Just a Scramble Idea..

I was initially and am still attracted to macroeconomics and other big economics stuff. However, overtime I was also absorbed by behavioral economics and, to some extent, development economics. In the field of behavioral economics, I have always been intrigued by causes of people's actions and how economics can decipher it in simple ways. This has been partly triggered by my deep interest in philosophy. Even so, I was never thinking of getting serious in conducting research in such fields.

My biggest desire is to conduct research which can explain a classic problem, how nations can grow significantly and how the spectacular growth rates can grease the wheel of developments, as well. Recently, I am particularly interested in the topics of measurement of welfare beyond GDP. I have not been acquainted well enough, though, to find an interesting research topic. In fact, there has not been sufficient development in research exploring the proper set of measurement. GDP is still the champion, as for now.

Anyway, there is actually one research topic that can close the knit together: consumption behavior of people. This topic can be a research topic of behavioral economics and growth and development economics. The consumption theory is my holy grail to attain. I am always curious on how consumption behavior differs or resembles across countries. What are the determinants of it? Is it government policy, education level attainment, or culture? However, I am still not on the ground on cultural argument thing. On one side, I believe that cultural values play important role in shaping habits of people in doing things, including their consumption patterns. On the other side, my economic knowledge teaches me that people are highly likely to be affected by incentives or disincentives. If people in one country are affected by a bundle of above determinants, therefore the consumption aggregates of a country. As such bundle differs among countries, therefore their consumption and saving aggregates and, to large extent, their welfare level.

I have several more ideas to explore in my mind, but I will definitely explore these topics in my further study. In the meantime, I will just have to rekindle my interest and brush up my mathematics skills.

Where are you going?

More often than not we always have dreams. Yes, each of us. Some dream of having tons of money, enough to buy one or two grand dwellings, private jets, or yacht. On the other hand or other side of the rooms, some just simply dream of continuing their education to highest level possible, some think of becoming the well known researchers as their dream jobs.

It is good, indeed, to have a dream and strive for it. Unfortunately, I suppose not all of us know what to do next after achieving those dreams. Some are just becoming desperate when they do not know what their next steps should be. Sometimes, we are wandering to some place we don't even know, too sleepy to know where it is. Some of us walking as dreaming or half sleeping.

I realize that life, more often than not, is not flowing as we want. Weather does not happen as predicted, people suddenly plunge into the fall of poverty mud before they even got the chance to live lavish lives, and many more occurrences happen aberrant of what we think.

So, as we think we have achieved your life dreams, we must think where am I? Where are we going to? My suggestion: let God, or whatever, whoever you believe it is, take you where He thinks the best place for you. Therefore, we shall not get bewildered and desperate.

Unlike others', this is my choice and my way..

Yeah, I admit I did not conquer my fear..I was naive that I waited till I got a new place to work for..Nonetheless, I felt pretty satisfied that I could survive my time there, considering tough times facing pressures and high expectation, sometimes my supervisors' getting furious against very simple mistake..

This very first class experience gives me something worthy taking notes about: sometimes one's desire to give contribution to his nation requires no working in departments in the government, not even in the office of the second most powerful person in the country..unlike others who worship this ridiculous fanaticism, I guess one can work anywhere, given one's heart is truly with his country..

This is my life, I determine my destiny; hence, when I feel something terrible in place where I thought I can contribute much, I move..Just as simple as that..But, deep down in my heart, I really love my country that's why I always aim excellency in my future work that it can benefit further development of my country..

Beat Your Fear!

A few months ago, I remember watching an episode of Friends, which has now been a regular activity of mine every night, in which one of the characters is deadly bored at her job and her friend suggests that she needs to quit the job and do what she really likes. He says that she needs to conquer her fear.

She takes the challenge, but I don't think I can defeat my fear just yet and leave it behind and go for my dream job even though I don't think I could get it since the institution I aim for is dying from severe shortage of fund..

Here I am walking through ladders of life which might have some traps on it but I do believe I can shout as loud as I can releasing my brood when I am already at the top..

As for now, I will be only savoring this time..

I don't want to walk while sleeping...

There is always one short phrase that I always remember from ‘Tuesdays with Morrie’: ..kebanyakan dari kita melakukan sesuatu dengan setengah sadar, seperti berjalan sambil tidur..That is more or less what I can recall. It’s not this short phrase being right or wrong, but the point is that we must fully sober when we are to make decisions, especially about something that there is a good chance we will do for the rest of our lives. In the case of my present life, it is my job.

I by all means agree to it and decided to follow it. I got a golden opportunity to work with the second most powerful person in this country just after I graduated. I was very happy and, not to be naïve, a little proud. But the most essential thing is not that I could sit in the same room and listen to him talking. It is the chance to learn from the real policy makers and visit such beautiful places. I might have never dreamed of putting my feet on the magnificent Banda Naira or Merauke and having some conversations with boys living there, contemplating why the socio-economic condition is like this and that.

