On Wednesday, 6 September 2023 the Master of Science and Doctoral Program (MD) FEB UGM held an doctoral open examination in Economics for promovendus Sailal Arimi. Prof. Catur Sugiyanto, M.A., Ph.D., as Head of the Doctoral Study Program in Economics, acted as Chair of the Session. Also present were Prof. Lincolin Arsyad, M.Sc., Ph.D., as promoter and Eny Sulistyaningrum, M.A., Ph.D., as co-promoter. In this open exam, Prof. served as the assessment team. Dr. Samsubar Saleh, M.Soc., Sc., and Prof. Amirullah Setya Hardi, Cand. Oecon., Ph.D. The examiner team is Rimawan Pradiptyo, M.Sc., Ph.D., and Dr. Ardito Bhinadi, M.Sc. Apart from that, the open examination was also attended by the families of the doctoral candidates, work relatives and invited guests.
After the doctoral open examination was opened by the chairman of the assembly, the promoter, co-promoter, assessment team and examiner team were given the opportunity to provide questions on the dissertation written by the promovendus entitled “Human Capital and its Relation to Rural Household Poverty in Indonesia”. Promovendus Sailal Arimi was able to answer all questions and defend his arguments well and successfully graduated with the title of “satisfactory”.
Dissertation Sailal Arimi deals with two serious problems in Indonesia, especially in rural areas, namely poverty and limited human capital in the education dimension. The educational attainment of the rural population is relatively low considering that on average, the length of schooling of the heads of poor households in rural areas is still under six years or they have not completed elementary school (SD). Based on the concept of the vicious circle of poverty, poverty and education are two interrelated factors, where on the one hand education can be a determinant of poverty, but on the other hand poverty can be the cause of low educational outcomes.
The aim of Dr. Sailal Arimi is to analyze the link between education and poverty in rural households in Indonesia. The data source used is IFLS data, namely IFLS-4 data in 2007 and IFLS-5 in 2014. Apart from that, rainfall data from the Climate Hazards Group Infrared Precipitation with Station (CHRIPS) in 2007 and 2014 was also used as an instrument for the poverty variable.
The research results show that the education of the head of the household as measured by years of education and level of education both have a negative and significant impact on the monetary and multidimensional poverty of rural households in Indonesia. Apart from that, the study also found that poverty experienced by rural households had a negative and significant impact on educational outcomes as measured by test scores and years of education. Meanwhile, monetary poverty only has a negative and significant impact on test scores and does not have a significant impact on years of education. The results of the overall study also found the existence of a cycle of poverty phenomenon in monetary poor and multidimensional poor households in rural Indonesia, when indicators of capital formation in rural households used measures of human capital, especially the education dimension.
Dissertation conducted by Dr. Sailal Arimi has made several policy contributions, namely promoting education by encouraging an increase in years of education for children from poor households in rural areas which is expected to contribute to increasing income when they grow up so they can escape the cycle of poverty. Then, improving the educational outcomes of children in the household can be supported by improving the welfare of the parents’ households. Apart from that, policies that encourage the provision of free school facilities for children from poor families, such as providing textbooks at various levels of basic education, are also needed.
Dr. Sailal Arimi officially holds the 5925th doctorate degree to pass the exam at Gadjah Mada University and the 323rd to pass the exam at FEB UGM. Prof. Lincolin Arsyad, M.Sc., Ph.D., as the promoter congratulated Dr. Sailal Arimi. He expressed his appreciation for all the efforts he had taken to complete his studies. He hopes that Dr. Sailal Arimi can always contribute to the environment, nation and state through the knowledge he has gained during his doctoral studies at MD FEB UGM.