Did social safety net scholarships reduce drop-out rates during the Indonesian economic crisis?

The author uses regression and matching techniques to evaluate Indonesia's Social Safety Net Scholarships Program, which was developed to keep large numbers of children from dropping out of school as a result of the Asian crisis. It was expected that many families would find it difficult to keep their children in school and that dropout rates would be high, as they were during a recession in the 1980s. But dropouts did not increase markedly and enrollment rates remained relatively steady. The author examines the role the scholarship program played in producing this result. She found the scholarships to have been effective in reducing dropouts in the lower secondary school (where students are more susceptible to dropping out) by about 3 percentage points. They had no discernible impact in primary and upper secondary schools. The author also examines how well the program adhered to its documented targeting design and how effective that design was in reaching the poor. Committees that allocated the scholarships followed the criteria diligently, but a significant percentage of scholarships did go to students from households with high reported per capita expenditures, if household expenditure data are reliable. It is unclear how targeting can be improved, giving the scarcity of accurate local household data in most countries. Using local monitoring could help but then monitoring for accountability would be more difficult. Preliminary evidence favors focusing safety net scholarships--designed to reduce dropout rates during an economic crisis--on lower secondary schools, continuing to target children (especially older students) from large families, scaling back scholarships to private schools at the lower secondary level, or targeting the households hurt most by the crisis.Health Monitoring&Evaluation,Public Health Promotion,Teaching and Learning,Information Technology,Housing&Human Habitats,Health Monitoring&Evaluation,Teaching and Learning,Information Technology,Housing&Human Habitats,Primary Education

The impact of the Indonesian financial crisis on children : data from 100 villages survey

The author examines the Asian crisis's impact on children in 100 Indonesian villages, based on data from four rounds of the 100 villages surveys that was used to examine changes in health status, school attendance rates, and children's participation in the labor force. She finds little evidence that the crisis had a dramatically negative impact on children. School attendance dropped slightly after the onset of the crisis but then rebounded to higher-than-pre-crisis levels. Fewer children are now working, although the older children who are working and are not attending school seem to be working longer hours. Children's health status appears to be relatively stable, although comparisons of indicators of children's health status over time are complicated by changes in the questionnaire used. The author also examines ways households reported they were coping with the crisis.Health Monitoring&Evaluation,Public Health Promotion,Children and Youth,Early Child and Children's Health,Housing&Human Habitats,Health Monitoring&Evaluation,Street Children,Youth and Governance,Children and Youth,Child Labor

Economic Geography and Wages

This paper estimates the agglomeration benefits that arise from vertical linkages between firms in the context of Indonesia. The analysis is based on international trade and economic geography theory developed by Krugman and Venables (1995). We identify the agglomeration benefits off the spatial variation in firm level nominal wages. Unusually detailed intermediate input data allow us to more accurately capture spatial input/output linkages than in previous studies. We take account of the location of input suppliers to estimate cost linkages; and the location of demand from final consumers and other firms to estimate demand linkages. The results show that the externalities that arise from demand and cost linkages are quantitatively important and highly localized. An understanding of the extent and strength of spatial linkages is crucial in shaping policies that seek to influence regional development.agglomeration, economic geography, vertical linkages.

Do Coresidency with and Financial Transfers from Children Reduce the Need for Elderly Parents to Work in Developing Countries?

What drives the labor supply decisions of the elderly in developing countries? To what extent do elderly parents use coresidence with or financial transfers from children to reduce their own labor supply in old age? These questions are increasingly important because populations in many developing countries are rapidly aging. A clear understanding of the relationships between different means of support in old age is crucial to the development of sensible policy responses. This paper is one of only a few studies that seeks to formally model elderly labor supply in the context of a developing country while taking into account coresidency with and financial transfers from children. We find little evidence that support from children – either through transfers or coresidency – substitutes for elderly parents’ need to work. Thus, as in developed countries, there is a role for public policy to enhance the welfare of the elderly population.Intergenerational transfers, Old-age support, Elderly labor supply

Old-age support in Indonesia: labor supply, intergenerational transfers and living arrangements

This is the first paper of which we are aware that attempts to formally model the supply-supply behaviour of elderly individuals in a developing country. Without broad-based public pension schemes, the majority of the elderly in developing countries are left to rely on their own current and accumulated earnings and support from children as means of support. Our cooperative bargaining framework allows us to jointly estimate the determinants of coresidence, financial transfers from non-coresiding children, and the supply-supply of elderly Indonesians as alternative forms of old-age support. We find that many Indonesians, especially men, continue to work well into old age and there is little evidence that financial transfers from Indonesian children are a substitute for the income support provided by the elderly parent’s own supply supply. Transfers are negatively related to normal weekly hours of work only for non-coresiding mothers

Do coresidency with and financial transfers from children reduce the need for elderly parents to work in developing countries?

