Ekonomikalia Journal of Economics

Freedom and Prosperity: The Impact of Political Rights and Civil Liberties on Economic Complexity

Thu, 14 Aug 2025 00:00:00 +0700

As governance and economic sophistication become increasingly interconnected, understanding their relationship is crucial for shaping national growth strategies. This study investigates the impact of political rights and civil liberties on Indonesia’s economic complexity from 2006 to 2021 by disaggregating the Economic Complexity Index (ECI) into trade, technology, and research components. Indonesia serves as an ideal case study due to its dynamic political landscape, evolving civil liberties, and its strategic role as an emerging economy with untapped potential for economic diversification. While a growing body of literature explores the intersection of political and economic development in Indonesia, no prior study has specifically examined the relationship between the Freedom in the World ratings (as an indicator of political rights and civil liberties) and the distinct dimensions of ECI. The analysis employs Gaussian identity-link Generalized Linear Models (GLMs), with robustness checks using Robust Least Squares, and adopts a decomposition approach that includes a set of control variables such as GDP per capita and FDI inflow. The results across both the main and robustness check methods consistently show that political rights and civil liberties contribute positively to ECI-technology, but negatively affect ECI-trade and have no significant effect on ECI-research. These findings underscore the sector-specific nature of political and democratization influences on economic complexity in Indonesia and imply that they facilitate technological advancement but do not uniformly promote trade or research sophistication.

The Moderating Effect of Female Labor Force Participation on Economic Growth in ASEAN

Tiya Rana Ammara, Sofyan Syahnur, Srinita Srinita — Sat, 23 Aug 2025 00:00:00 +0700

Despite ASEAN’s rapid economic growth, persistent gender gaps in labor participation remained underexplored as determinants of regional development. This study aimed to analyze the effects of gross fixed capital formation, information and communication technology, human capital, labor, and female labor force participation on economic growth in eight ASEAN countries from 2000 to 2023. The Panel Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) method was employed. Additionally, this study examined the moderating effect of female labor force participation on labor's contribution to economic growth. The estimation results indicated that, in the long run, gross fixed capital formation positively affected economic growth, while information and communication technology and human capital showed positive and negative effects in different models. Labor had a negative and significant effect in the long run. The moderating effect of female labor force participation strengthened the impact of labor on economic growth. The findings of this study highlighted the importance of policies that enhanced human capital quality, developed workforce skills, increased digital literacy, and empowered women to promote sustainable economic growth in the ASEAN region.

Mapping the Evolution of Agricultural Economics: A Bibliometric Analysis of the Nexus Between Economic Growth, Environmental Sustainability, and Econometric Modeling

Wed, 22 Oct 2025 00:00:00 +0700

Understanding how agriculture contributes to economic growth while maintaining environmental sustainability has become an essential question in contemporary development research. To examine how this interdisciplinary field has evolved, this study employs a bibliometric analysis of 394 Scopus-indexed articles retrieved on 3 October 2025, reflecting research published from 1975 through 2025, focusing on the intersection of agriculture, economic growth, environmental sustainability, and econometric modeling. Data were analyzed with VOSviewer and CiteSpace to map research trends, collaboration, and methodological patterns. The results indicate a consistent rise in publication activity and citation impact, reflecting the growing scholarly attention to sustainable agricultural economics. Asian countries, particularly China, India, Malaysia, and Indonesia, have emerged as leading contributors, highlighting the region’s central role in agricultural transformation and policy-driven research. Econometric approaches such as time series, panel data, and cointegration models dominate methodological trends, underscoring the discipline’s increasing reliance on quantitative analysis. However, international and interinstitutional collaboration remains limited, suggesting that greater integration is needed to achieve a more unified global research landscape. The findings provide valuable insights into the intellectual structure and evolution of agricultural economics, offering a foundation for future studies that aim to strengthen methodological diversity and advance sustainable development policies.

Energy Dependence, Trade Balance, and Current Account Sustainability: Evidence From ASEAN-5

Thu, 30 Oct 2025 00:00:00 +0700

This study investigates how energy dependence and trade structure influence current-account sustainability in the ASEAN-5 (Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines, and Vietnam) over 2014–2023. Focusing on the region’s vulnerability to energy price volatility and evolving trade patterns, the analysis evaluates long- and short-run relationships between the current account, energy trade balance, overall trade balance, real GDP per capita, and exchange rate movements. A panel Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) model with a Pooled Mean Group (PMG) estimator is applied, and long-run robustness is verified using panel Fully Modified Ordinary Least Squares (FMOLS). The results confirm a stable long-run equilibrium in which both energy and non-energy trade balances significantly and positively contribute to current-account positions. Higher real income and a depreciated exchange rate are also associated with sustained current-account improvements, reflecting capacity expansion and expenditure-switching effects. Short-run adjustments differ across countries, shaped by their import dependence, energy mix, and external balance-sheet conditions. Robustness checks affirm the stability of the estimated long-run relationships. These findings highlight the importance of strengthening energy trade resilience, enhancing non-energy tradable sectors, and maintaining prudent exchange-rate flexibility to support external sustainability in the ASEAN-5.

Economic Complexity as a Driver of Economic Growth in Indonesia: A Multidimensional Analysis of Trade, Technology, and Research

Putri Maulidar, Chairunnisa Yulfianti, Farhan Hadi Prasetyo — Fri, 31 Oct 2025 00:00:00 +0700

This study investigates how economic complexity influences Indonesia’s economic growth through three interrelated dimensions: research, technology, and trade. Using annual time-series data from 2000 to 2021, several econometric techniques including Ordinary Least Squares (OLS), Robust Least Squares (RLS), Fully Modified OLS (FMOLS), Canonical Cointegrating Regression (CCR), Dynamic OLS (DOLS), and Quantile Regression (QR) are applied to capture both short-run and long-run dynamics. The results reveal that the contribution of economic complexity to growth is heterogeneous and stage dependent. Research and trade-based complexities emerge as the primary long-run drivers of growth, enhancing productivity, export diversification, and structural transformation. In contrast, technology-based complexity exerts a negative effect in both the short and long run, reflecting Indonesia’s limited absorptive capacity, skill mismatches, and institutional constraints. Quantile regression results further show that research-based complexity supports growth during low-performance phases, whereas trade-based complexity becomes more influential at higher stages of development. These findings highlight the need for phase-specific development strategies that strengthen research and innovation in early stages, improve technological absorption during industrial transitions, and promote export sophistication and value-chain integration to achieve resilient, knowledge-driven, and sustainable economic growth.