Working Paper

Policy for Closing Education Gaps across Gender and Culture: Tuition-Free Education or School Construction?

Presentations

RES PhD Conference; Stockholm U; PSE-CEPR Policy Forum; UCL-Stone Research Day; U Osaka; Kobe U; U Luxembourg, Workshop of Gender and Economics; ISER, U Osaka; HKUST, Asian Economic Development Conference

Awards

Moriguchi Prize Runner-up, U Osaka ISER, Japan, 2025; Kanematsu Prize, Kobe U, Japan, 2025

Abstract Education policies commonly fall into two categories: cost/demand-side and supply-side interventions. This paper examines which approach more effectively serves underrepresented groups, taking local culture into account. Using a regression discontinuity design, it shows that Indonesia’s Free Primary Education (FPE) program, which abolished primary school tuition fees in 1977–1978, improved previously low female educational attainment. These educational gains also reduced child marriage and raised future earnings. Unlike the concurrent school construction program, FPE was equally effective across communities, irrespective of whether bride price is practiced. Absent institutions raising demand for girls' schooling, tuition removal can be more effective in promoting female education than supply-side interventions, thereby reducing gender gaps across cultural contexts.


Work in Progress

Corporate Social Responsibility, Production, and Environment: Evidence from Mandatory CSR in Indonesia

Presentations

U Osaka; UCL; IDE-JETRO, JSIE Next Generation Workshop; Hitotsubashi U, Young JADE Conference; INSEAD, SIOE Conference

Grant

Approx. 5,000 GBP, Mishima Kaiun Memorial Foundation, Japan, 2024-25

Abstract Corporate social responsibility (CSR) integrates social, environmental, and ethical values into business practices. This paper studies its effects on firms’ production, profits, and environmental outcomes. To address endogeneity in CSR adoption, I exploit Indonesia’s mandate requiring CSR implementation among limited-liability firms in natural-resource-related industries. Treated firms expanded CSR and environmental information disclosure, consistent with the policy’s environmental preservation aim. A triple-difference design shows that treated firms improved environmental performance ratings and reduced carbon emissions by decreasing coal use and substituting toward LPG. The fuel shift involved expenditure reallocation but did not affect profits, output, revenue, or total expenses. Effects are larger for firms with stronger community-based relational incentives, particularly middle-aged firms sourcing capital domestically and privately. Satellite imagery and village-firm matched data indicate reduced local PM2.5 concentrations and fewer reported pollution incidents around treated firms. Legal CSR requirements can act as environmental regulation when firms are embedded in local networks that provide additional CSR incentives.

with Yumi Ishikawa, Miki Kohara, Yanni Shen

Presentation

UCL

Abstract How does information about workplace diversity shape job application decisions and employer-employee match quality? We study this question using data from an international job fair where university students from Southeast Asia meet Japanese recruiting firms. Firms providing more information about workplace diversity in their presentations and brochures attract greater application interest. We construct a unique measure of match quality across firm-student pairs, including unrealized matches, and show that the effects of diversity information are stronger for higher-quality potential matches, where skill demand and supply are better aligned. These effects are driven by female job seekers, who display greater interest in diversity information, interpret it as a signal of better promotion prospects and a more productive workplace, and exhibit higher willingness to pay for gender-diverse workplaces. Diversity operated as a non-pay amenity valued particularly by women and enhanced match quality by altering applicant pool composition in our context.

Affirmative Action for the Ethnic Majority

with Rio Ikeuchi

Presentation

ANU, Australia (10 September, 2026)

Abstract Affirmative action research has focused almost exclusively on policies targeting disadvantaged ethnic minorities, leaving open how such policies operate when they instead target the majority. We study Malaysia's New Economic Policy (NEP, 1971–1990), which granted the Malay majority preferential access to university admissions, public-sector employment, and corporate ownership. Using a cohort-based difference-in-differences design, we find that Malay cohorts exposed to the NEP acquired more years of education and were more likely to enter skilled occupations. Applying a structural model, we estimate that improved talent allocation during the NEP period raised GDP per capita by around 10%, driven primarily by reduced frictions in human capital accumulation rather than in the labor market. Our findings suggest that affirmative action targeting the majority can shift talent allocation, with implications for economic growth.

Development by Concession? State-Led Expansion and Reversal of Plantation Agriculture

Presentations

SSE, Sweden (19 October, 2026); GRIPS, Japan (20 January, 2027)

Grant

Approx. 2,000 GBP, ESPEC Foundation, Japan, 2026-27

Banning Hazardous Child Labor: Substitution into Safer Work and Schooling

with Yuma Noritomo

Presentation

Hitotsubashi U

Grant

Approx. 3,000 GBP, Labor Research Center, Japan, 2025-26

Regional vs. Sectoral Minimum Wage Implementation

Grant

Approx. 1,500 GBP, KIER Foundation, Kyoto University, Japan, 2025-26