Tom Pepinsky

Author: tompepinsky

  • Tasty Snacks

    Eating tasty Indonesian food was high on my list of priorities before I got here, and I have been quite successful so far.  For breakfast I’m just having crackers and fruit, and for lunch I just take whatever the Freedom Institute has, but every day I’ve had something different for dinner.

    James and I yesterday had Javanese-style fried chicken.  Again, little itty-bitty fried chickens are so much better than big hormone-injected breaded fried chicken that you get at KFC or Popeye’s.  They are tender and sweet and juicy and fall right off the bone.  We also had emping goreng, little chips made out of pounded melinjo fruits and deep fried, and a sweet Javanese tofu preparation which was extremely tasty.  Two days ago we had grilled fish North Sulawesi style, grilled over an open charcoal fire right on the street, with a very simple marinade and sauce of birds-eye chilies, tomatoes, and shallots.  I’ve also sampled siomay, little steamed Chinese-style dumplings, served hot off of a cart on the street, and gado-gado, Javanese vegetable salad with peanut sauce, also prepared for me right on the street.  Tonight I want to get some fried noodles for dinner.  One of the nice things about the Freedom Institute is that it’s two blocks from a Catholic Church with an attached Catholic high school, so there are always enterprising food sellers hanging out in front of it.

    Two nights ago we went out with two graduate students also at the Freedom Institute.  They’ve been in country for over a month each, and were dying for some fresh vegetables, so I directed us to a Middle Eastern restaurant that I know.  After that we headed to Aphrodite, JM’s and my “local,” as the Brits like to put it.  It’s just the same as ever, crawling with Australian and Dutch men and filled with local women looking to snag a prize.

  • Ha-Ha

    Two funny things happened yesterday.  The first involving the World Bank, the second involving Bisnis Indonesia.

    Just the other day I happened to remark on the fact that there big problems in the World Bank’s mission in Indonesia–people sit in beautiful offices and have collegial discussions about neo-classical economics, but then you head to the street and people are eking out a living with little regard to precise estimation of the elasticity of public demand for cash versus bank deposits.  Blah.  Nevertheless, I found myself seduced by the academic atmosphere there.  Plus, the Indonesian government really has no idea what to do in terms of policy interventions, so in several cases they just say "fine, whatever, do an experiment," and punt it to the World Bank or the Asian Development Bank.,  For someone from America’s center for field experiments in the social sciences, this is such a tempting opportunity.  To seal the deal, the head of mission told me that I should contact him if I’m looking for a job after graduation.  I only have about a billion experiments in mind for Indonesia.  Here’s a way to precisely measure corruption, for example: gather a pool of trusted informants and randomly assign them across the archipelago to attempt to start a company.  The final cost to start the company above and beyond statutory requirements represents an unbiased and consistent index of corruption that measures within-country variation.

    The other funny thing is not quite so funny, just a little silly.  I’ve been trying to track down a reporter at Bisnis Indonesia to discuss some stuff for my research.  I had a meeting with him scheduled for yesterday, but he wasn’t there when I showed up.  Turns out, his friend had an accute attack of kanker anus and he had to take him to the hospital.  That is one excuse that I will definitely accept.