Market power and subsidies in the Indonesian palm oil industry

Cooking oil is known as an essential commodity in Indonesia. Having such an important role, the Indonesian government often interfered the cooking oil market to assure its price remain low. To do so, the government uses a subsidy policy as one of its instruments. A dynamic duopoly model is applied to evaluate the impact of subsidies given the structure of the industry. Estimation results suggest an evidence of both an increase in the consumer surplus but a decrease in aggregate welfare due to market power. A possible reason is proposed, but, in order to obtain a clear explanation, further research is required.market power, subsidy, Indonesian palm oil industry, Agricultural Finance, Crop Production/Industries, Demand and Price Analysis,

PROSES PELAYANAN JASA PENDARATAN, PENEMPATAN, DAN PENYIMPANAN PESAWAT UDARA (PJP4U) PADA PT. ANGKASA PURA II (PERSERO) KANTOR CABANG BANDARA SULTAN ISKANDAR MUDA BANDA ACEH

Setelah melaksanakan Praktik Kerja Lapangan, dalam penyusunan ini penulis menyimpulkan bahwa:Pencatatan Penempatan dan Penyimpanan Pesawat Udara (PJP4U) menggunakan aplikasi dari software Sistem yaitu ACD Sheet System dalam tahapan pencatatan ini berdasarkan waktu dan berat jenis pesawat selama berada di bandara Sultan Iskandar Muda.Untuk biaya landing atau take off setiap pesawat dikenakan biaya tergantung dari berat atau bobot pesawat tersebut.Untuk pelayanan PJP4U pada PT. Angkasa Pura II ( Persero ) Sultan Iskadar Muda cabang Banda Aceh berada dibawah bidang Komersial

AN EMPIRICAL ANALYSIS OF ASYMMETRIC DUOPOLY IN THE INDONESIAN CRUDE PALM OIL INDUSTRY

The apparent increase in market concentration and vertical integration in the Indonesian crude palm oil (CPO) industry has led to concerns about the presence of market power. For the Indonesian CPO industry, such concerns attract more attention because of the importance of this sector to the Indonesian economy. CPO is used as the main raw material for cooking oil (which is an essential commodity in Indonesia) and it contributes significantly to export earnings and employment. However, dominant producers argue that the increase in economies of scale and scope lead to an increase in the efficiency, which eventually will be beneficial for the end consumers and export earnings. This research seeks to examine whether the dominant producers do behave competitively and pass the efficiency gains to the end consumers, or they enhance inefficiency through market power instead. In order to identify the most suitable model to measure market power in the Indonesian CPO industry, different market power models are explored. These models can be divided into static and dynamic models. In general, all of them accept the price–cost margins as a measure of market power. However, static models fail to reveal the dynamic behaviour that determines market power; hence the dynamic models are likely to be more appropriate to modelling market power. Among these dynamic models, the adjustment model with a linear quadratic specification is considered to be a more appropriate model to measure market power in the Indonesian CPO industry. In the Indonesian CPO industry, producers can be divided into three groups, namely the public estates, private companies and smallholders. However, based on their ability to influence market price, smallholders are not considered as one of the dominant groups. By using the adjustment cost model, the market power of the dominant groups is estimated. The model is estimated using a Bayesian technique annual data spanning 1968–2003. The public estates and private companies are assumed to engage in a noncooperative game. They are assumed to use Markovian strategies, which permit firms to respond to changes in the state vector. In this case, the vector comprises the firms and their rivals’ previous action, implying that firms respond to changes in their rivals’ previous action. The key contribution of this thesis is the relaxation of the symmetry assumption in the estimation process. Although the existence of an asymmetric condition often complicates the estimation process, the different characteristics of the public estates and private companies lead to a need for relaxing such an assumption. In addition, the adjustment system—which can be seen as a type of reaction function—is not restricted to have downward slopes. Negative reaction functions are commonly assumed for a quantity setting game. However, the reverse may occur in particular circumstances. Without such restrictions, the analysis could reveal the type of interaction between the public estates and private companies. In addition, it provides insights into empirical examples of conditions that might lead to the positive reaction function. Furthermore, the analysis adds to the understanding of the impact of positive reaction functions to avoid the complicated estimation of the asymmetric case. As expected, the public estates act as the leader, while the private companies are the follower. Interestingly, results indicate that as well as the private companies, public estates do exert some degree of market power. Moreover, the public estates enjoy even higher market power than the private companies, as indicated by market power indices of -0.46 and -0.72, respectively. The exertion of market power by both the public estates and the private companies cast some doubts about the effectiveness of some current policies in the Indonesian CPO industry. With market power, the underlying assumption of a perfectly competitive market condition—that serves as the basis for the government interventions—is no longer applicable. Hence, many government interventions are unlikely to have the desired effect. The Indonesian competition law that has been imposed since 1999 might be effective in preventing firms to sign collusive contracts. In fact, even without such an agreement, firms in the CPO industry are likely to exert some degree of market power. As an alternative, eliminating the ‘sources’ of market power might be a better solution. If the public estates have the aim of maximising welfare, privatisation might improve their efficiency, hence they have ability to suppress the private companies’ market power. However, if in fact, the public estates deliberately reduce output to gain higher profit, privatisation might increase the degree of market power of both groups of companies even further. In such a condition, addressing the long term barriers of entry stemming from the requirement of high investment might be a better alternative to address the market power problem in the CPO industry

