Recently, netizens were rocked by news of the arrest of officials in a garlic import bribery case. Beritagar has documented this case in considerable detail, and in my personal opinion, each of their reports is very interesting to read. The arrest produced evidence of a transfer of IDR 2 billion out of a total deal of “IDR 3.6 billion and a commitment fee of IDR 1,700-1,800 per kg of imported garlic.” Crazy, right? IDR 2 billion could buy a lifetime supply of chicken porridge!
I recently discovered a free software called ADMB. Its function is to estimate non-linear regressions. I need non-linear regression estimation to get an elasticity parameter that is not equal to 1.
Planning is essential. As the saying goes:
“A man who does not plan long ahead will find trouble at his door.” – Confucius, Chinese philosopher
This article is originally appears here on my medium blog. I remake it in this blog because here I can use
$$\LaTeX$$!! yay!! I don’t change anything so if you’ve red this in my medium domain then skip this.
For my first paper review post, I will cover a paper by Thorbecke that is certainly interesting. The paper, which examines how Japan’s electronics export competitiveness was affected by exchange rate movements, was recently published. It is fascinating to see how a manufacturing giant like Japan has been displaced by South Korea and Taiwan.
Are you a public policy observer? You do not have to be a professional. Even someone who comments on government policies in their spare time – and not as their main job – is justified in doing so, because those policies may affect their daily life. A simple example: a friend of mine who sells model kits on the side is deeply affected by the government’s policy on Standar Nasional Indonesia (SNI) for children’s toys, even though he never studied public policy.
I read this paper because I needed to estimate a Constant Elasticity of Substitution (CES) production function. Typically, when estimating Total Factor Productivity (TFP), economists prefer the Cobb-Douglas function because it’s easy to linearize and its parameters have useful real-world interpretations. Unfortunately, for structural models like Computable General Equilibrium (CGE), estimating with Cobb-Douglas has the drawback that the substitution parameter is always 1. No modern CGE model uses a substitution elasticity of 1.
This is a long-overdue blog review of Amiti and Konings’ paper. This paper has been widely cited, and when it came out, the issue was really hot: how tariff reductions could help Indonesia join Global Value Chains (GVCs) and become more productive.
About a year ago, my wife and I visited a museum in Canberra called the Museum of Australian Democracy. The museum occupies Australia’s old Parliament House (the Parliament now works in a new building). Inside, there are all sorts of texts and explanations about political and democratic events in Australia, as well as information about former Prime Ministers. Taking photos outside is free, but entry costs 2 AUD per person. We thought it was well worth it. Here are a few photos of us.
After a long wait, Indonesian parliament finally ratified Indonesia-Australia Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (IA-CEPA). In 10th of February 2020, Indonesian President, Joko “Jokowi” Widodo, went to Australia to share the good news himself with his Australian counterparts.