Pierre Van Der Eng
Biographic Data
| ID | 1069799 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Pierre Van Der Eng |
| GIVEN NAMES | Pierre |
| FAMILY NAME | Van Der Eng |
| SIGNATURE | VAN DER ENG P |
| AFFILIATIONS | Australian National University |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-2835-3193 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 43 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 69 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 43 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1988 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 5 |
The decline of child stunting in 122 countries
INTRODUCTION: Child stunting, a measure of malnutrition, is a major global health challenge affecting 148.1 million children in 2022. Global stunting rates have declined from 47.2% in 1985 to 22.3% in 2022; however, trends before the mid-1980s are unclear, including whether child stunting was previously prevalent in current high-income countries (HICs). We conducted a systematic review of child growth studies before 1990 to reconstruct historical…
Missing millions
This article asks why the victims of the 1944-45 famine in Indonesia's main island of Java are largely missing from Indonesia's public memory and historiography. It surveys relevant studies, to conclude that there is no consensus on the human toll of the famine. The article then traces the origins of an initial estimate of four million mentioned by Indonesia's authorities to data on mortality and births uncovered in late 1945. It discusses the ou…
Securities trading in an emerging market
This article analyses trends in the development of the stock exchange in Jakarta between its stepwise institutionalisation since 1898 and its closure in 1942. The article contributes to literature on the significance of stock markets in the process of mobilising external capital for investment by private enterprise in emerging economies. It finds that the brokers participating in the stock exchange traded shares and bonds of companies operating i…
Chinese entrepreneurship in Indonesia
This article analyses the demography of 1,600 registered firms owned and/or operated by ethnic Chinese businessmen in Indonesia during 1890-1940 in search of generalisable indications of Schumpeterian entrepreneurship. The population of firms increased significantly from 1890, before many went out of business in the 1920s and a new generation of firms and entrepreneurs emerged. By 1910 most firms were active in trade, but this categorisation take…
“Send Them a Shipload of Rice”
This paper asks why it took ten years after a major famine in Indonesia in 1957 for Australia's food aid to increase in greater amounts, and why food aid was so significant in Australia's foreign aid to Indonesia during the late 1960s and 1970s. Indonesia's reluctance to apply for food aid under the Colombo Plan is the reason for the delay. A combination of humanitarian, commercial and international relations interests converged to shape Australi…
Peraturan dan Pengendalian
The paper discusses the major reasons for the drop in food production in Java during the period of Japanese occupation. Statistics on the acreage and production of six main foodstuff during the year 1940-1946 showed significant reduction of food production in Java after 1942. This reduction is explained as the result of several physical limitation to the production and marketing process of foodstuff. The article explicate several other factors th…
Asia's 'little divergence' in the twentieth century
This article uses expenditure-based purchasing power parities (PPPs) to estimate GDP per capita in comparable prices for 12 Asian countries for six benchmark years during the period 1913-69. The article finds that in 1913 levels of real GDP per capita in several countries were comparable to those in Japan. GDP per capita in Japan and other Asian countries diverged during and after the First World War. The article questions whether Asia's 'little …
The biological standard of living in Indonesia during the 20th century
Les voies multiples du développement en Asie
Here we discuss the existence of an Asian development path, the role of states in development, that of businesses, that of the money market and the banking system, integration into the world trading system and the question of the cultural model. , as well as that of the imperatives of sustainable development. Can we consider that there is an Asian development path? What is the relevance of the Japanese 'geese in flight' development model defined …
European Integration and Australian Manufacturing Industry
The creation of the Common Market in the European Community required electronics multinational Philips to integrate production operations across European countries. This effort had consequences for its Australian subsidiary. Rather than become a regional Philips hub with the support of its parent, as intended in the 1960s, it was absorbed by addressing changes in Australian trade policy and increased Japanese imports. The parent company's establi…
Fertility and the health of children in Indonesia
Turning Adversity into Opportunity
Philips Australia, the Australian subsidiary of Dutch MNE Philips Electronics, experienced difficulties during 1942–1943, when it came close to being nationalized as enemy property. In response, the company set out to improve its reputation in the local radio parts and electronics industry and in Australian markets. Its strategy of embedding itself in Australian society served the purpose of improving company performance and influencing the gover…
Managing political imperatives in war time
The Australian subsidiary of Dutch multi-national enterprise Philips came under secret service surveillance and faced risk of government takeover as enemy property during World War II. It was also excluded from Australian government contracts for war-related communications equipment at a time when it was forced to reduce civilian production. These threats to its assets and operations required the firm to develop an adaptive corporate strategy in …
