WIDER Seminar Series - Arip Muttaqien and Marcos Hecksher

PhD Candidates Arip Muttaqien of Maastricht University and Marcos Hecksher of Instituto de Pesquisa Econômica Aplicada will share their latest results at the 2 May session of the WIDER Seminar Series.

Arip Muttaqien: Abstract – The Effect of Ethnicity on Earnings Disparities and Earnings Polarization: Evidence from Indonesia

Analysis of ethnicity from quantitative approach has increased recently. In particular, ethnic discrimination or ethnic discrimination becomes one of the interesting issues in ethnicity. However, studies on ethnicity in Indonesia from quantitative approach are not abundant, even though the country has more than 600 ethnic groups in more than 17 thousand islands and experienced some ethnic conflict cases in some regions historically. In Indonesia, ethnicity was a subject of political taboo to be discussed in public. The government had the SARA policy, an acronym for ethnic (suku), religious (agama), racial (ras), and inter-group (antar-golongan). After the Reformation era in 1998, the government of Indonesia no longer sees ethnicity as a treat to the unity of the nation. This research aims to fill the gap on studies on ethnicity in Indonesian labor market from the quantitative approach using micro-data level from Indonesian Family Life Survey (IFLS). In the first part, this study investigates earnings disparities across ethnic groups. We calculate the contribution of driving factors to the mean gap of earning across ethnic groups using Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition approach. Then, we analyze the gap at the bottom and the top of the earnings distribution by implementing RIF-decomposition method. In the second part, this research addresses the impact of ethnicity on the level of earnings polarization, by implementing RIF-regression approach

Marcos Hecksher: Abstract – Income mobility before and under recession in Brazil: unequal risks and protections

The trajectory of the concentration of capital incomes in Brazil is controversial, but different sources of information converge in pointing to a fall in the inequality of labor incomes between 1994 and 2014. After this period, a deep and long economic crisis interrupted the previous distributive process. Which groups won, lost or maintained their income before and during the crisis and under what conditions were the opportunities, risks and protections distributed? This project aims to study the income mobility of different groups based on Brazilian surveys and registers.

WIDER Seminar Series

The WIDER Seminar Series showcases recent and ongoing work on key topics in development economics. The weekly sessions held in Helsinki are open to local and visiting researchers, policy makers, and others interested in development topics. Click here to learn more.