Indonesia in the Time of Covid-19

The Covid-19 virus has spread across the world with alarming speed, infecting millions and causing economic disruption on an unprecedented scale. In this survey, we examine the impact of the outbreak on the Indonesian economy, as well as the government’s response to the public health crisis and its provisions for the emerging economic crisis. Indonesia’s delay in responding to the health crisis while Covid-19 spread in neighbouring countries in January–February 2020 has been costly for the health of the population. The government’s policy responses have so far been aimed at steadying the ship, addressing both the needs of the poor and the potentially poor (vulnerable) groups. At the time of writing, Covid-19 had not been tamed in Indonesia by any means. Hence, its implications for economic growth, jobs and welfare remained uncertain, as policy discussions were all about opening up the economy from virus-imposed restrictions across the country, under what has been termed the ‘new normal’.     

Covid-19, Economic Growth and South African Fiscal Policy

Following years of fast-rising debt levels, we show that the Covid-19 crisis worsened an already deteriorating fiscal position in South Africa. To restore fiscal sustainability in the aftermath of the crisis some commentators argue that higher government expenditure will grow GDP sufficiently to stabilise the debt/GDP ratio. We reject this, showing that although a real increase in expenditure stimulates economic growth (a short-run, once-off effect), the public expenditure/GDP ratio exceeds the level at which an increase in the ratio positively impacts growth. We then explore the past efforts of government to maintain or restore fiscal sustainability by estimating a fiscal reaction function using a Markov-switching model. Following the impact of the Covid-19 crisis on the budget, we subsequently establish the deficit, expenditure and revenue adjustments that the government will have to make to restore fiscal sustainability. Finally, we consider the merits of introducing a debt ceiling.     

Revisiting the Impact of Consumption Growth and Inequality on Poverty in Indonesia during Decentralisation

This article analyses the consumption growth elasticity and inequality elasticity of poverty in Indonesia, with a particular focus on the decentralisation period. Using provincial panel data, we show that the effectiveness of growth in alleviating poverty across provinces was greater during decentralisation—that is, between 2002 and 2010—than at any other point since 1984. The growth elasticity of poverty since 2002 is estimated to have been –2.46, which means that a 10% increase in average consumption per capita would have reduced the poverty rate by almost 25%. However, we also find that rising income inequality negated a quarter to a third of the 5.7-percentage-point reduction in the headcount poverty rate. This increasing inequality has contributed to a lower level of pro-poor growth than that maintained in Indonesia before decentralisation.     

Poverty and Vulnerability in Indonesia Before and After the Economic Crisis

It is well known that the economic crisis in Indonesia has caused the poverty rate to increase significantly. The present study finds, not only that the poverty rate increased significantly, but also that much of the increase was due to a large increase in the chronic poor category (i.e. the poor who have expected consumption below the poverty line and most likely will stay poor in the near future). Furthermore, the present study also finds that the proportion of households that have high vulnerability to poverty has more than doubled since the economic crisis. As a result, the proportion of the total vulnerable group (the current poor plus the high vulnerability group) has jumped from less than one-fifth of the population before the crisis to more than one-third after the crisis.     

Assessing Poverty Trends in Indonesia by International Poverty Lines

Indonesia has made well-documented and drastic progress in raising average incomes and reducing poverty. This article adds to the literature by providing a complementary perspective of poverty between 1984 and 2011. We discuss the evolution of poverty in Indonesia using international poverty lines—$1.25 per person per day (in 2005 purchasing power parity dollars) and $2.00 per day, and we add $10.00 per day. We generate estimates of poverty since 1984 and make projections based on various trends in growth and inequality. We find that Indonesia has the potential to become a high-income country by around 2025 and end $1.25-per-day and $2.00-perday poverty by 2030, but this will require strong economic growth and favourable changes in distribution. Looking ahead, the end of poverty in Indonesia may mean that a large proportion of the population will remain vulnerable to poverty for some time to come, suggesting that public policy priorities will need to balance insurance and risk-management mechanisms with more ‘traditional’ poverty policy.     

Intragenerational Economic Mobility in Indonesia: A Transition from Poverty to the Middle Class in 1993–2014

Economic mobility, especially through expansion of the middle class, will dominate the future of Indonesia’s development agenda. Based on data from five waves of the Indonesia Family Life Survey (IFLS), we found that (1) poverty decreased significantly between 1993 and 2014, from 86.1% to 20.2%, while the middle class grew by almost nine times; (2) 34.4% of the poor moved into the middle class, but 11.9% were still categorised as chronically poor; (3) 42.3% of the middle class did not move into the upper class; (4) the middle and upper classes are vulnerable and easily fall into the lower classes. Our econometric estimations confirm that the drivers of economic mobility are educational attainment, formal employment, water and electricity supply, land ownership, and health investment. These findings suggest that investment in human and physical capital are the two main strategies to expand the middle class.     

Evolution of Poverty During the Crisis in Indonesia

The economic crisis caused a clear deterioration in the welfare of the Indonesian people. In this paper, we examine the appropriate method to compare the change in poverty rates over time. We then piece together a consistent series of estimates of poverty rates during the crisis from various sources, covering a period from February 1996 to February 2002. The reconciliation of these various estimates paints a very reasonable picture and neatly tracks events. The poverty rate increased from the lowest point of approximately 15% at the onset of the crisis in the middle of 1997 to the highest point of approximately 33% nearing the end of 1998. This maximum increase in poverty rate during the crisis of 18 percentage points implies that approximately 36 million additional people were pushed into absolute poverty due to the crisis. After the peak point, the poverty rate started to decline again and reached the pre-crisis level of approximately 15% at the end of 1999, implying that the lost time in poverty reduction due to the crisis was approximately 2.5years. However, the poverty rate after this point appears to have fluctuated. During 2001 and early 2002, poverty was on the rise again.     

