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Significant variations in educational outcomes across both the spatial and socioeconomic spectra in Australia have been widely debated by policymakers in recent years. This paper examines these variations and decomposes educational outcomes into 3 major input factors: availability of school resources, socioeconomic background, and a latent factor that links to the specificities of the local education system such as efficiencies. The proposed method respects the multi-dimensional nature of educational outcomes by estimating structural parameters of an extended education production function with multiple outcome measures. The results indicate that all factors contribute to the variations. Nevertheless, socioeconomic factors dominate non-school-based measures such as the tertiary education enrolment rate. The study also reveals significant differences in education system efficiencies across areas, suggesting compounding factors are often responsible for poor educational performance.

Motivation: Much of the world's population still lacks access to safe drinking water and sanitation, particularly people living in poverty and in rural areas. The literature suggests that lack of access to water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) contributes to poor development of young children. That further leads to inadequate cognitive stimulation, stunting, iodine and iron deficiency, and lower productivity. Purpose: We aim to study the status of early childhood health in Indonesia by measuring an Early Childhood Health Index and to examine the role of access to safe water, sanitation, and hygiene in improving children's health using the national representative data of Indonesian Family Life Survey (IFLS) waves 4 (in 2007) and 5 (in 2014). Methods and approach: Our methodological approach consisted of two steps. First, we developed WASH Index and Early Childhood Health Index using polychoric Principal Component Analysis (PCA), then assessed the association between the two indices using Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) regression. Findings: Overall, we found significant associations between the WASH Index and children's health status and nutritional status. The results also show that several important indicators of WASH (in particular, quality of drinking water, washing and bathing water, and sanitation) improved between 2007 and 2014. Children's access to health care and several children's health indicators also got better. Nevertheless, we still observed stable conditions or even worsening conditions in other components, namely an increase in stunting and children's morbidity. Policy implications: This study provides evidence that access to safe drinking water, sanitation, and hygiene is essential to improve children's health status. In accordance with Government Regulation of the Republic of Indonesia number 185 from 2014, the government at the national, provincial, and district levels must accelerate the development of public infrastructure to ensure access to safe drinking water, sanitation, and hygiene for the entire population as this investment is essential to improve young children's health and reduce the prevalence of stunting in Indonesia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates the patterns and trends in the returns to skill in the Indonesian labor market over the period 2007 to 2013, a period of rising earnings and income inequality. The study takes into account the labor demand and supply across regional development regions and over time. It presents evidence on the returns to skill related to structural changes in the economy through the growth of modern services and the resource boom. It confirms that skill premiums varied across regional development areas. The composition of industries across regions, female labor participation, the proportion of casual workers, the supply of tertiary-educated workers and factors unique to each region are all determinants of the regional skill premiums. The results support the policy focus on developing human capital in Indonesia to meet the rising demand for skilled workers and show the role of the manufacturing sector and minimum wages policy in reducing the skill premium. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the association between trust, sense of community, and civic engagement, with a particular focus on the socioeconomic characteristics of individuals, using data from the Household, Income, and Labor Dynamics in Australia Survey. Through the use of panel logit and binary panel data models, we draw three core observations. First, there is evidence that trust is associated with civic engagement in Australia, particularly in the case of volunteering. Trust is a prerequisite for women to participate in volunteering but not for men, where a sense of community matters more. Second, a high sense of community matters for both types of participation, political and volunteering. Third, the relationships between trust, sense of community, and civic engagement are present among the Baby Boomer and Generation X generations but not the Generation Y generation, which participates differently. The study makes an important contribution to the literature by unmasking the gender and generation stories and debunking popular myths about the unwillingness of new Australians to engage in associative behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]