The Role of Health Insurance Membership in Health Service Utilisation in Indonesia

In 2014, Indonesia implemented a new, nationwide, subsidised universal-coverage health insurance program, under which poor Indonesians do not pay to become members and others pay a relatively low fee. This program has created a national debate about the effectiveness of the ownership of health insurance in increasing the use of health services—particularly among the poor—given the limitations in their quantity and quality. Using membership data on different health insurance programs from the 2007 rounds of Susenas and Riskesdas, this article researches the impact of having health insurance on health service utilisation, by controlling the levels of quality and quantity of health services in the area. We argue that having health insurance increases health service utilisation by approximately eight percentage points when people feel sick (or by approximately five percentage points if we include those who do not feel sick).     

Regional convergence and the role of the neighbourhood effect in decentralised Indonesia

More than a decade since Indonesia's radical decentralisation process commenced, this article examines whether the economic performance of neighbouring regions – the neighbourhood effect – can determine the speed of regional convergence. The results suggest that the inequality of gross regional domestic product per capita, as indicated by the Williamson index of regional inequality, may increase slightly in times of insignificant estimated speeds of convergence – especially because of the growth of Jakarta. In contrast, changes in the Human Development Index numbers for Indonesia indicate that regional convergence is taking place, although its speed is decreasing. The neighbourhood effect could be significant in both cases, but it has had little effect on the speed of convergence.     

The Economic Cost of Violent Conflict: The Case of Maluku Province in Indonesia

Against the background of the socio-economic and political crises of 1998–2000 in Indonesia, one of its provinces, Maluku, endured its own internal conflicts between 1999 and 2004. The coincidence of these national and regional crises—the tumult affecting Indonesia as a whole and the conflict restricted to Maluku—make the impact of local conflict on Maluku’s economy hard to identify empirically. To solve this problem, we use a synthetic control method (SCM) to construct a synthetic control unit for Maluku based on other Indonesian provinces. Our findings support the view that the violence in Maluku between 1999 and 2004 shifted the regional economy onto a lower growth path.     

INDONESIA'S CHANGING ECONOMIC GEOGRAPHY

Indonesia's regional socio-economic data base extends over 30 years, so it is now possible to draw conclusions about regional development dynamics since the 1970s. We examine economic growth, inequality, convergence, structural change, demographic dynamics and social indicators over this period. There continues to be great diversity in economic and social outcomes, but growth and social progress have been remarkably even: the poorest regions, located mainly in Eastern Indonesia, have generally performed about as well as the national average. The better performing regions include those that are the most ‘connected’ to the global economy. In this respect, Jakarta stands out, growing richer than the rest of the country over time. As expected, conflict is harmful to economic development. There is no clear natural resource story: the performance of the resource-rich provinces has varied considerably.