Global Prices, Trade Protection, and Internal Migration: Evidence from Indonesia

[Job Market Paper]

Abstract: I study how regions respond to price shocks in the presence of internal migration. I examine Indonesia in the 2000s as it faced a commodity boom for its export commodities and initiated its trade protection on rice, a staple food for its population. I use the variation in the potential shares of palm oil and rice sectors across district economies to measure local exposure to shocks. I find that the commodity boom increased the real expenditure per capita of palm oil-producing districts. These districts also received more migration, providing evidence that palm oil price shocks were no longer localized and internal migration spreads the windfall. However, these relatively higher levels of real expenditure per capita do not last after the commodity boom ends in 2014. Meanwhile, the trade protection on rice did not materialize as higher purchasing power to rice-producing districts. I estimate the overall welfare gains in Indonesia between 2005 and 2010. Gains from migration accounts for one-third of these gains.

What You Don’t Know about the Codex Can Hurt You: How modern trade policy shapes public health governance on infant and young children nutrition

with Katheryn Russ, Phillip Baker, Michaela Byrd, Manho Kang, Hammad Zahid, and David McCoy [link]

Trade, FDI, and Smoking Prevalence

Virtual Migration: Online Labor Markets and Spatial Labor Misallocation

with Samuel Bazzi, Bo Cowgill, and Zoe Cullen
[AEA RCT registry]

Price Divergence in Times of Trade Protection

with Teguh Dartanto

The Determinants of Initial Negotiating Rights

I was an Associate Instructor for ECN 160B “International Macroeconomics” at UC Davis in the Spring of 2019. Here is the syllabus: syllabus

Previously, I worked as a Teaching Assistant in the following classes at UC Davis:

• Money, Banks, and Financial Institution (Dr. Derek Stimel)
• International Economics Relations (Prof. Deborah Swenson)
• Economic Development in Weak States (Prof. Arman Rezaee)
• US Economic History post-Civil War (Dr. Janine Wilson)
• Economic Development (Prof. Wing Woo, Dr. Janine Wilson)

I also taught as a Lecturer at Universitas Indonesia for the following classes:

• International Economics
• Mathematics for Economics

“Ask a Mentor”: Panel and Info Session in Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences and Digital Projects

Undergraduate Research Center UC Davis (15 Oct 2020)
Youtube

Reading the Corona: Extraordinary Measures during an Extraordinary Time

The Indonesia Project Australian National University Global Seminar Series (25 March 2020)
Youtube, Slides

Menempuh Pendidikan Doktoral di Amerika Serikat (Preparing for a Doctoral Program in the US)

RISED (8 June 2020)
Youtube, Slides

“Saving lives will save Indonesia’s economy," Asia and the Pacific Policy Society, Policy Forum, 6 April 2020.

“Tobacco industry and ‘Making Indonesia 4.0’," The Jakarta Post, 9 April 2019.

“Why should we use national ships for CPO, coal exports?," The Jakarta Post, 20 March 2018.