Indonesian Coastal Macroeconomic Performances and Problems Before and During Covid-19

The Indonesian government has introduced a maritime road map and policy to improve the coastal economy. Studies of the relationship between unemployment and the coastal macroeconomy are limited. This study aims to analyze unemployment as a main macroeconomic performance and problem, factors that influence unemployment, and the role of maritime policy. This study employs the student t-test and panel data generalized linear modeling. The student t-test is to compare macroeconomic performances before and during Covid-19 and coastal and non-coastal macroeconomic performances. The panel data is being used in generalized linear modeling to infer several factors, including maritime policy, that influence the coastal unemployment rate. The variables are economic growth, inflation rate, unemployment rate, real GRDP, provincial road length, number of laborers in medium and large industries, and a dummy variable of coastal and non-coastal regions as an approach to maritime policy. The data analyzed is from 2010 to 2019 in the Central Java province of Indonesia. The results show that economic growth, inflation rate, and unemployment rate are the main macroeconomic performances, the unemployment rate is the main macroeconomic performance and problem, real GRDP and inflation rate have a negative significant influence on the unemployment rate, and the length of the provincial road and the number of medium and large industries’ labor have a positive significant influence on the unemployment rate. Another result is the positive but not significant dummy variable of coastal and non-coastal regions, which indicates the maritime policy role. This result is supported by additional data on interrelated policies at the Central Java Provincial Marine and Fisheries Department.