Purpose This study aims to investigate whether microcredit programme has a positive impact on productive poors. Several areas of investigation include clients’ borrowing behaviour, level of savings and before-and-after psychological well-being comparison. Design/methodology/approach A case-study survey of 398 clients of a microcredit programme run by a charity organisation in Jakarta, Indonesia, was conducted in 2012. Descriptive statistics and cross-tabulation analyses were then performed to show the variation of different variables among the respondents and how they correlate with socio-demographic indicators. Findings The result shows an indication that microcredit brings positive impact on the clients’ welfare; however, the effect is not linear and there might be an optimum borrowing frequency. Moreover, the output also suggests that age, level of income and level of savings are three important determinant of borrowing behaviour. Research limitations/implications Although the result can be justified, it is necessary to be cautious about its generalisability because of limited number of sample and non-randomised sample selection. Originality/value Although the microcredit programme examined in this study has been operating since 2010, there is by far no comprehensive study to assess its impact on the welfare of the clients. This study attempts to fill in the gap by providing an analysis on how microcredit programme increases the welfare of the clients. In addition, as part of the continuous improvement programme, the study also identifies a number of factors that might indicate the clients’ borrowing behaviour.

A growing body of evidence has found that Early Childhood Education (ECE) gives longer-term beneficial effects on a student's cognitive ability. Unfortunately, in developing countries, and especially other low-resource environments, too few children have the privilege to attend ECE. Using INOVASI's 1 large-scale longitudinal datasets, this study presents the inequality issue of ECE participation and its effect on students' learning outcomes in Indonesia. The findings suggest that participation rates in ECE are significantly higher in more developed provinces in Indonesia. ECE is mainly dominated by students from higher socio-economic backgrounds, and those with more well-educated and engaged parents. ECE participation rates also have an impact on student learning achievement, with children participating in ECE having substantially better outcomes compared to their counterparts. Furthermore, students who did not enroll in ECE may lose almost two years of learning. The evidence puts forth in this paper suggests that the Indonesian government needs to improve access to ECE and its quality particularly for less advantaged children in remote areas. Inattention to this issue will only produce wider inequality in education and learning outcomes.

This study analyzes the effect of banking crises towards market discipline in Indonesia. This study uses two periods of crisis in Indonesia, which are banking crisis in 1997/1998 and banking crisis in 2008. The dependent variable is market discipline; while bank risks are the independet variables (insolvency, liquidity, and credit risks). The control variables are banking level (the percentage savings of the customer, bank's size, bank's overhead costs, and Lerner index); industrial level (banking concentration level, the bank development); and macroeconomic variables (the growth of the real gross domestic product and inflation rate). The variables examined by the Generalized Method of Moments (GMM). This study finds a fact that on average market discipline weakens after Indonesia's banking crisis in 1997/1998. On the contrary, this study found a fact that market discipline strengthens after Indonesia's banking crisis in 2008. Eventually, this study finds a fact that there is no difference in market discipline between the domestic bank and foreign bank after Indonesia's banking crisis in 2008.Keywords: Banking crises; market discipline; bank risk taking; Indonesia. ABSTRAK Penelitian ini menguji dampak krisis perbankan terhadap market discipline di Indonesia, Penelitian ini menggunakan dua periode krisis perbankan di Indonesia yaitu tahun 1997/1998 dan tahun 2008. Variabel dependen adalah market discipline, sedangkan risiko perbankan merupakan variabel independen yang meliputi insolvency, likuiditas dan risiko kredit. Variabel kontrol terdiri dari level perbankan (tingkat tabungan pelanggan, ukuran bank dan beban overhead bank, Lerner index), level industry (level konsentrasi bank dan bank development), dan variabel-variabel ekonomi makro yang terdiri dari tingkat pertumbuhan produk domestic bruto riil dan tingkat inflasi. Variabel penelitian diuji menggunakan Generalized Method of Moments (GMM