Fifty Years of the Bulletin of Indonesian Economic Studies
When Professor Heinz W. Arndt embarked in 1964 on establishing what has become the Indonesia Project at The Australian National University, he was uncertain about whether to include the publication
Commodities and Colonialism
In this issue
Peer-reviewed
Defining the relationship between Australia and the European Union
Australia is currently negotiating a framework treaty with the European Union (EU) that aims at closer cooperation on a wide range of shared policy goals. The treaty is not expected to include trade-liberalisation commitments. This article queries why this is, given the importance of trade and business relations with the EU for Australia, and the fact that the EU exerts international influence primarily as a trade power, rather than a foreign and…
Why Didn't Colonial Indonesia Have a Competitive Cotton Textile Industry
This paper quantifies the consumption and production of cotton textiles at different stages of processing in Indonesia during the Dutch colonial era (1820-1941). It discusses the main factors that impeded the development of an internationally competitive cotton textile industry, and concludes that production in the industry increased significantly in Java during 1820-71, and again during 1874-1914 and 1934-41. However, most activity involved fini…
In this issue
Peer-reviewed
Responses of Economic Systems to Environmental Change
Current discussions of climate change are overly focused on the science underpinning environmental impact, with little attention to socioeconomic consequences. The economics of environmental change in particular is insufficiently informed by the lessons that past experiences can yield. Drawing on case studies from Europe and Asia, this special issue underlines the importance of historical context, as well as markets, institutions, technology, and…
Market Responses to Climate Stress
Do markets in less‐developed countries abate consequences of climate stress? Using changes in regional rice prices across the 19 regions in Java, Indonesia, during 1935–40, this paper will assess how rice markets responded to variations in rainfall, which is an important factor in rice production. It finds that rice markets were highly integrated across Java. The El Niño‐induced episodes of lower than usual rainfall in 1935 and 1940 did not have …
Historical perspectives on Asian economic growth and development
The sources of long-term economic growth in Indonesia, 1880–2008
Networks and business development
This article uses social network analysis to examine accounting records in order to establish and analyse business relationships. It applies this methodology to accounting transactions recorded at Australia's first bank, the Bank of New South Wales (BNSW) in order to establish whether a business network existed among ex-convict businesspeople in Sydney during 1817–24. Uncertainty regarding distance from suppliers and credit facilities, lack of ma…
Credit and debt in Indonesia, 860-1930
The sources of long-term economic growth in Indonesia, 1880–2008
The real domestic product of Indonesia, 1880–1989
Why Didn't Colonial Indonesia Have a Competitive Cotton Textile Industry
This paper quantifies the consumption and production of cotton textiles at different stages of processing in Indonesia during the Dutch colonial era (1820-1941). It discusses the main factors that impeded the development of an internationally competitive cotton textile industry, and concludes that production in the industry increased significantly in Java during 1820-71, and again during 1874-1914 and 1934-41. However, most activity involved fini…
Food for Growth
A decline in Indonesia's per capita rice supply until the 1970s was marginal in relation to food supply as a whole. Until the 1970s, trends were determined by non-rice food crops. Indonesia was long unable to satisfy an increase in the demand for food with a higher supply of rice. From 1905 to 1920, cassava products met the additional demand for carbohydrates, which grew with purchasing power. During the interwar years, per capita food supply dec…
Bridging a gap
(2002). Bridging a gap: a reconstruction of population patterns in Indonesia, 1930–61. Asian Studies Review: Vol. 26, No. 4, pp. 487-509
Capital formation and capital stock in Indonesia, 1950–2008
This article presents long-term estimates of gross fixed capital formation, disaggregated by category of productive assets, for the period 1951–2008. These data, combined with approximations of probable average asset lives and a plausible asset retirement procedure, are used in a perpetual inventory method framework to estimate gross fixed capital stock in Indonesia for the years 1950–2008, disaggregated by productive asset category. Total capita…
Some Obscurities in Indonesia's New National Accounts
Indonesia's national accounts are subject to regular revisions. Some of these revisions have resulted in different estimates of GDP on both the output and the expenditure side of the economy in overlapping years. Unfortunately, the explanations accompanying the published national accounts make it difficult to understand the exact reasons why this is so. This article explores the possible explanations. It also discusses the consequences of changes…
Exploring Exploitation
Studies of the economic relations between Great Britain and its colonies, such as Hopkins (1988) and O'Brien (1988), have revitalised controversy about the relevance of economic factors in the history of imperialism. Some have denigrated the relevance of the Hobson-Lenin thesis that capitalists required new overseas investment opportunities to postpone the collapse of capitalism, and the argument that colonies were a paying proposition. This arti…
Chinese entrepreneurship in Indonesia
