Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Degree

Doctor of Philosophy

Program

Economics

Supervisor

Terry Sicular

Abstract

This thesis analyzes labor market issues in Indonesia. The first chapter analyzes the insurance role of self-employment during the Asian Financial Crisis. Difference in difference estimation is used to estimate the effect of having self-employed business before the crisis on household consumption and labor supply during the crisis. I find that household with self-employed business before the crisis could increase labor supply by a much lesser amount to maintain the same level of consumption compared with households without self-employed business before the crisis. The second chapter looks at the effect of women's work hours on their intra-household bargaining power. I utilize direct information on household decision making from the Indonesian Family Life Survey to construct direct measures of women's intra-household bargaining power. I also utilize regional price increase during the Asian Financial Crisis as an instrumental variable that positively affects women's work hours but does not affect women's bargaining power directly. I find evidence for a positive relationship between women's work hours and their intra-household bargaining power. The third chapter compares the Indonesian Family Life Survey and the Indonesian Labor Force Survey and tries to reconcile the inconsistencies between the two surveys in employment measures. After documenting and testing potential causes of the inconsistencies, I find that the inconsistencies are by large not reconcilable. The design of questions on working status in the survey and the treatment of unpaid family work, however, does seem to be a factor causing inconsistencies between the two surveys.

Download

Share

COinS