Our Expertise
Welcome to another edition of the SMERU Newsletter. In earlier editions we have focussed our attention on the impact of the crisis on the poorer sections of the community. Yet the financial crisis began with the collapse of the banking and corporate sector in urban centers and so it is also appropriate to consider the effects of those events on "white-collar" workers.
In 2003, Indonesia's decentralization reform was in its third year of implementation. The “big bang” start had marked the transfer of resources — assets, personnel and finances — to the regions to compensate for the newly added authorities and functions.
In a fast urbanizing Indonesia, the rural sector still plays an important role in the countrys economy. Although declining, the majority of the population still live and find employment in rural areas. However, rural areas lag behind urban areas in many aspects. As a result, around 80% of all the poor in the country are found in rural areas.
In this paper, we investigate the relationship between economic growth and poverty reduction by differentiating growth and poverty into their sectoral composition and urban–rural location using data from Indonesia. We find that rural services growth reduces poverty in all sectors and locations. However, urban services growth has the largest effect on poverty in most sectors.
The special theme of this issue of our newsletter is smallscale credit. How to deliver efficient and effective credit services to those individuals seeking small amounts of capital is not a new problem in Indonesia.
