In the development, women should be in the same rate as men to participate, have an equal chance in decision making, and reach the development needed to maximize their potential. Despite this, women often got a difficulty to participate in the economy. Women often do unpaid work or work in the informal sector. The higher portion of women to men employed in the informal sector represent women difficulty to access the employment, because of higher rates of illiteracy, lower jobs skills, lower level of education, and social-cultural barrier that prevent women to work in the formal sectors. This paper wants to analyze how the increase of women participation in the economy can increase the Indonesia’s economic growth. Using data from 34 province in Indonesia between 2014-2018, the result of the panel data regression found that the number of women’s empowerment positively affect gross regional domestic product. Women’s life expectancy positively affects gross regional domestic product. Women’s population percentage positively affects gross regional domestic product. From the three independent variables used as a predictor in this model, all variable is significantly affects Indonesia’s gross regional domestic product.

Smoking is one of the biggest causes of death in the world. The WHO reported that smoking kills 8 million people each year. Besides threatening global health, smoking by rural people tends to detain poverty alleviation efforts due to several factors, including cigarette expenditures and health expenditures. Indonesia has one of the most significant worldwide smoking prevalence and has become one of the countries that most suffer from smoking. The MoH Indonesia reported that health costs due to smoking reached Rp596.61 trillion in 2015. Previous studies found that smoking caused an increase in health expenditure due to smoking-related diseases in Indonesia. However, there is a lack of evidence found in rural areas. This research aims to answer whether smoking affects health expenditure in rural areas. Robust regression analysis is used in this model and processed by STATA 14 application. Using IFLS 5 data, the analysis shows that cigarettes consumed in rural areas have a positive and significant effect on outpatient costs. Increased outpatient costs in rural areas due to smoking will make the rural economy suffer and escalate poverty. The government should intensify the tobacco control policy in rural areas to avoid an increase of poverty rate in Indonesia.