CEDS starts the new year of 2013 by publishing 5 research papers on its series, Working Papers in Economics and Development Studies (WOPEDS). These five research papers analyze various aspect of poverty in Indonesia including various regulation and policies that aims at reducing the burden of Indonesian poor.

These are in line with the long-term mission of CEDS to contribute to the national development through research and analysis that can help reshape the orientation of Indonesian development to be more inclusive and pro-poor.

The first three of the papers are on simulations of various policies of social services in education, health, and clean water provision. The research were funded by UK-DFID Global Development Network (GDN) under its project “Strengthening Institutions to improve public sector accountability“.

In the paper on education, the authors propose some concrete programs to increase the poor’s participation in higher education through intervention programs to assist poor children at earlier stage (during their secondary school years) before university entrance. Such approach like private tutoring and conditional cash transfers are simulated, their effectiveness are measured, and the budgetary requirement are calculated. The private tutoring program is found to be quite cost effective in increasing the chance of children from poor families to enroll in public universities.

On the health sector, the paper focuses on the increasingly alarming HIV epidemics in West Java that has threatened life indiscriminately. The poor are among the most vulnerable due to low awareness and ignorance. By simulating a scaling-up of one of the most effective program – antiretroviral treatment, the researchers find that by scaling-up the treatment, around 2,100 of HIV infection would be averted. The paper stresses the importance of community health center (PUSKESMAS) to support such programs especially to protect the most vulnerable in the society.

Poverty persistence is attributed primarily to low quality of human capital. In most cases, the opportunity to accumulate human capital is declined by low accessibility to social-services that directly determine their health status including access to clean water. Taking a case study of Bandung regency, the third paper address this issue by examining different alternatives in clean water provision. The simulation supports the commonly-held view that economies of scale is essential for efficient water-provision infrastructure. Public financing is a non-negotiable approach for providing poor citizens with access to clean water.

The forth paper focuses on labor market issues by evaluating the extent to which the recent regime of labor regulation contributes to the declining role of manufacturing sector in creating jobs for the poor. This paper is funded under The East Asian Development Network (EADN) research grant, a network of high-profile research institutions in East Asian countries. One of the findings suggests that both capital intensification and excessive real wage growth contribute to the decline of job opportunity in manufacturing sector. Low-skill Job opportunity in manufacturing sector has long been one of the main routes to escape from poverty in Indonesia. Its decline is a warning to our poverty alleviation efforts.

The last paper from a research funded by USAID, evaluates the effectiveness of cash transfers in reducing poverty and inequality in Indonesia. The author compares and contrasts the effectiveness of different sources of transfer-financing in reducing poverty and inequality in Indonesia. It concludes, for example, that reallocating fuel subsidy to direct subsidy for the poor is the most cost-effective way among the alternatives analyzed.

It is hoped that the publication of these five papers will be an important milestone in many more steps in the future toward realizing the better and more equitable Indonesian society. Happy New Year 2013!

List and links of the papers:

1. Fahmi, Mohamad, Maulana, Achmad and Yusuf, Arief Anshory, (2013), Complementary Policies to Increase Poor People’s Access to Higher Education: The Case of West Java, Indonesia, No 201301, Working Papers in Economics and Development Studies (WoPEDS), Department of Economics, Padjadjaran University.
2. Siregar, Adiatma Y. M., (2013), Increasing Access to HIV treatment/ART through ART Scaling Up in West Java, No 201302, Working Papers in Economics and Development Studies (WoPEDS), Department of Economics, Padjadjaran University.
3. Komarulzaman, Ahmad and Satriatna, Ben, (2013), Increasing Access to Water Service in Bandung Regency: A Policy Simulation, No 201303, Working Papers in Economics and Development Studies (WoPEDS), Department of Economics, Padjadjaran University.
4. Yusuf, Arief Anshory, Komarulzaman, Ahmad and Purnagunawan, Muhammad, and Resosudarmo, Budy (2013), Growth, Poverty and Labor Market Rigidity in Indonesia: A General Equilibrium Investigation, No 201304, Working Papers in Economics and Development Studies (WoPEDS), Department of Economics, Padjadjaran University.
5. Yusuf, Arief Anshory, (2013), The Direct and Indirect Effect of Cash Transfers: The Case of Indonesia, No 201305, Working Papers in Economics and Development Studies (WoPEDS), Department of Economics, Padjadjaran University.