This article analyses the demography of 1,600 registered firms owned and/or operated by ethnic Chinese businessmen in Indonesia during 1890-1940 in search of generalisable indications of Schumpeterian entrepreneurship. The population of firms increased significantly from 1890, before many went out of business in the 1920s and a new generation of firms and entrepreneurs emerged. By 1910 most firms were active in trade, but this categorisation take…
Turning Adversity into Opportunity
Philips Australia, the Australian subsidiary of Dutch MNE Philips Electronics, experienced difficulties during 1942–1943, when it came close to being nationalized as enemy property. In response, the company set out to improve its reputation in the local radio parts and electronics industry and in Australian markets. Its strategy of embedding itself in Australian society served the purpose of improving company performance and influencing the gover…
Managing political imperatives in war time
The Australian subsidiary of Dutch multi-national enterprise Philips came under secret service surveillance and faced risk of government takeover as enemy property during World War II. It was also excluded from Australian government contracts for war-related communications equipment at a time when it was forced to reduce civilian production. These threats to its assets and operations required the firm to develop an adaptive corporate strategy in …
Bridging a Gap
Missing millions
This article asks why the victims of the 1944-45 famine in Indonesia's main island of Java are largely missing from Indonesia's public memory and historiography. It surveys relevant studies, to conclude that there is no consensus on the human toll of the famine. The article then traces the origins of an initial estimate of four million mentioned by Indonesia's authorities to data on mortality and births uncovered in late 1945. It discusses the ou…
Asia's 'little divergence' in the twentieth century
This article uses expenditure-based purchasing power parities (PPPs) to estimate GDP per capita in comparable prices for 12 Asian countries for six benchmark years during the period 1913-69. The article finds that in 1913 levels of real GDP per capita in several countries were comparable to those in Japan. GDP per capita in Japan and other Asian countries diverged during and after the First World War. The article questions whether Asia's 'little …
Surplus mobilisation in farm agriculture
This paper compares the degree to which farm agriculture surpluses in pre–World War II Java and Japan were mobilised for non-agricultural investment through taxation, landlordism and private savings. It also compares government efforts in both countries to spur productivity and farm income in rice agriculture through improvements in irrigation structures and the development and dissemination of seedfertiliser technology. The pressure of the land …
Indonesia's new national accounts
This note addresses some of the main changes in Indonesia's national accounts, from 2000. These have resulted in higher estimates of GDP and slightly higher rates of GDP growth. The changes are part of a regular cycle of revisions and improvements in national accounting by the central statistics agency, BPS. On the output side, the higher level of GDP in 2000 is mainly due to upward revisions of value added in manufacturing industry, banking and …
An Observer of 65 Years of Socio-Economic Change in Indonesia
Professor Egbert de Vries is one of the few former colonial civil servants who can provide first hand information about the economic situation in Indonesia during the colonial era. Having revisited the country several times in the 1960s and 1970s as a consultant to the Indonesian government, he is also in a position to furnish first hand observations about changes in socioeconomic policy and development in Indonesia over more than 65 years. This …
Marshall Aid as a Catalyst in the Decolonization of Indonesia, 1947–49
The United States did not give Marshall aid to Western Europe for purely humanitarian reasons. Aid was also, perhaps even mainly, provided to serve the economic and political purposes of the United States. In studies dealing with the Marshall aid programme, the suspension of aid to the Dutch colony of Indonesia, and the seeming threat to halt the stream of dollars to the Netherlands, has been used as an example to prove that the programme was an …
An Observer of 65 Years of Socio-Economic Change in Indonesia
Professor Egbert de Vries is one of the few former colonial civil servants who can provide first hand information about the economic situation in Indonesia during the colonial era. Having revisited the country several times in the 1960s and 1970s as a consultant to the Indonesian government, he is also in a position to furnish first hand observations about changes in socioeconomic policy and development in Indonesia over more than 65 years. This …
The real domestic product of Indonesia, 1880–1989
Survey of Recent Developments
Peer-reviewed
Stagnation and Dynamic Change in Indonesian Agriculture
Peer-reviewed
Cassava in Indonesia
Around 1900 the future of indigenous agriculture in densely populated Java was widely held to be gloomy.It was widely believed that rural prosperity
Exploring Exploitation
Studies of the economic relations between Great Britain and its colonies, such as Hopkins (1988) and O'Brien (1988), have revitalised controversy about the relevance of economic factors in the history of imperialism. Some have denigrated the relevance of the Hobson-Lenin thesis that capitalists required new overseas investment opportunities to postpone the collapse of capitalism, and the argument that colonies were a paying proposition. This arti…
Some Obscurities in Indonesia's New National Accounts
Indonesia's national accounts are subject to regular revisions. Some of these revisions have resulted in different estimates of GDP on both the output and the expenditure side of the economy in overlapping years. Unfortunately, the explanations accompanying the published national accounts make it difficult to understand the exact reasons why this is so. This article explores the possible explanations. It also discusses the consequences of changes…
