Does education improve health? Evidence from Indonesia,
Journal of Development Studies, forthcoming.
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Abstract
I examine the effects of education on health in Indonesia using an exogenous variation in education induced by an extension of Indonesia’s school term length in 1978-1979, a natural experiment that fits a regression discontinuity design. I find the longer school year increases educational attainment and wages, but I do not find evidence that education improves health. I explore some mechanisms through which education may affect health, but education does not seem to promote healthy lifestyles, increase the use of modern healthcare services, or improve access to health insurance; if anything, education improves only cognitive capacity.
Does education increase political participation? Evidence from Indonesia, MPRA Paper No. 70326, 2016.
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Abstract
I examine whether education increases voter turnout and makes better voters using an exogenous variation in education induced by an extension of Indonesia's school term length, which fits a fuzzy regression discontinuity design. The longer school year increases education, but I do not find evidence that education makes people more likely to vote in elections or changes whether they consider political candidates' religion, ethnicity, or gender important when they vote. If anything, education seems to make voters more likely to think candidates' development programs are important.
What happen to children’s education when their parents emigrate? Evidence from Sri Lanka (with Vengadeshvaran Sarma),
International Journal of Educational Development, 46, 94-102, 2016.
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We examined the effects of parental emigration on the education of the children left behind in Sri Lanka. Using access to foreign employment agencies as a source of exogenous variation in parental migration, we estimated two-stage least squares models of the children's school enrolment, access to private tuition, class-age gap (the difference between a child's school year and the child's age), and educational spending. Overall, parental migration had no statistically significant effect on any of the outcomes; however, analyses by migrant gender show that the effects of parental migration were heterogeneous. When the mother migrates and the father stays behind, the education of the children worsens; when the father migrates and the mother stays behind, it improves. There is also some evidence that boys, younger children, and children of less-educated parents gain more from parental migration.
The effects of the intensity, timing, and persistence of personal history of mobility on support for redistribution (with Andrew Dabalen and Saumik Paul),
Economics of Transition, 23(3), 565-595, 2015.
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This paper examines the association between the intensity, timing, and persistence of personal history of mobility on individual support for redistribution. Using both rounds of the Life in Transition Survey,the paper builds measures of downward mobility for about 57,000 individuals from 27 countries in Eastern Europe and Central Asia. The analysis finds that more intensive, recent, and persistent downward mobility increases support for redistribution more. A number of extensions and checks are done by, among others, taking into account systematic bias in perceived mobility experience, considering an alternative definition of redistributive preferences, and exploring the severity of omitted variable bias problems. Overall, the results are robust.
Children and maternal migration: Evidence from exogenous variations in family size (with Vengadeshvaran Sarma),
Applied Economics Letters, 22(15), 1184-1187, 2015.
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Both theoretically and empirically, childbearing decreases labour supply of females, but few papers examine the effect of children on whether women emigrate to work. Using exogenous variations in family size induced by parents’ preferences for mixed sibling-sex composition in instrumental variable estimations, we find that, in Sri Lanka where most migrants are women and mothers, children decrease labour participation of females in the domestic market but they increase the likelihood of females working abroad.
Social health insurance improves women’s healthcare use: Evidence from Indonesia (with Shanika Samarakoon), MPRA Paper No. 61504, 2015.
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Abstract
To improve the poor’s access to healthcare services, the Indonesian government introduced Askeskin, a subsidized social health insurance for the poor. We examine the effects of this social health insurance on women’s use of healthcare—maternal, preventive, and curative healthcare—services. Using propensity- score- and difference-in-differences matching strategies, we find the insurance increases the use of public facilities for maternal healthcare, discourages the use of midwives’ services, and increases the use of contraception; it does not seem to increase the use of preventive and curative care, however.
Married men with children may stop working when their wives emigrate to work: Evidence from Sri Lanka (with Vengadeshvaran Sarma), MPRA Paper No. 60752, 2014.
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Abstract
We examine what happens to Sri Lankan men’s labour supply when their wives emigrate to work and leave the husbands and children at home—the effects of maternal migration on the husbands’ labour supply. Using sibling sex-composition of a household as an instrumental variable for the household’s number of children in three-stage least-square estimations, we find maternal migration reduces the husbands’ labour supply. The husbands are more likely to exit the labour market and become unemployed; the employed are less likely to moonlight and have lower wages; those that exit the labour market are more likely to become stay-at-home dads.
Does education empower women? Evidence from Indonesia (with Shanika Samarakoon),
World Development, 66, 428-442, 2015.
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This paper examines whether education empowers women. We exploit an exogenous variation in education induced by a longer school year in Indonesia in 1978, which fits a fuzzy regression discontinuity design. We find education reduces the number of live births, increases contraceptive use, and promotes reproductive health practices. However, except for a few outcome measures, we do not find evidence that education improves women’s decision-making authority within households, asset ownership, or community participation. These results suggest that, to some extent, education does empower women in middle-income countries like Indonesia.
Do children spend too much time in schools? Evidence from a longer school year in Indonesia,
Economics of Education Review, 41, 89-104, 2014.
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I examine the effects of a longer school year in Indonesia on grade repetition, educational attainment, employability, and earnings. I exploit an arbitrary rule that assigned students to a longer school year in Indonesia in 1978–1979, which fits a fuzzy regression discontinuity design. I find the longer school year decreases the probability of grade repetition and increases educational attainment; it also increases the probability of working in formal sectors and wages later in life. These results suggest the length of school years in Indonesia is not too long.