The Analysis of Word Diction Used in the Game Football Manager 2010: A Semantic Approach

Chalil Ichwan. 2013. The Analysis of Word Diction Used in the Game Football Manager 2010: A Semantic Approach. Thesis. Adab and Humanities Faculty. Alauddin State Islamic University of Makassar. The objective of this research are (1) to describe the dictions used in the game Football Manager 2010, (2) to describe how accurate the diction used in the game Football Manager 2010. The method used in this research is descriptive qualitative method. The source of data in this research is the game Football Manager 2010. The instrument used in this research is note-taking. Based on the result of the data analysis, the writer found nineteen dictions from the text of mass media in the game Football Manager 2010. The accuracy of diction used in the game Football Manager 2010 is very good. The writer decides the accuracy based on three conditions of good diction presented by Keraf. The implication of this research is to give more description, understanding and knowledge to the readers in presenting the arts of language. The students and the researcher himself who read the outcomes of this study can positively apply the accurate words either in common conversation or football style conversation. The effective words, which are studied in semantic, could also be used to facilitate others in understanding the variety of words exist

Sustainability of Sustainable Palm Oil: a Market Integration Analysis

Crude Palm Oil (CPO) is the biggest consumed vegetable oil in the world. The increase in CPO production raises concern on the environmental impact even outside the producing countries. As a response to this matter, the EU has made a requirement to only import certified CPO (CSPO). India and China, the two biggest importers in the world, are less restrictive to the environmental issues, and their demands are more influenced by CPO price levels. These countries are the main export markets for Indonesia and Malaysia, the two biggest CPO exporters in the world. This research using monthly price data from the Netherlands, Germany, Italy, EU28, India, China, Indonesia and Malaysia. Market integrations are tested with Cointegration Test, Vector Error Correction Model and Seemingly Unrelated Regression. The results show that these markets are integrated, but European countries are unlikely to lead the price movement. Therefore, the concern on sustainable certification from the European countries still slowly spreads to other main importers, resulting in low absorption of CSPO

