A Survey on Growth and Inequality: Does Improved Inequality Data Have Anything to Say?

Theories on the relationship between inequality and economic growth can be divided into two strands of paradigm, i.e. those which predict tradeoff between growth and equity, and those which predict no tradeoff. The consensus of empirical literature in 1980s until mid 1990s suggest there need be no conflict between fast growth and distribution. Empirical works in that era, however, were subject to criticism over the reliability of inequality data. The availability and accessibility of more improved income inequality data after the publication of Deininger and Squire’s (1996) had motivated more empirical works on the relationship between growth and inequality and had also made possible the use of relatively advanced econometric methods. Recent empirical literature following this publication of new dataset, however, do not provide strong support for whether growth and inequality are negatively or positively associated. It mainly suggest no overall relation between growth and inequality. There is little indication, however, that in the context of developing countries, the tradeoff may be resolved.growth, inequality

On the re-assessment of inequality in Indonesia: household survey or national account?

This paper is motivated by the inconsistency between food and non-food ex-penditure estimated from household survey data (SUSENAS) and from nationalaccount (I-O table) and its connection on the issue of inequality in Indonesia.Since non-food expenditure tend to be under-estimated when compared withnational account data, it imply the under-representation of the rich in the cal-culation of inequality in Indonesia. This paper, then applies an approach toreconciling household survey and national accounts data, by re-estimating thesampling weight through minimization of entropy distance of information takinghousehold survey weight as prior, while satisfying some aggregation constraints.The estimated weight then is used to calculate standard indicator of inequalityin Indonesia. The results suggests that while inequality in rural Indonesia doesnot change much, due to possible under-representation of the rich in the survey, inequality in urban Indonesia is highly under-estimated. The "Jakarta factor"seems to account mostly to this discrepancy.inequality; Indonesia; entropy

Estimates of the “Green” or “Eco” Regional Domestic Product of Indonesian Provinces for the year 2005

A trial estimate of the Green or Eco-Regional Domestic Product (ERDP) for 30 provinces in Indonesia for the year 2005 was attempted. ERDP was calculated by subtracting from “brown” Gross Regional Domestic Product (GRDP), the value of liquidation of all kind of assets, man-made and natural. The types of assets covered are man-made capital, oil and natural gas, as well as other non-oil-gas minerals. The environmental assets liquidation included are environmental degradation of local and global pollution. This estimate is the first covering all provinces in Indonesia which enable informative cross-provincial comparison. It is found that the sustainability of the economic development of such provinces as Papua, East Kalimantan, West Nusa Tenggara, Riau and South Sumatra are in question as they rank low in term of the ratio of ERDP to GRDP. It implies that their future generations are among the most vulnerable. The rapid economic development in the provinces is dominantly caused by the liquidation of natural resource assets especially from oil, gas and other mineral extraction. The findings call for the need to diversify economic activity to avoid being too dependent on the extractive and polluting sectors. Sustainability could also be enhanced by way of increasing productivity so that for each unit of the liquidation of natural assets, we can generate welfare as much as possible.Green Regional Domestic Product, Green Accounting, Indonesia

Constructing Indonesian Social Accounting Matrix for Distributional Analysis in the CGE Modelling Framework

The distributional impact of policies analyzed in the CGE modelling framework have been constrained in part by the absence of a Social Accounting Matrix (SAM) with disaggregated households. Since Indonesian official SAM does not distinguish households by income or expenditure size, it has prevented accurate assesment for the distributional impact, such as calculation of inequality or poverty incidence. This paper describes how the Indonesian SAM for the year 2003, with 181 industries, 181 commodities, and 200 households (100 urban and 100 rural households grouped by expenditure per capita centiles) was constructed. The SAM (with the size of 768x768 accounts) constitutes the the most disaggregated SAM for Indonesia at both the sectoral and household level. SAM Construction is an essential part of CGE modeling, and this documentation provides greater transparency as well as replicability for further improvement.Social Accounting Matrix; Computable General Equilibrium; Indonesia

Who Pay for the Cleaner Air? Distributional Impact of Environmental Policy in a Dualistic Economy

Using a technology where pollution is regarded as by-product of industry's activity and applied in a simple setup of Heckscher-Ohlin-Copeland-Taylor model, this paper analyses the possible distributional impacts of stricter environmental policy in a developing country characterized by the presence of labor-intensive informal sector which may not be a subject to the environmental regulation, and capital intensive formal sector which may face minimum wage policy. The comparative static analysis illustrates that stricter environmental regulation if enforced uniformly accross industries in undistorted labor market, hurts both labor and capital owner, leaving income ditribution unchanged. On the contrary, when economy is dualistic, income distribution may change due to labor reallocation. When the stricter regulation can only be enforced in formal sector, capital owner will be worse-off while labor are better-off. If initially capital reward is higher, the environmental policy will improve income distribution in favor of labor. The change in income distribution is greater when economy is dualistic.Environmental Policy; Dualistic Economy; Distribution

