With 194,109 cases on 6th September 2020, Indonesia is one of the most infected countries of COVID-19. The daily total number of new confirmed COVID-19 cases passed the 3,000 mark for the first time since the beginning of the pandemic, with 3,003 and 3,308 new cases reported on 28 and 29 August, respectively. Jakarta and East Java mainly contributed to the surge, while several provinces like West Java, North Sumatera, and East Kalimantan emerged as new hotspots. With the high growing case number, this research seeks to analyze the linkages between the regional economic situations and each COVID 19 cases in Indonesia. This research analyzes the effect of regional economic through the number of poverties in urban and rural areas, the hotel room occupancy rate, the Gini Ratio in both urban and rural areas. The cross section data variables are selected from the data in 2020 within 34 provinces in Indonesia from Badan Pusat Statistika Indonesia and Gugus Tugas Percepatan Penanganan COVID-19 Indonesia. This paper also plot and analyze some province level data in 2019. The analysis indicates that poverty in rural and urban areas, hotel room occupancy rate, and Gini Ratio in Urban Area have positive and significant impact on the total COVID-19 cases. The plot analysis show that population density, percentage of households in urban slum, percentage of household frequency of using used water for other purposes have positive relation with transmission of COVID-19 in Indonesia. Until 6th September 2020, the transmission of COVID-19 in Indonesia is increasing rapidly. In regards of this situation, the government should have imposed stricter regulations in the mandatory mask in public spaces, social distancing, and other preventive measures in all provinces in Indonesia.

Indonesia is the largest palm-oil producing country, covering almost 80 percent of global production. With the extensive production capacity, this research seeks to analyze the linkages between palm oil production and its impact on the economy by the individual monthly expenditure. To reveal the connections, this research analyzes the Dutch Disease phenomenon in Indonesia, which explains how the non-tradable sector, palm-oil industry, affects the tradable sector like the manufacturing industry. The panel data variables are selected from 2011 to 2015 within 22 provinces to see the Dutch Disease's implications. As the model is suffered from the endogeneity, the correlation of explanatory variables with the error term, the research uses the Instrumental-Variable Regression method. The analysis indicates that Indonesia was not suffered from Dutch Disease. Therefore, palm oil production could increase individual expenditure. Finally, the extension of palm oil plantations could benefit Indonesia's economy without affecting other sectors.JEL Classification: E21, E24, O13, O44How to Cite:Siregar, C. D. T., & Sihaloho, E. D. (2021). Could Palm Oil Plantation Increase Individual Expenditure? The Dutch Disease Implication in Indonesia. Signifikan: Jurnal Ilmu Ekonomi, 10(1), 77-92. doi: http://doi.org/10.15408/sjie.v10i1.15831.

The world economy is increasingly more globalized and Global Value Chains (GVCs) played a greater role in international trade and production which provides opportunities for economic growth and development. This paper examines the linkages between economic freedom and Global Value Chains. The developing nations in Asia need to have the ability to integrate themselves in GVCs in order to gain access to higher-value activities in GVCs. The objective of this study is to see the impact of the Economic Freedom Index, Female Labor Force Participation Rate and the Global Competitiveness Index (GCI) in Asian countries considered as developing economies by the IMF on the countries’ position in GVCs measured using value-added indicators. The presence of the Global Competitiveness Index (GCI) variable can indicate the role of government, consistency of policies, infrastructure and institutional formation, which is correlated in the level of Economic Freedom of developing nations.  This paper uses the Data Panel regression model consisting of multiple indicators of all the variables used from 25 developing countries in Asia from 2009 to 2017. Analysis indicates that the variables have an overall positive relationship with the level of integration of the countries into GVCs.