Modeling and Analysis of Remote, Off-grid Microgrids

Over the past century the electric power industry has evolved to support the delivery of power over long distances with highly interconnected transmission systems. Despite this evolution, some remote communities are not connected to these systems. These communities rely on small, disconnected distribution systems, i.e., microgrids, to deliver power. Power distribution in most of these remote communities often depend on a type of microgrid called off-grid microgrids\u27\u27. However, as microgrids often are not held to the same reliability standards as transmission grids, remote communities can be at risk to experience extended blackouts. Recent trends have also shown an increased use of renewable energy resources in power systems for remote communities. The increased penetration of renewable resources in power generation will require complex decision making when designing a resilient power system. This is mainly due to the stochastic nature of renewable resources that can lead to loss of load or line overload during their operations. In the first part of this thesis, we develop an optimization model and accompanying solution algorithm for capacity planning and operating microgrids that include N-1 security and other practical modeling features (e.g., AC power flow physics, component efficiencies and thermal limits). We demonstrate the effectiveness of our model and solution approach on two test systems: a modified version of the IEEE 13 node test feeder and a model of a distribution system in a remote Alaskan community. Once a tractable algorithm was identified to solve the above problem, we develop a mathematical model that includes topology design of microgrids. The topology design includes building new lines, making redundant lines, and analyzing N-1 contingencies on generators and lines. We develop a rolling horizon algorithm to efficiently analyze the model and demonstrate the strength of our algorithm in the same network. Finally, we develop a stochastic model that considers generation uncertainties along with N-1 security on generation assets. We develop a chance-constrained model to analyze the efficacy of the problem under consideration and present a case study on an adapted IEEE-13 node network. A successful implementation of this research could help remote communities around the world to enhance their quality of life by providing them with cost-effective, reliable electricity

European Markets Certification Demands and the Integration to Indonesian Crude Palm Oil Main Export Markets

Indonesia is the world largest crude palm oil (CPO) producer in the world, with nearly 80% of production exported. Therefore, Indonesia needs to consider the world market requirements. One of the requirements is the demand for sustainable products, which is certified by the Roundtable Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) certificate. The CPO (Certified Sustainable Palm Oil) demands mainly come from European countries, which individually are not the major Indonesian CPO importers but as a group (EU28) constitutes the second-largest importer. This study is conducted to analyze the integration of the European market with Indonesia’s main export markets (India, China, and Bangladesh). The analyses use quarterly data of CPO free on board (f.o.b) and cost, insurance and freight (c.i.f.) prices, and import and export volumes from 2008 to 2014, covering exporter and importer countries, namely, Indonesia, Malaysia, China, India, Bangladesh, the Netherlands, Germany, Italy, and the EU28, with seemingly unrelated regression (SUR) and Eagle-Granger causality method. Estimation results are used to analyze the effect of the European countries’ volume and price changes, both individually and collectively (EU28), to the changes in India’s, China’s, and Bangladesh’s volume and price as the Indonesian CPO major importers, and to the changes in Indonesia’s and Malaysia’s volume and price as major exporters. The analysis is completed with policy implications that are expected to be inputs for relevant stakeholders

Analysis of Smallholders’ Progress in Implementing Sustainable Management in North Sumatra, Indonesia

The significant increase in oil palm areas has resulted in more concerns to the environmental issues - as majority of farming activities were not conducted in sustainable ways. To address the environmental issues, the Roundtable Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) organization has formulated principles and criterias (PnC) for sustainable practices of the oil palm plantation as a guideline, whereby it has to be adhered by all parties involved, including the smallholders. The study is therefore conducted to analyze the sustainable management implementation among smallholders in North Sumatra. In total, 320 and 137 schemed and independent smallholders from four oil palm plantations centers in North Sumatra were interviewed in 2012 and 2018 to see their progress. The levels of implementation for each group were determined based on their scores for each of the criteria, and were compared with the independent sample t-test. The influencing factors for implementation levels were estimated by using multinomial logit model. The results showed that the level of implementation for both schemed and independent smallholders were still low in both 2012 and 2018. Education, experience and participation were identified as factors that significantly influenced their sustainable management implementation levels. Therefore, it is suggested that trainings should be emphasized to improve the sustainable management implemenatation among oil palm smallholders

Building the Science of Healthcare Public Reporting: Integrating Anecdotal Information to Enhance Sensemaking