Conservation and Climate Change Mitigation: A Framework and Principles from Regional Government’s Perspective and Its Financing Implication

This paper highlights the importance of regional governments in the context of Indonesian struggle to resolve the problem of climate change, in particular, and wider area of environmental problem. It emphasizes, that regional governments, more often than not, overlook the value of conservation, despite evidences that conservation not only has the benefit of securing the welfare of future generation but also can avoid various environmental problem and many natural disasters of today. There is a need to modify the paradigm of financing for climate change mitigation or adaptation from focusing on searching external financing with the basis of compensation but optimizing internal source of financing as it is the local who will benefit from many of our conservation actions.climate change, conservation, regional development, Indonesia

Who Pay for the Cleaner Air? Distributional Impact of Environmental Policy in a Dualistic Economy

Using a technology where pollution is regarded as by-product of industry's activity and applied in a simple setup of Heckscher-Ohlin-Copeland-Taylor model, this paper analyses the possible distributional impacts of stricter environmental policy in a developing country characterized by the presence of labor-intensive informal sector which may not be a subject to the environmental regulation, and capital intensive formal sector which may face minimum wage policy. The comparative static analysis illustrates that stricter environmental regulation if enforced uniformly accross industries in undistorted labor market, hurts both labor and capital owner, leaving income ditribution unchanged. On the contrary, when economy is dualistic, income distribution may change due to labor reallocation. When the stricter regulation can only be enforced in formal sector, capital owner will be worse-off while labor are better-off. If initially capital reward is higher, the environmental policy will improve income distribution in favor of labor. The change in income distribution is greater when economy is dualistic.Environmental Policy, Dualistic Economy, Distribution

Constructing Indonesian Social Accounting Matrix for Distributional Analysis in the CGE Modelling Framework

The distributional impact of policies analyzed in the CGE modelling framework have been constrained in part by the absence of a Social Accounting Matrix (SAM) with disaggregated households. Since Indonesian official SAM does not distinguish households by income or expenditure size, it has prevented accurate assesment for the distributional impact, such as calculation of inequality or poverty incidence. This paper describes how the Indonesian SAM for the year 2003, with 181 industries, 181 commodities, and 200 households (100 urban and 100 rural households grouped by expenditure per capita centiles) was constructed. The SAM (with the size of 768x768 accounts) constitutes the the most disaggregated SAM for Indonesia at both the sectoral and household level. SAM Construction is an essential part of CGE modeling, and this documentation provides greater transparency as well as replicability for further improvement.Social Accounting Matrix, Computable General Equilibrium, Indonesia

Climate Change Issues and Mitigation Actions in Indonesia

This paper first highlights at least four important issues relevant to be discussed in the context of climate change in Indonesia: (1) Indonesia is among the most vulnerable to climate change impact; (2) Indonesia is the second biggest contributor to global GHG emissions from land use change or deforestation; (3) As the fourth biggest country in term of population, Indonesia is also the candidate to become among the most important carbon emitters from energy consumption; (4) Indonesia is still struggling in economic development, particularly poverty alleviation. The first three issues are sufficient reasons for Indonesia, together with the rest of the world, to take necessary actions against climate change and the fourth issue is ‘the number one’ priority in Indonesian development and the element that must always be the prime consideration in any of those actions. This paper also review some of the actions that has been done particularly by Indonesian government in tackling climate change and questions some of its shortcomings and challenges.climate change, Indonesia

Poverty and Environmental Degradation: Searching for Theoretical Linkages

Existing literature about poverty and environmental degradation suggests that poverty is the victim of environmental degradation, but could not conclude whether poverty is also the cause of environmental problems. However, most of those studies are empirical i.e. analyze case studies in certain locations and very specific to certain types of environmental problem, not theoretical or analytical studies which are based on behavioral economic model. Some relevant analytical economic models which are based on standard assumption of optimizing economic agents are surveyed. Those models confirm, among others, the significant role of property right and the way population growth may interact in the nexus. In addition to that, they may introduce some additional insights such as how environmental degradation could be seen as rational decision of the poor to disinvest in base-resource and the way that institutional failure may also be endogenously caused by poverty. The discussion of some limitation of both empirical and theoretical literature suggest that more economically-relevant definition of environmental degradation, and more emphasis on proper valuation of natural resources are necessary.Poverty, Environmental degradation