Unlocking Indonesia’s Potential: Opportunities for Investment and Growth

Indonesia’s economic development trajectory in terms of per capita GDP mirrors that of Sri Lanka. Economic growth has slowed to around 5% per annum after the financial crisis, from the previous average annual rate of around 7%. A key policy question for Indonesia are the strategies that both business and government must implement to mimic the growth path of its higher-performing neighbors like Thailand or Malaysia.

This project will deconstruct the sources of economic growth for Indonesia, to better understand the underlying structural forces and constraints, and devise policy recommendations for both private sector agents and government policymakers. As one simple example, growth within Indonesia has been highly uneven, with some regions (“growth poles”) displaying much more impressive performance than the country-average, whereas other regions have remained relatively stagnant. What are the economic and policy implications of such spatial disparities? Should the government pay greater attention to rural development? Or should it invest in infrastructure to better connect laggard regions to growth poles? Should there be subsidies in stagnant areas to promote firm entry and industrial development? Do these regions offer untapped opportunities for private sector investors? These are the types of questions this project seeks to address.

Primary RA responsibilities for this project may include: data cleaning, data analysis, and translating analysis into cleat and ordered graphs, tables, etc.