Anecdotal information about a healthcare consumers\u27 interaction with care providers and hospital facilities is becoming increasingly available to the public in the form of YouTube videos and as discussion posts on peer-support groups. This form of information can potentially jeopardize the utility of reports generated by Federal entities as it potentially diverts consumer attention from more reliable measures of quality. This dissertation investigates how a health consumer\u27s choice of care is influenced by anecdotal information on the care process available on YouTube. This research then investigates the effect of information presentation methods such as narratives and active engagement with quality metrics to support the consumer\u27s ability to comprehend public report information. An initial study investigated the characteristics of information healthcare consumers are searching for on a peer-support group. By analyzing the discussions available on the support community of a major ovarian cancer support group, the Ovarian Cancer National Alliance (OCNA), this study investigated the type of information that newly diagnosed ovarian cancer patients and their supporters seek. Using content analysis, 206 publicly available discussions exchanged on OCNA were analyzed by two researchers. Each discussion point was classified into one of the three broad themes that emerged: ovarian cancer-specific, treatment-related, or coping information. The discussion points were further analyzed using a multinomial logit model to predict the type of the desired information based on the role of the person looking for the information, the disease phase in which the information was sought, the emotional status of the information seeker, and the stage of the cancer. Treatment-related material was the most sought-after information by patients, while coping information was most sought by supporters. When forum posts were negative in tone, the information seekers were more likely to be looking for ovarian cancer-specific information than either treatment-related information or coping information. The second study investigated the effect of the role of the sequence in which such public report statistics and anecdotal information are viewed by health consumers during the sensemaking process. The study used the scenario of a patient looking for health facility-related information and employed a 2 (anecdotal information presented as videos supporting and contradicting public report information) * 2 (phase of introduction of anecdotal information: early, late) between-subjects experimental design. The results found that when the phase of introduction of anecdotal information changed from early to late, and when the anecdotal information contradicted the public reports, the probability of choosing the correct facility changed from 0.41 to 0.69. The probability of choosing the correct facility was reduced by more than half, changing from 0.85 to 0.41, when contradicting, rather than supporting, anecdotal information was presented before the public reports. Participants placed significant emphasis on this initial information and found it difficult to change their initial perceptions when presented with the more reliable public reports. The third study investigated ways to enhance consumer understanding by integrating standardized quality metrics with anecdotal information using user experience design methodologies. Two-hundred individuals participated in this study. This study employed a 2 (public report information presented in the standard way, presented within an anecdote) * 2 (engagement with each quality metric: none, active) between-subjects experimental design. The results of the study found that the probability of choosing the correct facility changes from 0.71 to 0.88 when information was presented within a narrative rather than with the standard public report format. A final study evaluated whether the influential nature of inaccurate anecdotal videos could be attenuated by presenting public report information within a narrative with active engagement. The study used the scenario of a patient looking for dialysis facility-related information and employed between-subjects experimental design - inaccurate anecdotal information was presented either early or late in the sensemaking process. Ninety-eight individuals participated in the study. The results found no significant differences in the choice of the dialysis facility and level of confidence in the choice. Given that narratives have the power to impact choice and comprehension, there exists a need to conduct further investigation to develop comprehensive guidelines for the presentation of narratives that support the use of public report information

ASPEK HUKUM PIDANA DALAM UNDANG-UNDANG NOMOR 20 TAHUN 2016 TENTANG MEREK DAN INDIKASI GEOGRAFIS SERTA IMPLEMENTASINYA DI INDONESIA

Sebagai bagian dari Hak Kekayaan Intelektual, merek memiliki fungsi yang sangat penting bagi eksistensi sebuah perusahaan. Pemboncengan reputasi terhadap merek terdaftar banyak sekali terjadi dan dilakukan oleh orang-orang yang tidak bertanggungjawab. Tidak sedikit pengusaha di negeri ini yang melakukan tindakan pemboncengan reputasi terhadap merek terdaftar dengan cara membuat suatu merek yang mirip dan dapat mengelabui konsumen, dan merek tersebut ternyata dapat disahkan dalam pendaftaran merek oleh Dirjen HKI. Undang-Undang 20 Tahun 2016 Tentang Merek  dan Indikasi Greografis  menyebutkan bahwa permohonan harus ditolak oleh Dirjen HKI apabila merek tersebut mempunyai persamaan pada pokoknya atau keseluruhannya dengan merek lain yang sudah terdaftar lebih dahulu. Para pelaku bisnis seringkali melakukan kecurangan dan tidak mempunyai itikad baik dalam menjalankan usahanya yaitu dengan membonceng ketenaran merek terkenal milik pihak lain untuk mendapatkan keuntungan yang besar. Itikad tidak baik merupakan perbuatan yang tidak jujur yang memiliki niat membonceng atau meniru ketenaran merek milik pihak lain demi kepentingan usahanya yang mengakibatkan kerugian pada pihak lain