Food for Growth
A decline in Indonesia's per capita rice supply until the 1970s was marginal in relation to food supply as a whole. Until the 1970s, trends were determined by non-rice food crops. Indonesia was long unable to satisfy an increase in the demand for food with a higher supply of rice. From 1905 to 1920, cassava products met the additional demand for carbohydrates, which grew with purchasing power. During the interwar years, per capita food supply dec…
Bridging a Gap
Bridging a gap
(2002). Bridging a gap: a reconstruction of population patterns in Indonesia, 1930–61. Asian Studies Review: Vol. 26, No. 4, pp. 487-509
Halting Progress
This article contains a sweeping summary of Indonesia's macro-economic growth and development experience since 1880, largely on the basis of quantitative data from published research. It sets the scene for some of the other papers in this special issue. The paper identifies phases of economic expansion and contraction and some of the broad factors relevant to understanding the phasing of the development process that spans 120 years. Despite the h…
Economic History of Asia
This article surveys studies that provide a comparative perspective on the economic history of Asia. The available paradigms tend to be extrapolations of the relatively well‐researched long‐term development of Japan and China. It remains to be seen whether these apply to other Asian countries, but they are likely to further comparative research that will help to focus scholarship on the crucial factors in understanding long‐term economic developm…
Business in Indonesia
This book examines Indonesia's business environment since reformasi began in 1985 -- what stayed the same, what changed, and would could change. Economic recovery has been hesitant. Regime change and political reform have created uncertainties that have deepened reluctance to invest. A raft of government-instigated changes have left their imprint: decentralization, privatization, new company legislation, anti-corruption efforts, nationalization o…
Indonesia's new national accounts
This note addresses some of the main changes in Indonesia's national accounts, from 2000. These have resulted in higher estimates of GDP and slightly higher rates of GDP growth. The changes are part of a regular cycle of revisions and improvements in national accounting by the central statistics agency, BPS. On the output side, the higher level of GDP in 2000 is mainly due to upward revisions of value added in manufacturing industry, banking and …
Surplus mobilisation in farm agriculture
This paper compares the degree to which farm agriculture surpluses in pre–World War II Java and Japan were mobilised for non-agricultural investment through taxation, landlordism and private savings. It also compares government efforts in both countries to spur productivity and farm income in rice agriculture through improvements in irrigation structures and the development and dissemination of seedfertiliser technology. The pressure of the land …
Konfrontasi and Australia's Aid to Indonesia during the 1960s
This article examines Australia's aid program in Indonesia in the 1960s. With the transfer by the Dutch of West New Guinea to Indonesia in May 1963, the Australian government looked to expand aid to its northern neighbour beyond the Colombo Plan in an effort to cement friendly relations. The events associated with konfrontasi threatened this policy objective. Yet despite Indonesia's belligerent stance, Australia was able to continue its aid progr…
Capital formation and capital stock in Indonesia, 1950–2008
This article presents long-term estimates of gross fixed capital formation, disaggregated by category of productive assets, for the period 1951–2008. These data, combined with approximations of probable average asset lives and a plausible asset retirement procedure, are used in a perpetual inventory method framework to estimate gross fixed capital stock in Indonesia for the years 1950–2008, disaggregated by productive asset category. Total capita…
Responses of Economic Systems to Environmental Change
Current discussions of climate change are overly focused on the science underpinning environmental impact, with little attention to socioeconomic consequences. The economics of environmental change in particular is insufficiently informed by the lessons that past experiences can yield. Drawing on case studies from Europe and Asia, this special issue underlines the importance of historical context, as well as markets, institutions, technology, and…
Market Responses to Climate Stress
Do markets in less‐developed countries abate consequences of climate stress? Using changes in regional rice prices across the 19 regions in Java, Indonesia, during 1935–40, this paper will assess how rice markets responded to variations in rainfall, which is an important factor in rice production. It finds that rice markets were highly integrated across Java. The El Niño‐induced episodes of lower than usual rainfall in 1935 and 1940 did not have …
Historical perspectives on Asian economic growth and development
The sources of long-term economic growth in Indonesia, 1880–2008
Networks and business development
This article uses social network analysis to examine accounting records in order to establish and analyse business relationships. It applies this methodology to accounting transactions recorded at Australia's first bank, the Bank of New South Wales (BNSW) in order to establish whether a business network existed among ex-convict businesspeople in Sydney during 1817–24. Uncertainty regarding distance from suppliers and credit facilities, lack of ma…
Credit and debt in Indonesia, 860-1930
In this issue
Peer-reviewed
Economics (29 works) · Political science (27 works) · Asian Studies and History (17 works) · Geography (16 works) · Business (15 works) · Law (12 works) · Sociology (11 works) · Economy (9 works) · Finance (9 works) · History (8 works)