Three Essays on Child and Female Welfare in Indonesia

Abstract

An extensive literature generally agrees that early childhood development can have lasting impacts on adulthood outcomes. Because skills are shaped by both genetic factors and choices, investments in the early years of childhood can be important determinants for adult outcomes. Furthermore, child development research also shows that there are sensitive periods in a child’s life for the development of their skills. This thesis examines factors that determine human capital accummulation during childhood. The first essay examines the underlying factors that led to the small impacts of Indonesia’s Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) Program on child health outcomes. This study develops a theory of change to provide a framework for understanding the poor performance of the Indonesia’s CCT program, and proposes seven different hypotheses that explains this performance of the CCT program. The second essay estimates the impact of the 1997 East Asian Financial Crisis on the cognitive skills of children in Indonesia. Due to the paucity of data, there have been few studies focusing on child cognitive skills in Indonesia. This essay tries to address this by using the rich data from the Indonesian Family Life Survey (IFLS). The third, and last, essay attempts to estimate the causal impacts of religiosity on female autonomy. This essay is motivated by studies that have shown positive impacts of female bargaining power within household on child outcomes. Thus, understanding what determines women’s autonomy is important not only due to its direct benefit to the women, but also to its indirect benefit through the impacts on their children.