I worked in Indonesia as a Principal Socio-Economist for the World Bank.  My primary responsibility was working on the poverty strategy and on a set of "safety net" programs that intended to mitigate the impact of the crisis.

While there, working principally with researchers at SMERU I also was able to carry out some research in those two areas.  Since returning I have also been engaged in research relevant to improving local governance, working with the Local Level Institutions study. 

Poverty:  Measurement and Strategy

Indonesia:  Constructing a New Strategy for Poverty Reduction.  (a World Bank report I worked on, the task manager of which was Jessica Poppele).  This report addresses the issue of poverty reduction in Indonesia in the year 2000--in which there is a need to restore growth but simultaneously change governance in a way that can produce both the conditions for "pro-poor" growth and deliver core public services effectively.

Eating Like Which "Joneses"? An Iterative Solution to the Choice of a Poverty
Line with Menno Pradhan, Asep Suryahadi, Sudarno Sumarto.  This provides a complete methodology for setting a poverty line--with a proposed solution to the problem of the sensitivity of the poverty line to the reference group. 

The Evolution of Poverty during the Crisis in Indonesia, 1996-99 (with Asep Suryahadi, Sudarno Sumarto, and Yusuf Suharso) and Measurements of Poverty in Indonesia: 1996, 1999 and Beyond (with Menno Pradhan, Asep Suryahadi, and Sudarno Sumarto). 

Quantifying Vulnerability to Poverty: A Proposed Measure, Applied to Indonesia (with Asep Suryahadi, Sudarno Sumarto).  This paper defines "vulnerability" generally as the risk of an adverse outcome (which the result of exposure to shocks, preventative measures and coping resonses).  Vulnerability to absolute consumption expenditure poverty is the risk of an episode of poverty over some defined horizon (say, 3 years).  A household is defined to be vulnerable to poverty is they have a risk greater than some threshold (say 50 percent). We use panel data from Indonesia to show that there is enormous movement in and out of poverty and even if the headcount ACE poverty is only 20 percent up to 50 percent of households are vulnerable to poverty.   

The Crisis Safety Net Programs

Targeted Programs in an Economic Crisis: Empirical Findings from the Experience of Indonesia with Asep Suryahadi and Sudarno Sumarto, September 2002 (see also the SMERU Research Institute and Center for International Development Working Papers).  A comprehensive empirical assessment, using a combination of cross section and panel data, of the targeting of the "Social Safety Net" programs launched to mitigate the impacts of the crises in Indonesia 1998-2000.    The picture below shows the static benefit incidence of each of the JPS programs, compared to perfect poverty targeting, a uniform transfer, and other government expenditures. 

Safety Nets or Safety Ropes? Dynamic Benefit Incidence of Two Crisis Programs in Indonesia with Asep Suryahadi and Sudarno Sumarto.  This analyzes the differences in dynamic benefit incidence (defined as the incidence of program receipt by change in household expenditures (exclusive of program benefits)) of a subsidized rice program and a labor creation program.  Finds that the self-selection in the labor creating programs led to much better dynamic incidence of the program compared to the administrative eligibility in the rice program.

Local Governance

Voice Lessons: Local Government Organizations, Social Organizations, and the Quality of Local Governance with Vivi Alatas and Anna Wetterberg. October 2002.

An empirical examination of the connection between household's social activities and their perceived quality of local (village) government in Indonesia.  

[unfinished]

[Unfinished]