Job Market Paper:
(With Muhammad F. Wahyu & Muhammad R. Sanjaya)
Presented at: World Bank, Malaysia; ESPE, Naples; ifo Dresden, Germany; AIEL, Milan.
Abstract:
The 1965–66 anti-communist purge in Indonesia eliminated hundreds of thousands of suspected Communist Party (PKI) affiliates and inaugurated a durable regime of political exclusion. This paper examines how post-purge repression reshaped demographic transition in Java. Exploiting municipal variation in PKI victories in the 1955 election and cohort-level data constructed from the 2010 population census, the analysis implements a two-way fixed-effects event-study design. Municipalities where the PKI previously won experience a large and delayed decline in births. The effect operates primarily through reduced marriage formation rather than fertility within marriage. Contrary to conventional displacement accounts, cohorts born after 1964 are less likely to migrate, indicating constrained mobility. Additional evidence shows that administrative screening limited access to formal employment, especially for men from PKI strongholds. The findings demonstrate how institutionalized repression can generate persistent demographic change through labor-market and household formation channels.
Keywords: Partai Komunis Indonesia; Conflict; Genocide; Fertility; Marriage; Migration.
JEL: D74, J12, J13, R23.
Selected Working Papers:
Exposure to Communal Conflict and Earnings
(With Traheka Bimanatya)
Abstract:
We estimate the long-run labor effects of childhood exposure to the Poso communal conflict between Christians and Muslims in Indonesia, a large-populous democratic Muslim country. Using a difference in differences design that exploits municipality of birth and cohort timing around the 2004 conflict stabilization, we find that individuals born in Poso and exposed in childhood earn about 50 percent less than comparable cohorts in control municipalities. Mechanisms indicate worse health, especially for men, with no detectable losses in educational outcomes. Early migration is selective and concentrated among minorities. These findings clarify that health scarring and selection, rather than schooling losses, are the primary channels and extend the evidence on the long run consequences of conflict to a large middle-income setting.
Keywords: Communal Conflict; Poso Riots; Labor Market.
JEL: D74, I15, I25, J31, O15.
Education, Religious Segregation, and Interfaith Marriage
Presented at: Alp-Pop, La Thuile; EEA Congress, Bordeaux.
Abstract:
Interfaith marriage represents the highest level of social cohesion between religious groups, fostering cooperation and integration between majority and minority communities. However, in traditional societies, such unions are often discouraged or even prohibited by families with conservative religious beliefs. This research examines the role of education in breaking the barrier of interfaith marriage using the case of Indonesia—a predominantly Muslim nation with a history of religious conflicts. Leveraging data from a large-scale school construction program, my study investigates the causal impact of an education expansion program on interfaith marriage. My exercises reveal that the program significantly increased the likelihood of interfaith marriages, primarily by reducing objections to such unions within Muslim communities. This shift in perceptions is largely driven by an increase in interfaith trust rather than changes in individual religiosity and interfaith tolerance. The analysis suggests that expanding educational opportunities can promote social cohesion, even in societies prone to interfaith conflict.
Keywords: Education; Interfaith Marriage, Intermarriage, SD Inpres, Indonesia.
JEL: I25, I28, J12, J15.
Publications:
Anindita, A., & Sahadewo, G. A. (2020). Lighten the Burden: Assessing the Impact of a for-Poor-Students Cash Transfer Program on Spending Behaviour. The Journal of Development Studies, 56(7), 1367–1383. [LINK]
Work on progress:
Political Scapegoating and Family Formation among Ethnic Minorities
Identity, Marriage, and Family Dynamics (with Hafizha Iftina)
Answering the Prejudice towards Communist Descendants (with Hafizha Iftina, Muhammad R. Sanjaya, & Muhammad F. Wahyu)
Other Works:
Patience and Intention of Having More Children: A Causal Evidence from Indonesia (with Silvana Robone & Ariadna Garcia-Prado), under review.
Presented at: IMEBESS, Lisbon; SIEP, Verona.Educational Reform, Labor Market Outcomes, and Family Formation in Italy (with Simona Comi, Mara Grasseni, & Federica Origo). draft available by request.
Presented at AIEL Conference 2024 in Naples & AEDE Conference 2025 in Milan (forthcoming).Improving Low-Quality Private Schools’ Performance through Public-Private School Collaboration (with Silvana Robone, Ariadna Garcia-Prado, Totok Amin Soefijanto, & Qonita Beldatis Syafiqo). draft available by request.
Previously circulated with a different title: When Public and Private Collaborate: The Impact of the Sekolah Kolaborasi Program on Student’s Achievement. Presented at RGS Doctoral Conference 2024 in Essen, IAAEU 13th Workshop on Labor Economics in Trier, Workshop on Networks and Development 2024 in Naples (poster).
Expanding Health Insurance Coverage through Fully Subsidized Health Insurance Policy (with Ariadna Garcia-Prado, Silvana Robone, Gumilang Aryo Sahadewo, & Giovani van Empel). under review.
Presented at EuHEA Conference 2024 in Vienna & EuHEA PhD Conference 2024 in Lucerne.
The Untold Story of Cohabitation: Marital Choice and Education Investment (with Gumilang Aryo Sahadewo, Milda Irhamni, & Randi Kurniawan)
Presented at: IRSA, Yogyakarta; Forum Kajian Pembangunan.