Economic Crisis Impacts on Children: Evidence from Indonesia

John Strauss, Michigan State University
Kathleen Beegle, World Bank Group
Agus Dwiyanto, Gadjah Mada University
Bondan Sikoki, RAND
Sukamdi, Gadjah Mada University

We examine impacts of the economic crisis on child outcomes in Indonesia using 2 waves of the Indonesia Family Life Survey, 1997 and 2000. We focus on standards of living, and non-income measures of well-being such as schooling enrollments, physical measures of child health (such as height, weight, and hemoglobin), and child utilization of health facilities. We use IFLS2, fielded in 1997, immediately before the crisis began in Indonesia, and IFLS3, a brand new wave of IFLS that was fielded on the full sample in 2000. IFLS2 contains over 7,500 households and IFLS3 over 10,000 (the increase caused by some households splitting off into new households). IFLS3 has very high follow-up rates, similar to the success of IFLS2. Some 94.5% of initial IFLS1 households (IFLS1 was fielded in 1993) plus households that split off in either 1997 or 1998, were found and interviewed in 2000.