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This paper studies the COVID-19 pandemic’s impact on Indonesia’s labor market, using the exogenous timing of the pandemic in a seasonal difference-in-differences framework. We use multiple rounds of Indonesia’s National Labor Force Survey to establish a pre-pandemic employment trend and attribute any difference from this trend to the estimated effect of the pandemic on employment outcomes. We find mixed impacts of the pandemic on Indonesia’s labor market. While the pandemic has reduced the gender gap in employment participation due to the “added worker effect” among women, it has also lowered overall employment quality among both women and men. The increase in female employment was mainly driven by women in rural areas without a high school education entering either informal agricultural employment or unpaid family work. For men, the pandemic had negative employment impacts for all subgroups. Among the employed, both women and men work fewer hours and earn lower wages.

The study assesses how ICT modulates the effect of informal sector on income inequality and investigates critical mass or threshold of ICT at which the diffusion of information with mobile cellular reduce income inequality. The ICT indicators are the regional ICT development index (RIDI), computer penetration and mobile cellular penetration. The empirical strategy used is Generalized Method of Moments (GMM). Covering panel data from 460 districts/cities in Indonesia for 2015–2019, the study shows that ICT measures of RIDI and computer penetration directly exacerbate income inequality, otherwise mobile cellular penetration directly reduces it. Enhancing ICT beyond certain thresholds is necessary for ICT to modulate informal sector to reduce income inequality. The corresponding ICT thresholds for the reduction of income inequality is 32.78 mobile cellular penetration per 100 people. The established thresholds make economic sense and can be feasibly implemented by policy makers to induce favourable effects on income inequality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractThe study assesses how ICT modulates the effect of informal sector on income inequality and investigates critical mass or threshold of ICT at which the diffusion of information with mobile cellular reduce income inequality. The ICT indicators are the regional ICT development index (RIDI), computer penetration and mobile cellular penetration. The empirical strategy used is Generalized Method of Moments (GMM). Covering panel data from 460 districts/cities in Indonesia for 2015–2019, the study shows that ICT measures of RIDI and computer penetration directly exacerbate income inequality, otherwise mobile cellular penetration directly reduces it. Enhancing ICT beyond certain thresholds is necessary for ICT to modulate informal sector to reduce income inequality. The corresponding ICT thresholds for the reduction of income inequality is 32.78 mobile cellular penetration per 100 people. The established thresholds make economic sense and can be feasibly implemented by policy makers to induce favourable effects on income inequality.

The study provides evidence on the transition and growth of the formal sector in the Indonesian economy. It utilizes data from the National Labour Force Survey (Sakernas) for tracking the previous work status of labourers as formal or informal workers. The study also examines the implications of formalization of employment for the different rates of earnings of formal sector workers, given their human capital characteristics and different industries of employment. The study finds that the growth of employment in the formal sector is mainly the result of the entry of younger and better educated workers. Although there is some mobility from the informal to the formal sector, the results show that individuals who were previously working in the informal sector are less likely to move to the formal sector. In terms of earnings, there is evidence of scarring effects: individuals who are initially in the formal sector earn more than individuals who are initially in the informal sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many developing countries, like Indonesia, struggle with tax evasion. It reduces government revenues, impeding government activities and a country's economic development. In this study, we look at the topic of tax evasion in Indonesia from 1980 to 2019. Using the "modified-cash-deposit-ratio" technique, we estimate the scale of tax evasion in Indonesia. We specifically calculate the loss in tax revenue caused by Indonesia's shadow economy. Using a variety of estimators, we then evaluate whether financial development can eliminate tax evasion. To estimate the long-run model for Indonesian tax evasion, we used Ordinary Least Squares with robust standard error (OLS-robust), Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL), Dynamic OLS (DOLS), and Robust Least Squares-M-Estimation (RLE-ME). Our findings reveal that there is a non-linear long-run link between tax evasion and financial development in Indonesia, with an inverted U-shape curve indicating that a lower (higher) level of financial development corresponds to a higher (lower) level of tax evasion. An important policy implication is that the Indonesian government and the Central Bank of Indonesia should embark on programmes to increase financial inclusion, provide easy access to credit arrangements and financial facilities, and implement information technology-based financial systems capable of transmitting data to tax authorities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]