Educational Opportunities in Indonesia: Are Factors Outside Individual Responsibility Persistent Over Time?

Abstract

Not all sources of inequality in educational achievements are fair. But how strong and persistent is the burden of unequal opportunities that each person carries on in their life? In this paper, we define individual indices of the burden of circumstances, which measure the effect that the accumulation of factors outside individual control, has on individual educational achievements in the short and long run. As our findings suggest, the effect of these circumstances tends to persist over time. This effect has been particularly strong for the generation of students who experienced the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis. Lastly, we do not find evidence of a sizeable effect of local non-routine education expenditure on the inequality of opportunity, causing us to question the effectiveness of educational policies in accurately targeting equity.

Shifting educational gradients in body mass index trajectories of Indonesians: an age period cohort analysis

“…Firstly, the narrowing gap in BMI by education attainment in Indonesia may be the result of increasing access to and quality of education over time. Inequality in access to education in Indonesia has decreased over time, as younger generations enjoy better access to education [ 41 ]. Secondly, declining inequality in mean BMI across the educational spectrum may be driven by the ongoing nutritional transition in the country, characterized by rising access to western diets and processed foods containing high fat, salt and sugar affecting the entire population [ 49 ].…”

“…In addition, although previous studies have investigated the differences in BMI by level of education, none have specifically investigated educational gradients of BMI trajectories, nor have examined how changes in access to education across birth cohorts shape BMI trajectories [ 36 – 38 ]. In fact, inequality in access to education in Indonesia has decreased over time [ 41 ], meaning younger generations have experienced greater access to higher education than previous generations. Despite these improvements, Census 2010 shows that gender and household economic differences in access to education persist among cohorts of over 30 s [ 42 ].…”

Shifting Educational Gradients in Body Mass Index Trajectories of Indonesians: An Age Period Cohort Analysis

“…Firstly, the narrowing gap in BMI by education attainment in Indonesia may be the result of increasing access to and quality of education over time. Inequality in access to education in Indonesia has decreased over time, as younger generations enjoy better access to education [41]. Secondly, declining inequality in mean BMI across the educational spectrum may be driven by the ongoing nutritional transition in the country, characterized by rising access to western diets and processed foods containing high fat, salt and sugar affecting whole population [48].…”

“…In addition, although previous studies have investigated the differences in BMI by level of education, none have speci cally investigated educational gradients of BMI trajectories, or examined how changes in access to education across birth cohorts shape BMI trajectories [36][37][38]. In fact, inequality in access to education in Indonesia has decreased over time [41], meaning younger generations have experienced greater access to higher education than previous generations. Despite these improvements, Census 2010 shows that gender and household economic differences in access to education persist among cohorts over 30 years old [42].…”

Dynastic Measures of Intergenerational Mobility

“…Methods to Measure Mobility. Most intergenerational mobility studies are based on a single linear parameter derived from regressions of children's outcomes on parents' outcomes and controls (see, among others, Corak, 2013, Neidhöfer et al, 2018, Mocetti et al, 2020, Idzalika and Lo Bue, 2020. Such intergenerational elasticity coefficients are useful single-valued summary measures of mobility.…”