National

The COVID-19 pandemic has had significant negative impacts on children, including increased child poverty, disrupted schooling and learning, increased food insecurity, and disrupted services for children with disability. Social protection systems, including social assistance programs, have played a crucial role in mitigating the adverse effects of the pandemic on children. However, the coverage of these programs has been inadequate, leaving some children without necessary support.

People’s trust in state and political institutions is a key foundation of a well-functioning economy. We estimate the impact of direct elections on people’s trust in state and political institutions, using a major political reform in Indonesia as the source of exogenous variation. Prior to 2005, regents, mayors, and governors were elected by the local legislative assembly. Since 2005, however, they have had to compete in an open election where voters directly choose their preferred leader.

This publication is only available in Indonesian

This study examines the impact of village fund (VF) transfers on rural welfare in Indonesia. We use the monthly night-time light (NTL) dataset as a proxy for rural welfare for around 75,000 villages from 2014 to 2019. Using Regression Discontinuity in Time (RDiT), we find that VF positively impacts rural welfare, as the value of Average Light Intensity (ALI) increases by almost 97% after the implementation of VF. The highest influence of VF transfers is revealed to be in underdeveloped villages.

Tech startups require an ecosystem of support that differs from the assistance provided to traditional small enterprises. The ecosystem should comprise not only dedicated government policies and programs, but also financing solutions, support from incubator and accelerator programs, and talent development (human resources) versed in technological innovation, but also in inventing new business models. The ecosystem includes public, private, and quasi-public players. Building this ecosystem is critical to developing a vibrant community of tech startups.

Covid-19 has infected and will continue to infect millions of people all over the world. The economic impact is predicted to be large and millions of people will be pushed into poverty. In this paper, we estimate the impact of Covid-19 on poverty in Indonesia. The economic impact is expected to be severe, reducing the economic growth rate projected for 2020 from about 5% to between 4.2% and –3.5%. We find that under the best-case scenario, the poverty rate will increase from 9.2% in September 2019 to 9.7% by the end of 2020, pushing 1.3 million more people into poverty.