Pandemic responses for developing countries

Spending time in self-isolation in foreign land has naturally triggered me to quietly observe the variety of pandemic responses being executed, either directly through my own observations (in Indonesia) or indirectly through regular conversations with colleagues who come from different parts of the world. These days, my way to show my care for someone that…

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A week of applied microeconomics

It has been a great week of recognition for the field of applied microeconomics, especially for people working in the intersections of development economics and political economy. Yesterday, it was announced that Melissa Dell, an applied microeconomist, was awarded this year's John Bates Clark Medal for her work on the role of the state, institutions,…

Plumbing, data and inertia

I have been longing to write this blog entry since October last year, after it was announced that the latest Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences went to Abhijit Banerjee, Esther Duflo, and Michael Kremer. In a previous blog entry where I shared my immediate reactions to this announcement, I briefly explained how the latest…

A letter from Pakistan

Pakistan Monument, Islamabad. The past two months of the end of this year have been incredibly busy and kept my mind and heart way too occupied from any writing or even "unwritten" moments of self-reflections. But no amounts of exhaustion or other circumstances shall prevent me from penning down anything about my latest overseas trip…

Learning from a rare friend

Before writing this, I had already received the permission from a colleague of mine, a native of the capital Pyongyang of North Korea, to write about my experience with her. In general, it would be strange to comment on your colleague in a public post, both on professional and personal grounds. But instead, my aim…

The return of development economics?

The news of this year's Nobel laureate(s) in Economic Sciences was just an hour ago announced to be the economists Abhijit Banerjee, Esther Duflo and Michael Kremer for their work to alleviate global poverty, the official announcement said. Hopefully, this will bring development economics back on the radar of mainstream economics and make the field…

China and inequality

In many developing countries with a deeply rooted legacy of socialism and egalitarianism, debates about choosing between the policy preferences of economic growth, equality and social justice remain as contentious as ever. Within economics, unanimity is really never meant to be achieved when studying the following questions: What is the optimal tax rate? What is…

Social mobility in democracies

The past 4-6 weeks have been incredibly hectic, as I've recently been embroiled in many weeks (and weekends) of busy work, online studies and field missions to the border areas of Indonesia and Timor-Leste. Now that I am fully back in Jakarta, it's only from this weekend that I've been able to take a deep…

Fasting and Indonesian elections

For several weeks now, I've been slowly adopting to life in Jakarta in conjuncture with many important events taking place in Indonesia. Two events have personally left me with significant impressions: the first being the hotly contested 2019 presidential elections, in which over 190 million were eligible to cast their votes on 17 April, and…

Empirical macroeconomics

On 2 May, it was announced that the economist, Emi Nakamura (Berkeley), had earned the John Bates Clark Medal, an annually-awarded prize which enjoys similar prestige among young American economists as the Yrjö Jahnsson Award does among young European economists. While myself being an enthusiastic follower of the "credibility revolution" within microeconomics - which can…