No society is devoid of institutions but many live with poor institutions. Institutions promote growth. This is a view now held firmly and widely. The task then is to engineer growth-promoting institutions. Endogeneity characterises institutions; for example, groups enjoying political power...

The wine market is a pretty paradoxical research object for the economical and marketing studies. In France alone, every year, hundreds of thousands of new brand differentiated products are marketed. How can so many brands survive to any rationalization process? One could think this situation to...

In March and October 2005, the Government of Indonesia reduced fuel subsidy and allocated part of the funds to the BOS (Bantuan Operasional Sekolah-School Operational Assistance) Program, which commenced in July 2005. This program is provided for schools at the primary and junior high school...

This paper reviews the capacity of colleges and universities to serve poor and vulnerable populations during past and present economic shocks. The main argument is that the environment of the global recessionan Asia far more economically integrated than during past economic shocks, with more...

Based on the notion that good health is one of the basic right of all citizens, the Government of Indonesia (GoI) has promoted programs on health care financing for the poor. One of these programs is the Jaminan Pemeliharaan Kesehatan (JPK). In 2003, the pilot project on JPK for the poor...

This paper estimates production functions of child cognitive and social development using a panel data of nine-year old children each with over two hundred home and school inputs as well as family background variables. A tree regression method is used to conduct estimation under various...

Although theory predicts that international trade will decrease the relative demand for skilled workers in relatively skill-deficit countries, in recent decades many developing countries have experienced rising wage premiums for skilled workers. We examines this puzzle by quantifying the...

This paper shows how large family size can be an important contributor to poverty in the Philippines. It examines one of the mechanisms behind this link by focusing on the relation between number of children and school attendance of children 6 to 24 years old. It surveys the international...

Higher education in India suffers from several systemic deficiencies. As a result, it continues to provide graduates that are unemployable despite emerging shortages of skilled manpower in an increasing number of sectors. The standards of academic research are low and declining. Some of the...