Working Papers
Measuring Effects of Social and Cultural Norms: Insights from Indonesia’s Marriage Law on Female Labor Force Participation
This paper examines the impact of social and cultural norms on female labor force participation (FLFP). The findings emphasize the key role of social norms in affecting married women's labor choices, especially in developing countries. Using Indonesia as a case study, I apply the Brock and Durlauf (2001) social interaction model to quantify the effect of these norms on FLFP. By distinguishing between contextual and endogenous effects, I find that key regency-level factors such as urbanization and age at first marriage significantly affect FLFP. Moreover, the average subjective beliefs about the region's FLFP levels generate strong endogenous effects, with a social multiplier of 16.3 percentage points, highlighting the substantial role of social norms. In comparison, the 1974 Marriage Act, which restricted divorce, reduced FLFP by 6 percentage points—less than one-third the magnitude of the endogenous effect.
Presentations:
International Association for Applied Econometrics (presenter) - Italy, June 2025
Midwest Econometric Group Conference (presenter) - Illinois, October 2025
Works in Progress
We model the strategic interaction between a well owner and the Louisiana Department of Natural Resources (LDNR) as a simultaneous move, incomplete information game. Well owners choose whether to violate environmental regulations, and the LDNR chooses which wells it inspects. We characterize the Bayesian Nash Equilibrium as depending on payoff parameters. Using information on all wells in Louisiana, their operators as well as LDNR's inspections and their results from 2020 to 2023 we estimate the payoffs parameters of this game using a nested fixed point (NFXP) penalized maximum likelihood (PMLE). Our estimated parameters align intuitively with the observed inspection and violation rates and manage to reproduce average rates similar to those in the data. Furthermore, we find heterogeneous externalities when well owners violate but were not inspected. This study highlights the interactions between an enforcement agency and a well owner, providing important implications for regulatory oversight.
Presentations:
International Industrial Organization Conference - Pennsylvania, May 2025
International Association for Applied Econometrics - Italy, June 2025
World Congress of Econometric Society - Korea, August 2025
How Do Suppliers Choose in a Platform Market? A Case Study of the Game Industry - with Tim Derdenger
Persistence of Social Norms in the Face of Economic Crises - with Sunmi Jung