IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/ajecsc/v70y2011i1p269-299.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

A Critique of the Orthodox Approach to Indonesia's Growth and Employment Problems and Post Keynesian Alternatives

Author

Listed:
  • Anis Chowdhury
  • Iyanatul Islam

Abstract

Indonesia continues to bear the scars of the 1997 financial crisis, with the highest open unemployment rate in Southeast Asia. The orthodox interpretation is that the post-crisis era is typified by overly generous labor legislation granting higher minimum wages and other provisions; the rise in real wages adversely impacted the investment climate and employment growth. However, detailed sectoral analysis reveals very little evidence of a wage‐driven profit squeeze. This article contends that Indonesia's current unemployment woes are best understood as the reflection of a demand‐constrained economy, where important sectors are operating at around 70 percent of their capacity. It, thus, outlines an alternative macroeconomic policy framework in the Post Keynesian tradition.

Suggested Citation

  • Anis Chowdhury & Iyanatul Islam, 2011. "A Critique of the Orthodox Approach to Indonesia's Growth and Employment Problems and Post Keynesian Alternatives," American Journal of Economics and Sociology, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 70(1), pages 269-299, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:ajecsc:v:70:y:2011:i:1:p:269-299
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1111/j.1536-7150.2010.00771.x
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Pritchett, Lant & Suryahadi, Asep & Sumarto, Sudarno, 2000. "Quantifying vulnerability to poverty - a proposed measure, applied to Indonesia," Policy Research Working Paper Series 2437, The World Bank.
    2. King, Mervyn, 1997. "Changes in UK monetary policy: Rules and discretion in practice," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 39(1), pages 81-97, June.
    3. World Bank & International Monetary Fund, 2009. "Global Monitoring Report 2009 : A Development Emergency," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 2625, December.
    4. Fadhel Kaboub, 2007. "Employment Guarantee Programs: A Survey of Theories and Policy Experiences," Economics Working Paper Archive wp_498, Levy Economics Institute.
    5. Kenneth N Kuttner, 2004. "A Snapshot of Inflation Targeting in its Adolescence," RBA Annual Conference Volume (Discontinued), in: Christopher Kent & Simon Guttmann (ed.),The Future of Inflation Targeting, Reserve Bank of Australia.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Vishnu Padayachee, 2019. "Can progressive macroeconomic policy address growth and employment while reducing inequality in South Africa?," The Economic and Labour Relations Review, , vol. 30(1), pages 3-21, March.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Creel, Jérôme & Hubert, Paul, 2015. "Has Inflation Targeting Changed The Conduct Of Monetary Policy?," Macroeconomic Dynamics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 19(1), pages 1-21, January.
    2. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/6150 is not listed on IDEAS
    3. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/9543 is not listed on IDEAS
    4. Creel, Jérôme & Hubert, Paul, 2015. "Has Inflation Targeting Changed The Conduct Of Monetary Policy?," Macroeconomic Dynamics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 19(1), pages 1-21, January.
    5. Saborowski, Christian, 2010. "Inflation targeting as a means of achieving disinflation," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 34(12), pages 2510-2532, December.
    6. Gaurav, Sarthak, 2015. "Are Rainfed Agricultural Households Insured? Evidence from Five Villages in Vidarbha, India," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 719-736.
    7. Winkler, Bernhard, 2000. "Which kind of transparency? On the need for clarity in monetary policy-making," Working Paper Series 0026, European Central Bank.
    8. Emiliano Magrini & Mauro Vigani, 2016. "Technology adoption and the multiple dimensions of food security: the case of maize in Tanzania," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 8(4), pages 707-726, August.
    9. Katja Landau & Stephan Klasen & Walter Zucchini, 2012. "Measuring Vulnerability to Poverty Using Long-Term Panel Data," Courant Research Centre: Poverty, Equity and Growth - Discussion Papers 118, Courant Research Centre PEG.
    10. Basu, Kaushik & Nolen, Patrick, 2004. "Vulnerability, Unemployment and Poverty: A New Class of Measures, Its Axiomatic Properties and Application," Working Papers 04-07, Cornell University, Center for Analytic Economics.
    11. Demertzis Maria & Viegi Nicola, 2009. "Inflation Targeting: A Framework for Communication," The B.E. Journal of Macroeconomics, De Gruyter, vol. 9(1), pages 1-32, December.
    12. Kenneth N Kuttner, 2004. "A Snapshot of Inflation Targeting in its Adolescence," RBA Annual Conference Volume (Discontinued), in: Christopher Kent & Simon Guttmann (ed.),The Future of Inflation Targeting, Reserve Bank of Australia.
    13. Meredith Beechey & Pär Österholm, 2012. "The Rise and Fall of U.S. Inflation Persistence," International Journal of Central Banking, International Journal of Central Banking, vol. 8(3), pages 55-86, September.
    14. Pourroy, Marc, 2012. "Does exchange rate control improve inflation targeting in emerging economies?," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 116(3), pages 448-450.
    15. Muhammad Masood Azeem & Amin W. Mugera & Steven Schilizzi & Kadambot H. M. Siddique, 2017. "An Assessment of Vulnerability to Poverty in Punjab, Pakistan: Subjective Choices of Poverty Indicators," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 134(1), pages 117-152, October.
    16. Zereyesus, Yacob A. & Embaye, Weldensie T. & Tsiboe, Francis & Amanor-Boadu, Vincent, 2017. "Implications of Non-Farm Work to Vulnerability to Food Poverty-Recent Evidence From Northern Ghana," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 91(C), pages 113-124.
    17. Christophe Bene, 2009. "Are Fishers Poor or Vulnerable? Assessing Economic Vulnerability in Small-Scale Fishing Communities," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 45(6), pages 911-933.
    18. Nelson, Edward, 2017. "Reaffirming the Influence of Milton Friedman on U.K. Economic Policy," Working Papers 2017-01, University of Sydney, School of Economics, revised Feb 2017.
    19. Michael Woodford, 2000. "Pitfalls of Forward-Looking Monetary Policy," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 90(2), pages 100-104, May.
    20. Bulent Arpat & Mete Kaan Namal & Mustafa Kocanci & Aynur Yumurtaci, 2021. "An Assessment of the Social Work Program in Turkey in Terms of Labour Market Experience and Professional Skill Attainment," The AMFITEATRU ECONOMIC journal, Academy of Economic Studies - Bucharest, Romania, vol. 23(57), pages 548-548.
    21. repec:hal:wpspec:info:hdl:2441/713kqq1pgu80lr8fn0lsuuh8lf is not listed on IDEAS
    22. Pierpaolo Benigno & Michael Woodford, 2007. "Optimal Inflation Targeting under Alternative Fiscal Regimes," Central Banking, Analysis, and Economic Policies Book Series, in: Frederic S. Miskin & Klaus Schmidt-Hebbel & Norman Loayza (Series Editor) & Klaus Schmidt-Hebbel (Se (ed.),Monetary Policy under Inflation Targeting, edition 1, volume 11, chapter 3, pages 037-075, Central Bank of Chile.
    23. Svensson, Lars E.O., 2009. "Transparency under Flexible Inflation Targeting: Experiences and Challenges," CEPR Discussion Papers 7213, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:ajecsc:v:70:y:2011:i:1:p:269-299. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0002-9246 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.