Hello fellas. It's been a week since my last update. Yeah, i am quite busy on lot stuffs, so i just got time to write on friday night. Okay, i will continue my resume about Poor Economics book, continuing to chapter 4, which discuss about education.I found this topic is another mind-blowing chapter, since it provides you not only with explanation that we have know before, rather it elaborate what research had told in a micro context.
It starts the chapter by explaining what makes poor people simply do not have good educational record. As we all know, the poorer you are, the less year you spend on formal school. It's because you have low budget to enroll your children in your school. Government need to take policy to encourage poor people to enroll their children to school. Basically there are many programs provided by government all over world to help poor people, such as Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) in Mexico, Bolsa Familia in Brazil, etc. This program assist the family to enroll their children to school; in return, they will be given some amount of money to cover cost for tution fee. It is expected that, poor will have incentives to enroll their children to school. Indonesia was once mentioned in this book for INPRES program. INPRES or Instruksi Presiden is a program in which many schools are build in rural area to increase education accessibility for people in remote area.
The problems is not yet solved. Enrolling children to school is one question. But how could we make them learn something in school is another question. Children comes from poor families tend to have lower result than its peer. There are many ways to explain these, from lower IQ, lack of encouraging from family, and boredom. Children comes from poor families, tend to have less IQ, for they are feed with less-micronutrients food. It also related with their motivation and brain capacity to process lot information. Another reason is lack of encouragement from family. Poor parents, in may times, often undermine their children ability to succeed in school, thus, lowering children motivation. Parents support, based on research, are know for the important aspect of children success in school. Last, boredom. Poor children will enroll in a public school, where the tuition fee are quite low. Yet, it seemed that cost and quality are positively related. At some public schools, teacher often can not deliver the materials well. In addition, they seldom try to cope to assist children who need further assistance to understand the materials.
Then, what can we do? Author put emphasize on how we need to re-engineer our educational system. We need to courage the parents to enroll their children in schools, as well to support them. We can do it by simply inform the parents that children with more years spent in school have higher chance to obtain more income. Incentives need to be designed to make parents believe on economical value of education its self. Another program that can be delivered is to tailored system. We need to focus on what they are good at, and develop it. It is proved that this system can reduce boredom in class, as well as increase children participation during the class.
Friday, November 23, 2012
Friday, November 16, 2012
Poor Economics Resume Chapter 3 : Health
Hei there! I am going to continue my resume for chapter 3 of Poor Economics Book. Things are getting more interesting as more pages i flipped. The way the author present the book is great. On one side, you are being taken directly to observe and feel the poor's condition as you were there. On the other side, it still relate the phenomenon with relevant economic approaches, making it easily understandable, and can be modeled for a wider use.
In chapter 3, it talks about poverty and health. Health is an important aspect for every single human in earth. We had seen million people dead each year because of disease. Most of them are comes out as a result of flawed behavior to maintain body health. This case are worse for poor. Unlike the rich, who had enough money to pay the bill, poor often can not do anything other than pray, and struggling for disease they suffer. The cost are way to expensive for them to pay it off. There just only one way out, that author emphasize a lot trough this chapter, which is implementing preventive action for reducing risk from suffering.
It is interesting to know that poor disease are less various than rich When our middle and rich people are suffer from a so-called-modern disease like stroke, cancer, diabetes, etc, poor are less varied with their disease. Most of them are suffer from malaria, diarrhea, fever, HIV, polio and disease which mainly came from dirty living place, rather than eating habit. This risk of suffering for this disease, actually, can be reduce, if they know how to prevent it. Giving them Oralit ( a mixture between salt, sugar, and water to reduce dehydration), can reduce the death rate caused of dehydration that is experience by diarrhea patients. It even can be further mitigate if the family purify the water with NaCl ( according to the book, poor had low access to piped water, thus, use unreliable source of water). For malaria, lot of NGO had provide them with bed nest. Bed nest will cover them from mosquito attack when we sleep. For polio, it is recommend that child below 7 are routinely immunized.
There are lot of ways that can be done to reduce the risk, but in fact, it is not easy to convince the poor. In many ways, even when the service was offering at very low rate, even free, much of them are reluctant to do that. It is simply because they do not have any urgency to cover them self now. Author relates it with an argument that people tend to suffer more in present, than in the future. Based on the argument, author believe that reluctance came as poor's are not suffer now, so why should care?. Whereas, the cost of prevention are far more cheaper than medication. But poor's seemed can not see the importance of prevent themselves from the threat.
Institutional problems also exist. In some countries, there are lack of proper medical facilities available. Even when its available, poor had no incentives to use it. Doctors often not reliable. In their studies, it shown that doctors in rural are asked less than it should ask, and giving under-perform treatment to patient. But it is quite reasonable, since less good doctors are willing to be placed in rural areas.
