Dr. Fabella is highly respected for his outstanding contributions in the field of economics, particularly for extending the reach of the celebrated Nash bargaining solution to more egalitarian Rawlsian grounds. Dr. Fabella’s research include diverse topics, such as the welfare effects of lobbying and rent-seeking, the efficiency of teams and partnerships, informal business networks, the properties of contracts under weak governance, and the mathematical properties of the concave family of functions. He is especially interested in the effect of weak state governance on efficient policymaking and is vocal in his appraisal of policies involving tax and public expenditure, currency overvaluation, and the exchange rate.

Dr. Fabella’s work has been published in leading economics journals, such as the Southern Economic Journal, Journal of International Money and Finance, International Economic Review, Public Choice, and the Journal of Public Economics. 

Apart from receiving recognition as one of the country’s National Scientists, Dr. Fabella has earned many distinctions. He was given the 1993 National Social Science Award by the Philippine Social Science Council, the 1993 UP President’s Award for Outstanding Publications (Rawlsian-Nash Solutions), and the 2002 International Publication Award for “The Welfare and Political Economy Dimensions of Private versus State Enterprise”. Dr. Fabella was also cited as a UP Diliman Most Outstanding Faculty Member from 1991-1993 and elected to the National Academy of Science and Technology (NAST) as Academician in 1995 in recognition of his research on the Nash bargaining solution and the Olson ratio.

Dr. Fabella earned his AB Philosophy degree at the Seminario Mayor-Recoletos, MA in Economics at the UP School of Economics and PhD in Economics at Yale University.