What drives the labor supply decisions of the elderly in developing countries? To what extent do elderly parents use coresidence with or financial transfers from children to reduce their own labor supply in old age? These questions are increasingly important because populations in many developing countries are rapidly aging. A clear understanding of the relationships between different means of support in old age is crucial to the development of sensible policy responses. This paper is one of only a few studies that seeks to formally model elderly labor supply in the context of a developing country while taking into account coresidency with and financial transfers from children. We find little evidence that support from children – either through transfers or coresidency – substitutes for elderly parents’ need to work. Thus, as in developed countries, there is a role for public policy to enhance the welfare of the elderly population

The University of New Hampshire Engaged Scholars Academy: Instilling in Faculty Principles of Effective Partnership

Over the last decade, the University of New Hampshire (UNH) has promoted mutually beneficial partnerships between faculty and community partners vis-à-vis the Engaged Scholars Academy (ESA), a faculty development program aimed at enhancing faculty understanding of the principles of partnership and engaged scholarship. This research seeks to determine whether and how the ESA has impacted faculty-community partnerships around engaged scholarship. Findings suggest that Engaged Scholar Academy participants – as compared to non-participants – have a deeper understanding of the principles of partnership, are more likely to feel their scholarship is enhanced, spend more time with partners, engage their partners throughout the process of inquiry, and focus more on sustaining partnership outcomes

Assessing the Risk of 100-year Freshwater Floods in the Lamprey River Watershed of New Hampshire Resulting from Changes in Climate and Land Use

What is the coastal resource issue the project sought to address? Both the magnitude and frequency of freshwater flooding is on the rise in seacoast NH and around much of New England. In the Great Bay watershed, this is the result of two primary causes: 1) increases in impervious surface stemming from a three-to-four fold increase in developed land since 1962; and 2) changing rainfall patterns in part exemplified by a doubling in the frequency of extreme weather events that drop more than 4 inches of precipitation in less than 48 hours (Wake et al., 2011) over the same time period. Moreover, the size of the 100-year precipitation event in this region has increased 26% from 6.3 inches to 8.5 inches from the mid 1950’s to 2010 (NRCC and NRCS, 2012). One consequence is the occurrence of three 100-year floods measured on the Lamprey River at Packers Falls since 1987, and a fourth if the three days of flooding in March of 2010 had occurred instead in two days (Figure 1). Flooding events are expected to continue to increase in magnitude and frequency as land in the watershed is further developed and climate continues to change in response to anthropogenic forcing (e.g., Hayhoe et el., 2007; IPCC, 2007; Karl et al., 2009). Land use management strategies, in particular low impact development (LID) zoning requirements, are one strategy that communities can employ for increased resiliency to flooding with the greatest influence in urban environments

Regional variation of microtubule flux reveals microtubule organization in the metaphase meiotic spindle

Continuous poleward movement of tubulin is a hallmark of metaphase spindle dynamics in higher eukaryotic cells and is essential for stable spindle architecture and reliable chromosome segregation. We use quantitative fluorescent speckle microscopy to map with high resolution the spatial organization of microtubule flux in Xenopus laevis egg extract meiotic spindles. We find that the flux velocity decreases near spindle poles by ∼20%. The regional variation is independent of functional kinetochores and centrosomes and is suppressed by inhibition of dynein/dynactin, kinesin-5, or both. Statistical analysis reveals that tubulin flows in two distinct velocity modes. We propose an association of these modes with two architecturally distinct yet spatially overlapping and dynamically cross-linked arrays of microtubules: focused polar microtubule arrays of a uniform polarity and slower flux velocities are interconnected by a dense barrel-like microtubule array of antiparallel polarities and faster flux velocities