The Indonesian national family planning program

With a change in the Indonesian government in 1965 there came a change in government policy from pronatalist to limiting the birthrate. In January 1970 the government National Family Planning Cordinating Body was established. During the initial phase of the program family planning efforts have been limited to the islands of Java and Bali where family planning services are integrated into health service clinics. By the beginning of 1975 there were some 2400 clinics on Java and Bali. Family planning acceptors increased from 53,100 in 1969 to 1.5 million in 1974. The 1st phase of the program aimed at consolidating government support, winning local formal and informal leader support, introducing services into public clinic health systems, and building a viable administrative organization. The 2nd phase of the program has quantified the goal of the program, shifted from an emphasis on new acceptors to continuing users, broadened the participation of various government and nongovernmental groups, expanded the program into the private sector, and initiated a research and development program to stimulate local problem identification and resolution. By mid-1975 over 4.7 million women, or 34% of the married women between the ages of 15 and 44, had been recruited into the program. The East Java program has consistently been the most cost effective in terms of recruiting new acceptors. In terms of cost per couple year of protection, the trend has been steadily downward over the 3 years of study in the provinces of Jakarta, West Java, Central Java, Yogyakarta, East Java, and Bali where there are programs. The program needs to develop new approaches for those individuals who are not yet acceptors. Additionally, the program must concentrate on user continuation.     

The economics of dying: A misapplication of tools

Conclusions Unlike McKenzie and Tullock, we do not know how personsshould treat their bodily organs or what is an ideal exit. That depends upon their utility goals, which are defined in output terms specific to the decision maker. We contend that the body is an input into the utility production process, and therefore, as with any input, it must be maintained and repaired at a level consistent with the output goals for maximization of utility. Thus, from this framework, it is quite consistent for a person to die with healthy organs without any thought of belief in reincarnation or the desire to bequeath one's bodily organs to others, or religious values. Self interest is all that must prevail.Also, the fact that there are interrelationships between the organs in the system, and at points these relationships take on fixed factor characteristics such that reduced levels of operation in one organ can create disorientation or coma or damage to other organs, means that the body cannot die as M-T suggest. Zero capacity for all organs at death is a technical impossibility as well as being inconsistent with the output goals of utility maximizers.     

Economy of Russia’s Northern regions: Investment in fixed assets

This article discusses the features of the dynamics of investment in fixed assets in northern regions and the main factors of its rapid growth before the crisis and sharp decline in the crisis period. The contribution of individual regions to the growth rate of investment in the entire economy of the North is determined, and the territorial structure of investment by sectors and types of economic activity and the main sources of financing and changes in the structure of investment are investigated. An evaluation of the tendency towards investment and the investment attractiveness of northern regions are given.     

Not all trade restrictions are created equally

There has been great focus in the recent trade theory literature on the introduction of firm heterogeneity into trade models. This introduction has highlighted the importance of the entry/exit decision of firms in response to changes in trade barriers. However, it is typical in many of these models to use iceberg transport costs as a general form of trade barriers that can be interchangeable with ad valorem tariffs. I show that this is not always an appropriate conclusion. Specifically, I illustrate that profit for an exporter is more elastic in response to tariffs than iceberg transport costs, which affects the entry/exit decision of firms. This has implications for welfare analysis and empirical specifications.     

Indonesian population growth 1971-1980

The author reviews the accuracy of the preliminary results of the 1980 Indonesian population census. Methodological weaknesses and errors made in implications for evaluating the effectiveness of family planning programs are considered