nep-sea New Economics Papers
on South East Asia
Issue of 2026–03–09
six papers chosen by
Subash Sasidharan, Indian Institute of Technology


  1. The Role of Family Support in the Well-Being of Older People: Evidence from Malaysia and Viet Nam By Yana Rodgers; Joseph Zveglich; Khadija Ali; Hanna Xue
  2. Access to Clean Water and Human Capital Formation – Evidence from Indonesia By Lukas Pohn; Günther G. Schulze
  3. Globalization and Temporary Worker Employment in Vietnam By Alicia H. Dang; Joyce P. Jacobsen; Sooyoung A. Lee; Ngoc Q. Pham
  4. Intergenerational Persistence of Health in Indonesia: The Importance of Using Biomarkers By Halliday, Timothy; Mazumder, Bhashkar; Sinha, Kompal; Wang, Huixia
  5. Women's access to a bank account and household multidimensional poverty in rural India By Varsha Vaishnav; Srijit Mishra
  6. Carbon credit trading and India's green transition By Saurav Kumar; Taniya Ghosh; Shesadri Banerjee

  1. By: Yana Rodgers; Joseph Zveglich; Khadija Ali; Hanna Xue
    Abstract: Demographics in Malaysia and Viet Nam are evolving rapidly, potentially disrupting traditional family support to older people. We estimate a set of Poisson random effects models with panel data from the Malaysia Ageing and Retirement Survey and the Viet Nam Aging Survey to analyze how living arrangements, marital status, and support from children influence the mental and physical health of older people. In Malaysia, having living children plays an important protective role for both mental and physical health, while living with a son appears to have a protective effect for physical health. Results are similar for Viet Nam, except older women, who are at greater risk of mental and physical health problems, appear to enjoy a greater protective effect for their mental health from a child living nearby than do men. Our analysis underscores the importance of social safety nets for the health of senior citizens living alone.
    Date: 2026–02
    URL: https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2602.20378
  2. By: Lukas Pohn; Günther G. Schulze
    Abstract: We estimate the causal effect of access to clean water sources on educational outcomes in Indonesia. Using the longitudinal Indonesian Family Life Survey (IFLS) panel dataset, which follows the same individuals from 1993 to 2014, and applying household fixed effects allows us to identify the causal effect of access to clean water at different childhood stages on children’s educational performance. We find that lifetime and early childhood access increases strongly the likelihood of completing junior and senior secondary school; later-gained access has no discernible effect on school performance. Our results underscore the need to provide access to clean water very early on.
    Keywords: access to tap water, access to improved water, educational outcomes, Indonesia
    JEL: I25 O15 Q53
    Date: 2026
    URL: https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_12475
  3. By: Alicia H. Dang (Department of Economics, Union College); Joyce P. Jacobsen (Department of Economics, Hobart and William Smith Colleges, and Wesleyan University); Sooyoung A. Lee (Department of Economics, Hobart and William Smith Colleges); Ngoc Q. Pham (FPT School of Business & Technology, FPT University)
    Abstract: Many concerns surround the continuing globalization of commerce and employment, including the concern that these processes have led to unstable working conditions, including more use of temporary workers. Despite these public fears, the trade literature to date has found little evidence that either exporting or importing leads to hiring a higher share of temporary workers. We analyze whether increased engagement in international trade has led to changes in the use of temporary workers in Vietnam, a country that has recently rapidly integrated into the world economy. Using data from two six-year balanced panels of the Vietnamese Enterprise Survey, covering 2010-2015 and 2017-2022, we utilize propensity score matching techniques to look for the effect of engaging in international trade on labor force composition in the manufacturing, wholesale and retail trade, and services sectors. We find during both time spans that firms newly engaging in international trade make lower use of temporary workers, both relative to non-traders, and overall, even as they maintain their overall employment and raise their wages.
    Keywords: Vietnam, trade, temporary workers
    JEL: D22 F16 J23
    Date: 2026–02
    URL: https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wes:weswpa:2026-004
  4. By: Halliday, Timothy (University of Hawaii at Manoa); Mazumder, Bhashkar (UC Irvine and NBER); Sinha, Kompal (Macquarie University); Wang, Huixia (Hunan University)
    Abstract: We examine health persistence between parents and their adult children in Indonesia using both subjective and objective health measures including biomarkers. Using Principal Components Analysis, we estimate the interegenerational persistence of the combination of these measures to be 0.30, providing some of the first estimates of the transmission of latent health for a middle income country. We also detect a highly significant second principal component suggesting that health has multiple dimensions. We find especially strong associations for biomarkers such as hemoglobin, the pulse rate and hypertension which have typically not been studied in prior intergenerational studies. Transmission is stronger from mothers, and to daughters. We find relatively little variation in intergenerational health transmission by family income or SES. However, we do find strong positive gradients between family SES and the pulse rate and obseity suggesting potential health pitfalls as low and middle income countries further develop. Our findings suggest a potentially important role for policies focused on maternal health in reducing the intergenerational transmission of health.
    Keywords: intergenerational persistence, health, biomarkers, Indonesia
    JEL: D63 J62 I14
    Date: 2026–02
    URL: https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp18365
  5. By: Varsha Vaishnav (Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research); Srijit Mishra (Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research)
    Abstract: Women's access to financial resources is not only intrinsically important but also has instrumental relevance for household well-being. To shed light on this issue, this study examines the relationship between women's access to a bank account and household multidimensional poverty, using nationally representative data on rural households from the 5th round of the National Family Health Survey (NFHS). To address potential endogeneity of women's bank account ownership, we employ a recursive bivariate probit model with an exclusion restriction. The results indicate a significant negative relationship between women's bank account ownership and household multidimensional poverty. This result is robust across alternative estimation methods, censored and uncensored measures of multidimensional poverty, and a sample restriction. Moreover, the effect is stronger in states and union territories (UTs) with lower levels of patriarchy. An improvement in women's status, facilitated by access to a bank account, is offered as a plausible explanation for the main finding. We make two key contributions relative to existing Indian studies. First, we assess the instrumental relevance of women's access to a financial resource for household multidimensional poverty, rather than focusing on household-level access. Second, we adopt a more comprehensive measure of multidimensional poverty by drawing on the global MPI and enhancing it through a modification of the education dimension.
    Keywords: Bank Account, Women's Status, Patriarchy, Multidimensional Poverty, India, Probit Model
    JEL: D14 I32 C25
    Date: 2025–09
    URL: https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ind:igiwpp:2025-022
  6. By: Saurav Kumar (Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research); Taniya Ghosh (Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research); Shesadri Banerjee (Reserve Bank of India)
    Abstract: This study examines the macroeconomic dynamics under the recently announced intensity based Carbon Credit Trading Scheme (CCTS) in India using an Environmental Dynamic Stochas tic General Equilibrium framework. The policy freely allocates carbon certificates in the primary carbon market and aims to incentivize their trading by monetizing emission intensity reductions in the secondary carbon market. Distinguishing between thermal power and green electricity we find that the incentive mechanism of this policy promotes the adoption of green electricity and reduces emissions in the long term. Although phasing out the use of fossil fuels remains a challenge in the short term, an ambitious intensity target, coupled with cheaper green electricity, can accelerate the energy transition. In addition, it stabilizes the economy against volatility in fossil fuel prices. Our results highlight that the rate-based CCTS outperforms the price-based carbon tax policy in promoting the energy transition while sustaining the growth objectives.
    Keywords: E-DSGE, Secondary carbon market, Intensity target, Free allocation
    JEL: E32 Q48 Q58 D47
    Date: 2025–12
    URL: https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ind:igiwpp:2025-027

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