Publications

Indonesian government aspires to escape from the middle-income trap before 2045, marking 100 years of the country’s independence. The country cannot achieve this growth by relying on exploitation of natural resources but through improving technical knowhow. This book titled “Institution, Human Capital and Development in Indonesia” contains recent research on the regional aspects of the interlinkage between institutions, human capital in the context of Indonesian economic development. This book also serves as a reminder of the importance of institutions in economic development in Indonesia.

In mid 2020, IRSA produced a call for papers inviting Indonesian academics to report and analyse issues related to the COVID-19 pandemic at regional level in Indonesia in order to provide regional perspectives on how the pandemic has affected local people, and how local people responded to this treat and what policy gaps seen from the regions.  Thirty-five academics responded to this call, resulting in these 15 selected chapters for this book. These chapters deal with inter-regions as well as specific region analysis. The specific region analyses cover from issues in large cities such as Jakarta, Yogyakarta and Manado to those in remote areas such as Tual islands, border areas of West Kalimantan and Papua. The COVID-19 related issues in this book are rich, as they also include the issues of regional election, people mobilities, social capital, poverty and food prices.

Due to its location, Indonesia is prone to large seismic activities, some of which have caused a significant number of fatalities and damages to human livelihoods. The country, hence, has to always be prepared and resilient toward these kinds of event. Abilities to soften the human and economic impact of natural shocks and to bounce back the economy as quickly as we can are crucial in sustaining the human and economic development of the country. This book presents disaster-related issues, including disaster management, sustaining regional development, improving human capital in the country, rural development and conserving the environment. Hopefully this book can attract more regional scientists to work on disasters and regional development issues.

It is argued in Indonesia that many local governments experience challenges in governing  their regions and in improving locals’ standard of living. Some studies suggest that more authorities to local government could not by itself boost economic performances of local and regional economies. Decentralisation has not significantly linked to better economic outcome measured by gross domestic product. The most common factors mentioned in literature that has undermined regional development under decentralisation in Indonesia are significant heterogeneity in endowments, factor immobility and endogenous deterioration of local institutions, including corruptive behaviour in the local government administration. These arguments serve as an introduction to the following ten chapters on strengthening regional and local economy in Indonesia.