To solve this problem. Author came with a solution to design a system to encourage poor's to receive the prevention program routinely. And he chooses to gives them reward if they are came to take the prevention program. And as planned, it works! Number of people receiving programs are increasing after being promised for a reward. Yet problem are not solved already. One question left : How long it would gonna last? Will it still continue even when there are no rewards? . Those are not answered until the end of chapter. I expect that those questions will be discussed later on. But one thing for sure, another problem is on the way, and implementing theories to poor are simply not as easy as we thought.
I am now reading chapter 4 about school. Looking for another great story!
In chapter 3, it talks about poverty and health. Health is an important aspect for every single human in earth. We had seen million people dead each year because of disease. Most of them are comes out as a result of flawed behavior to maintain body health. This case are worse for poor. Unlike the rich, who had enough money to pay the bill, poor often can not do anything other than pray, and struggling for disease they suffer. The cost are way to expensive for them to pay it off. There just only one way out, that author emphasize a lot trough this chapter, which is implementing preventive action for reducing risk from suffering.
It is interesting to know that poor disease are less various than rich When our middle and rich people are suffer from a so-called-modern disease like stroke, cancer, diabetes, etc, poor are less varied with their disease. Most of them are suffer from malaria, diarrhea, fever, HIV, polio and disease which mainly came from dirty living place, rather than eating habit. This risk of suffering for this disease, actually, can be reduce, if they know how to prevent it. Giving them Oralit ( a mixture between salt, sugar, and water to reduce dehydration), can reduce the death rate caused of dehydration that is experience by diarrhea patients. It even can be further mitigate if the family purify the water with NaCl ( according to the book, poor had low access to piped water, thus, use unreliable source of water). For malaria, lot of NGO had provide them with bed nest. Bed nest will cover them from mosquito attack when we sleep. For polio, it is recommend that child below 7 are routinely immunized.
There are lot of ways that can be done to reduce the risk, but in fact, it is not easy to convince the poor. In many ways, even when the service was offering at very low rate, even free, much of them are reluctant to do that. It is simply because they do not have any urgency to cover them self now. Author relates it with an argument that people tend to suffer more in present, than in the future. Based on the argument, author believe that reluctance came as poor's are not suffer now, so why should care?. Whereas, the cost of prevention are far more cheaper than medication. But poor's seemed can not see the importance of prevent themselves from the threat.
Institutional problems also exist. In some countries, there are lack of proper medical facilities available. Even when its available, poor had no incentives to use it. Doctors often not reliable. In their studies, it shown that doctors in rural are asked less than it should ask, and giving under-perform treatment to patient. But it is quite reasonable, since less good doctors are willing to be placed in rural areas.
To solve this problem. Author came with a solution to design a system to encourage poor's to receive the prevention program routinely. And he chooses to gives them reward if they are came to take the prevention program. And as planned, it works! Number of people receiving programs are increasing after being promised for a reward. Yet problem are not solved already. One question left : How long it would gonna last? Will it still continue even when there are no rewards? . Those are not answered until the end of chapter. I expect that those questions will be discussed later on. But one thing for sure, another problem is on the way, and implementing theories to poor are simply not as easy as we thought.
I am now reading chapter 4 about school. Looking for another great story!
Wednesday, November 14, 2012
Poor Economics Resume Chapter 2
Today I start to read Poor Economics books written by Banerjee and Duflo. It is a worldwide selling book since It won 2011 Goldman Sachs Book Prize. It simply try to elaborate the life of poor people by extracting it trough lot of data, and careful observation. I found this book put much emphasize on practical examples, rather than mere theory, make it easier for reader to understand. It even included a story from Indonesian former peasant which now unemployed, and struggled for feed his family.
Along with this post, I will just resume Chapter 2 (which I had just finished). In this chapter, it explain about Food and Poverty. Access to adequate food had been a problem for vast majority of world population today. WB estimates that around 1/4 of world population earn less than $2/day. Given such a low income, they probably do not have enough money to buy adequate food for life. They simply purchase low-nutrient food. What happened is obvious, they suffer for malnutrition, they grew up in a small body, children has low IQ, and etc. Research had shown that nutrients are important for human growth.
Another case would be about poor, and its consumption to food. We may think, that food is an important stuffs for poor people to be fulfilled. But thats not always the case. It might true, for a very poor, but not with poor who lived just below poverty line. As income rises, they are not buy more nutrients, but more expensive nutrients. As income grow a bit higher, they seek for "pleasure stuffs", such as TV, DVD Player, and so on. For them, just eat enough is enough, there are lack needs of consume more nutrients. It is proved based on data set on 18 countries, that shown rural people tend to spend less percentage on food consumption rather than urban people.
Whereas, research shown that an increase of nutrients in human body can increase their productivity, and result on higher income. It is proved based on research in African, when a farmer is given an iron pill for endure his stamina, his productivity rises, and his income rise by 40% as well. Same applied with children. Children who obtain sufficient nutrients will have a better IQ, and perform better in classroom.
