Tom Pepinsky

Category: Research

  • 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.

  • The World Bank

    I had the first of a couple of interviews at the World Bank yesterday.  The World Bank’s office in Jakarta is in the Jakarta Stock Exchange Building (Wisma Bursa Efek Jakarta), a very modern looking high-rise filled with busy looking Indonesians (yes, mostly Chinese).  It’s smoke-free now, so when I arrived (right as lunch ended) there were approximately one billion traders and officials standing out front sucking down clove cigarettes and yelling on their cell phones.

    Inside the World Bank’s office you get the distinct impression that folks are quite disconnected from what actually is happening on the ground.  To be fair, folks there admit this problem.  They sit in their air conditioned, IKEA-furnished offices and debate the efficiency gains of removing price celings on refined petroleum products, or unbiased ways to measure unofficial corruption.  It’s very stimulating as an academic, but then you leave and get into a cab where the driver complains that people just talk about corruption without fixing it, and that price rises for gasoline cut sharply into their daily take as taxi drivers.  It’s a very telling disconnect.

    Later today I get to go to the American Embassy to meet with the head of USAID in Indonesia.  I’ll be sure to give my run-down on the security measures in place there, which I anticipate will be quite phenomenal.  I’ll be able to compare it to security measures at the US Embassy in Kuala Lumpur, which should be instructive.