippine Human Development Network and has been the lead author and/or co-editor of
award-winning volumes of the Philippine Human Development Report (www.hdn.org.ph). Prior to entering the academe, she worked for several years with community-based groups and served in government as Undersecretary of Housing and Assistant Secretary of Trade and Industry.