Alternative Poverty Lines for Malaysia

Because of the shortcomings of the Malaysian official poverty line, this paper offers several alternative regional poverty line estimations with varying underlying assumptions. Using the Household Expenditure Survey 2004/2005, poverty lines are estimated based on the consumption patterns of 10th and 20th percentile household per capita expenditure. The regional poverty lines from these reference groups produced robust poverty measurement rankings across regions in the country. We suggest that the poverty lines from both reference groups be used as lower and upper poverty lines for the country.     

Economic growth and poverty reduction in Indonesia before and after the asian financial crisis

This paper assesses the relationship between poverty reduction and economic growth in Indonesia before and after the Asian financial crisis. The annual rate of poverty reduction slowed significantly in the post-crisis period. However, the trend in the growth elasticity of poverty indicates that the power of each percentage point of economic growth to reduce poverty did not change much between the two periods. In both, service sector growth made the largest contribution to poverty reduction in both rural and urban areas. Industrial sector growth largely became irrelevant for poverty reduction in the post-crisis period even though the sector contributed the second-largest share of GDP. Agricultural sector growth, mean-while, remained important, but in rural areas only. The findings suggest the need to formulate an effective strategy to promote sectoral growth in order to speed up the pace of poverty reduction.     

Two Decades of Declining Poverty but Rising Inequality in Laos

Over the past two decades consumption inequality has risen within Laos, while absolute poverty incidence has halved. The estimated Gini coefficient of private household expenditures per person rose from 0.311 to 0.364. This increase in the sample‐based estimate of inequality was statistically significant and occurred in all regions, in both rural and urban areas and among all major ethnic, educational and sectoral employment categories. Within‐group increases in inequality dominated between‐group changes. Official policy largely overlooks this point, focusing on reducing inequality between rather than within major groups. Economic inequality seems certain to become a more pressing policy concern.     

On Measuring Energy Poverty in Indian Households

The relationship between energy and poverty is obvious and goes both ways. Recognizing this, this paper provides a short overview of different approaches to measuring energy poverty. It then presents a novel two-dimensional measure of energy poverty and energy distribution that combines the elements of access to different energy types and quantity of energy consumed. An assessment of the extent of energy poverty and changes in energy distribution pattern are analyzed by applying this measure to Indian household survey data for 1983–2000. The analysis shows a significant reduction in the level of energy poverty and a rapidly developing subcontinent. The new measure is a good complement to conventional monetary measures and is general enough to be applied to other developing countries.     

我国公共支出增长及波动对经济增长的影响研究

文章采用随机增长模型来研究政府的公共开支的增长与波动对经济增长的影响。首先,文章给出了随机优化问题的理论基础;然后给出了一个随机增长模型,该模型把公共开支与经济增长联系起来,从理论上推导分析公共开支的平均增长和波动对经济增长的影响;接着选取我国31个省份1995-2012年间在科教文化、社会福利、环境保护、交通运输方面的公共支出的平均值和方差为解释变量建立了多元线性回归模型,实证检验表明:这四种类型公共支出的增长和波动可能促进经济增长也可能阻碍经济增长;文章最后给出了相应的分析和建议。     

我国社会保障财政支出规模研究

对社会保障支出占财政支出的最优比例进行估算具有重大的理论和现实意义。学术界已对财政支出及支出结构的最优比例进行过不少探索,文章以巴罗的内生增长理论为基础,通过构建计量经济模型,对目前经济条件下社会保障支出占财政支出的最优比重进行了估算,并与我国当前实际的支出规模相比较,最后得出我国当前社会保障财政支出规模还没有达到最优,应该合理地增加社会保障财政支出以促进经济社会的发展的结论。     

Economic and Distributional Impact of COVID-19: Evidence from Macro-Micro Modelling of the South African Economy

A computable general equilibrium model linked to a microsimulation model is applied to assess the potential short-term effects on the South African economy of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. With a particular focus on distributional outcomes, two simulations are run, a mild and a severe scenario. The findings show significant evidence of decline in economic growth and employment, with the decline harsher for the severe scenario. The microeconomic results show that the pandemic moves the income distribution curve such that more households fall under the poverty line while at the same time, inequality declines. The latter result is driven by the disproportionate decline in incomes of richer households while the poorest of the poor are cushioned by government social grants that are kept intact during the pandemic. The COVID-19 pandemic is still unfolding and its economic modelling as well as the data used to operationalise the model will need to be updated and improved upon as more information about the disease and the economy becomes available.     

经济全球化对贫困影响的争论及原因研究综述

目前关于经济全球化对贫困影响的文献相当多,但研究的结果却大不相同：有学者认为全球化有益于缓解贫困,有学者则认为全球化将不利于贫困人口。即使有学者利用经验检验两者之间的关系,也没有得出一致的结论。而细观这些文献,我们会发现导致争论的原因主要来源三个方面：贫困概念定义的模糊,度量方法的不同以及理论模型的差异。