So that's is my resume for chapter 2. We always think that poor people does not have adequate access to good food, but it might not be a big problems for them. They, after all, is an ordinary human, which had balance between spending on food, and luxury goods. So then, rather than talking on increasing spending for their foods, why don't we think about providing a more-nutrients-contained food with same level of price?
Unique things : In the book, they used to call Government Rice Subsidy as Rashkin, instead of Raskin. I probably should email them for acknowledgement. LOL
Along with this post, I will just resume Chapter 2 (which I had just finished). In this chapter, it explain about Food and Poverty. Access to adequate food had been a problem for vast majority of world population today. WB estimates that around 1/4 of world population earn less than $2/day. Given such a low income, they probably do not have enough money to buy adequate food for life. They simply purchase low-nutrient food. What happened is obvious, they suffer for malnutrition, they grew up in a small body, children has low IQ, and etc. Research had shown that nutrients are important for human growth.
Another case would be about poor, and its consumption to food. We may think, that food is an important stuffs for poor people to be fulfilled. But thats not always the case. It might true, for a very poor, but not with poor who lived just below poverty line. As income rises, they are not buy more nutrients, but more expensive nutrients. As income grow a bit higher, they seek for "pleasure stuffs", such as TV, DVD Player, and so on. For them, just eat enough is enough, there are lack needs of consume more nutrients. It is proved based on data set on 18 countries, that shown rural people tend to spend less percentage on food consumption rather than urban people.
Whereas, research shown that an increase of nutrients in human body can increase their productivity, and result on higher income. It is proved based on research in African, when a farmer is given an iron pill for endure his stamina, his productivity rises, and his income rise by 40% as well. Same applied with children. Children who obtain sufficient nutrients will have a better IQ, and perform better in classroom.
So that's is my resume for chapter 2. We always think that poor people does not have adequate access to good food, but it might not be a big problems for them. They, after all, is an ordinary human, which had balance between spending on food, and luxury goods. So then, rather than talking on increasing spending for their foods, why don't we think about providing a more-nutrients-contained food with same level of price?
Unique things : In the book, they used to call Government Rice Subsidy as Rashkin, instead of Raskin. I probably should email them for acknowledgement. LOL
Tuesday, November 13, 2012
Updating
Hello there, its quite a long time since my last post. I am now busy with several stuffs, which exhaust me. But i make fun of it tough. Since my graduation in September, i intensively learn a lot, reading as much book as I can, review course books, and taking online courses to support my study. Taking break from college life, before going to work, is really helpful to cure your pain after doing final thesis. But that doesn't simply mean I'm doing nothing. Lot things to do to upgrade myself with new thing.
Here are stuffs I'm doing now :
1. Teaching up to seven classes. Nothing special, just regular activities, teaching, review materials, etc. Yet, i found it lot interesting doing this. I might pay you a little, but gives you a lot of things. I learn how to introduce materials with simplest ways, as well as building networks with students, and lecturers.
2. Taking online course. I am now taking computational investing class at coursera.org . Just click it, and you found hundreds available classes for you to take, and ITS FREE!
3. Launching a financial literacy programs. Finally, i can make it! After several months of waiting (since my paper in MAPRES), i finally can gather several people to conceptualize this program to make it real. We plan to launch a twitter that gives you materials about financial planning, launch an e-book, and within a year, launch a software that helps you manage investment/budgets. I am really enthusiastic to launch this program soon! And hope it can last long..:D
4. Read books. Here is my reading list ( if you interested in the same topics) :
1. Poor Economics by Ester Duflo and Abhijit
2. I Will Teach You to Be Rich by Ramit Sethi
Its gonna be my reading list up until year end. I put a huge interest on developing financial model for poor ( you can infer based on my reading list). Wish i could find some insights to make it real.
Thats all for now. See you on my next post! :D
Here are stuffs I'm doing now :
1. Teaching up to seven classes. Nothing special, just regular activities, teaching, review materials, etc. Yet, i found it lot interesting doing this. I might pay you a little, but gives you a lot of things. I learn how to introduce materials with simplest ways, as well as building networks with students, and lecturers.
2. Taking online course. I am now taking computational investing class at coursera.org . Just click it, and you found hundreds available classes for you to take, and ITS FREE!
3. Launching a financial literacy programs. Finally, i can make it! After several months of waiting (since my paper in MAPRES), i finally can gather several people to conceptualize this program to make it real. We plan to launch a twitter that gives you materials about financial planning, launch an e-book, and within a year, launch a software that helps you manage investment/budgets. I am really enthusiastic to launch this program soon! And hope it can last long..:D
4. Read books. Here is my reading list ( if you interested in the same topics) :
1. Poor Economics by Ester Duflo and Abhijit
2. I Will Teach You to Be Rich by Ramit Sethi
Its gonna be my reading list up until year end. I put a huge interest on developing financial model for poor ( you can infer based on my reading list). Wish i could find some insights to make it real.
Thats all for now. See you on my next post! :D
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
