1984 - Dov Chernichovsky

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to estimate the level of consumption of food and of nutrients for the Indonesian population; to identify population groups with nutrient deficiencies, to identify the major sources of different nutrients, and to estimate income and price elasticites of demand for both food and nutrients. The survey data indicates that serious deficiencies in all nutrients exist in Indonesia and that the problem is more one of maldistribution than of an overall shortfall in the availability of foods, tending to affect the poorer households. The importance of rice as a contributor of most nutrients is striking. A household utility-maximization model is used to derive the household's demand for food and hence nutrients. For estimation purposes the double-logarithmic function is used. The paper concludes that there is wide scope for nutrition policies based on changes in incomes and relative prices, as food and nutrition consumption respond rather dramatically to such changes. The data also suggest that, although inadequate diets are a greater problem among poorer households, they are also prevalent among the better-off and better-educated. Alleviating malnutrition in Indonesia is a matter of nutrition education as well as one of raising incomes.

Abstract

Data from the National Socio-economic Survey for 1978 are used to give a profile of poverty in Indonesia. Households are classified into the poor and nonpoor categories according to their levels of per capita consumption, with a breakdown into urban and rural areas of Java and the Outer Islands. Poor and nonpoor households are then compared in terms of their geographical distribution, demographic characteristics, economic and noneconomic activities of individuals, sources of household income, consumption patterns, housing conditions, and schooling and health.

Abstract

The paper examines household members' labor inputs into different income-earning activities and the contributions of household members in different age-sex categories in terms of hours worked and household incomes. It analyses the determinants of household members' labor force participation and also the role of supplementary workers and of secondary jobs. The study uses data from the second (May) round of the National Socio-economic Survey of 1978, which collected information on more than 6,000 households members. The paper notes the great reliance of households on nonfarm sources of income, even in rural areas. When households are categorized by groups of sources of income, the group which is worst off is consists of nonfarm households in rural areas. From this evidence the paper concludes that farm household members are more likely to engage in off-farm activities when farm enterprise income is less adequate for their living requirements. In order to raise the income levels of households, government policy should be directed to various ways of raising farm productivity, and in addition, to encouraging nonfarm households enterprises in both urban and rural areas.