Nevertheless, I realize that it is not one of my goals, not in my early career. The required capabilities are yet to come. Indeed, it will not come if I am still there by now. I don’t want to be the person Professor Morrie talks about. I insist on being a person to walk his life soberly, not caused by temporary pride but lasting regrets. However, what I can remember up to now is that I do not remember having some regrets to have worked for my nation (almost) directly.

One Step is done, So many left!

Last week I have officially accomplished my mission in FEUI..
Despite deep disappointment, I learned to be thankful to God for what I have done..
What I learned is that I have never learned and I think it's time to learn for my long-term objective..

Well, sometimes what you really expect doesn't come just that way..Sometimes you are just
foolish enough to think you just have it in your hands but then it flies to nowhere..
Anyway, I just wanna think that anything that doesn't make you die will only make you stronger...

And I will be...

How to Trick the Tricky Ones

(Getting fed up with the so called biggest feast for a democratic country, I tried to contribute something to society by sending this article to a newspapers, but, unfortunately, the editor has left the newspapers so my article was too late to heed so that it didn't get published, too bad, indeed. It's okay. Just see and give your comments please)

Preparing for the upcoming legislative election on april 9^th, every single ‘caleg’ has spent billions on ludicrous posters and banners to deserve one honored seat. Their becoming generous on this generates ambiguous effect. For entrepreneurs on posters and alike, this election is like a drop of water amidst dire economic downturns, whereas for laymen this is a kind of silly jokes. As an advertisement suggests along with economic theory: the more choices you have, the happier you are, but when the choices are off the limit, the less happy you are, indeed.

We are now facing the most perplexing days ahead until the day of election coming. We find people presumably trying to contribute something significant. Nevertheless, what can you expect from persons we don’t know promoting themselves with nothing as they promise but showing photos of celebrities, superheroes or even foreign statesmen? This article is trying to give a vignette of the situation of political competition nowadays and to give a little trick on how to choose the right person without even knowing their true personalities. The thrust of this article is not to sway you to vote ‘golput’. It’s up to the readers. I will only give some current situation, simple theory embedded on it, and how theory can guide you to the right choice.

First, I suppose that this current political atmosphere is somewhat similar to the case of used cars in the second-hand markets. The sellers try to conceal their cars’ qualities by showing up noticeable features, like colorful paintings, attractive accessories, newly decorated seats, while the machine is inferior. It’s similar to what ‘calegs’ do by now. They try to conceal their competence by showing either eye-catching sentences or pictures so that people can remember their names. For example, some ‘caleg’ tries to accentuate the fact he is a father of a famous singer, some person is proud of having a face looks like a front man of a band, while some feels profoundly happy with him faking taking pictures with Barrack Obama. Unfortunately, due to limited space, I can’t tell one by one of descriptions of how funny our ‘calegs’ are.

Second, a simple economic theory somehow provides a little trick so that we are able to pick the right one, assuming we are not into ‘golput’ societies. This simple theory called ‘lemon’s problem’ is drawn from a famous work of of 2001 nobel prize winner in economics George Akerlof. A simple explanation would be like this. Lemon’s problem is a problem that prevails when buyers can’t figure real quality of the cars they are going to buy, and thus buy the lemon (bad quality) ones instead of mint (good quality) ones, because dealers have more information than that of the buyers’.

According to Akerlof, dealers in second-hand markets are confined to limited quality cars because owners of moderate-quality cars who want to sell their cars due to high cost maintenance would rethink about it for their utilities for keeping their cars exceeding their utilities coming from selling with prices dropping significantly. Hence, cars left to be sold are the worst quality whose former owners’ utilities are at highest if they sell it because their cars have severe problems. If buyers are lucky enough, they may still find moderate quality ones in the show room as there are persons who desperately need money that they are willing to sell their cars.

The key word here: asymmetric information. At first the dealers don’t know the true qualities of cars offered to them until they pass it on to buyers who feel the same way with dealers at the first time. Feeling emphatic? You should be since it is akin to us facing legislative election coming in weeks, yes? However, the theory tells that we face unintended consequences: bad products drive out good products. Competent people don’t feel like plunging themselves into this feast assuming Indonesia’s political reign is full of deceptions and betrayals. I just want to say that not many good choices left. Indeed, it’s hardly.

The question now: what is the promised trick? It’s very simple in understanding yet difficult in practice. As explained above, ludicrous posters, banners and any media ‘caleg’ use imply lack of confidence of their own capabilities. We can therefore use the reverse logic. Choose the ones using proper promotions containing neither funny sentences nor pictures. It shows their confidence and capabilities. Unfortunately, it’s not that simple in practice. After narrowing down our choices to several people there is another additional homework to do: we need to do a little research on them. We need to heed their track records. There is no guarantee they don’t understand this theory. Just think for the best, prepare for the worst. Happy vote!