This paper investigates whether unconditional cash transfers (UCTs) discourage employment, job formality, or labour mobility, and how effects vary across programme designs. I study Indonesia’s nationwide UCTs—BLT 2005, BLT 2008, and BLSM 2013—introduced in response to fuel subsidy reforms. Using nationally representative longitudinal data from the Indonesia Family Life Survey (IFLS), I apply a combined propensity score matching and difference-in-differences strategy, complemented by event-study models that exploit retrospective labour histories. The results show no lasting average effects of UCTs on overall employment or formality. However, under BLT 2008/BLSM 2013, which relied on stricter and more dynamic targeting rules, modest short-run disincentive effects emerged, particularly on the formality margin and transitions into formal work. These findings highlight that while UCTs provide important social support, design features tied to formality can create unintended distortions in labour mobility. 

This paper examines how access to part-day kindergarten affects household labour allocation in Indonesia, where female labour force participation is low and families rely heavily on informal care. Exploiting age-based eligibility cutoffs in an instrumental variable design, I find that kindergarten enrolment increases mothers’ labour force participation and employment by about 13 percentage points and raises weekly hours worked by roughly 5 percent, with larger gains among less-educated, rural, and low-income women. These gains hold even in households with kin caregivers, with no evidence of crowding out of informal care. Access also increases school enrolment and reduces labour among older siblings, especially girls, and raises non-food household consumption. Improvements in job quality remain minimal, likely constrained by the short duration of care and rigid labour markets. Part-day childcare meaningfully relaxes mothers’ time constraints and increases their work, but the short programme limits deeper shifts in job quality and does little to alter women’s bargaining power within the household.

This paper investigates whether larger family size increases women’s risk of intimate partner violence (IPV) in Samoa, a high-fertility setting with among the highest reported rates of domestic violence worldwide. Using nationally representative data from the 2019–20 Samoa Demographic and Health Survey–Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (DHS-MICS), the study applies an instrumental variable strategy that exploits the higher likelihood of parents with two same-sex children having additional births. This approach provides plausibly exogenous variation in family size, addressing concerns of endogeneity. Results indicate a causal link: each additional dependent child raises the probability of IPV, with the largest effects observed for physical and sexual violence. Mechanism analysis points to economic constraints, weakened bargaining power and autonomy, and shifts in women’s IPV attitudes as key pathways. The findings highlight how fertility pressures heighten women’s vulnerability to violence and underscore the importance of integrating family planning with broader efforts to strengthen women’s agency and challenge norms sustaining IPV. 

Low-cost low-touch information provision, parental involvement, and student learning outcomes: Evidence from a government-implemented intervention in Indonesia – R&R, Journal of Development Studies (with A. Kurniawan, S. Maulana, N. Rarasati, S. Revina, D. Suryadarma, F.A. Tresnatri)

Conflict, crime, and safety on women’s social and economic participation in Indonesia (with R. Siregar) 

Maternal education and children’s well-being: Evidence from four Pacific countries (2025) Asia & the Pacific Policy Studies, 12(3), e70044. https://doi.org/10.1002/app5.70044 (with Marshan, J.)

Minimum wage and educational pathways in Indonesia: General or vocational tracks? (2024) Asian Development Review, 41(02), 107-135. https://doi.org/10.1142/S0116110524400110 (with Merdikawati, N., Saxena, S.C., Tjahjadi, A.M)

From school to work: Does vocational education improve labour market outcomes? (2022) An empirical analysis of Indonesia. Bulletin of Monetary Economics and Banking, 25(3), 471-492. https://doi.org/10.21098/bemp.v25i3.1315

Determinants of school enrolment in Indonesia: The role of minimum wage (2021) Bulletin of Monetary Economics and Banking, 24(2), 181-204. https://doi.org/10.21098/bemp.v24i2.1484

Scarred for life: Lasting consequences of unemployment and informal self-employment – An empirical evidence from Indonesia (2021) Economic Analysis and Policy, 70, 206-219. (with Kusuma, A.C., Saxena, S.C.) https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eap.2021.02.009