Lisa Cameron
Biographic Data
| ID | 3605467 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Lisa Cameron |
| GIVEN NAMES | Lisa |
| FAMILY NAME | Cameron |
| SIGNATURE | CAMERON L |
| AFFILIATIONS | The University of Melbourne |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-7539-2198 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 33 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 129 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 33 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1999 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 8 |
Talking in Timor‐Leste: Urbanization, Peer Input, and Other Influences on Children's Verbal Environments
Children's early experiences with language are influenced by socioeconomic and cultural factors that vary greatly across societies. By expanding the geographical diversity of language acquisition studies, researchers are able to answer broader questions about mechanisms linking children's speech input to their learning process. We present a large-scale study of 277 children between 11 and 58 months old growing up in Timor-Leste, an island nation …
Leveraging women’s views to influence gendered attitudes to women working: Evidence from an online intervention in Indonesia
How to influence gendered attitudes that limit women’s participation in employment is not well understood. We provide randomly selected participants in Indonesia with information on the extent of (i) wives’ support for women with children working; (ii) husbands’ support for sharing day-to-day childcare; and (iii) mothers’ and mothers-in-law’s support for working women. As a result, the probability of participants choosing an online career mentori…
Women's Transitions in the Labor Market and Childbearing: The Challenges of Formal Sector Employment in Indonesia
It is well established that women's labor force participation drops markedly with marriage and childbearing, however, little is known about women's labor market transitions, especially in developing countries. This article uses the Indonesian Family Life Survey to track the employment histories of over 5000 women for more than 20 years, observing women as they get married and have children. The data show that large numbers of Indonesian women dro…
Leveraging Women’s Views to Influence Gender Norms around Women Working: Evidence from an Online Intervention in Indonesia
How to influence social norms that drive behavior in relation to women’s participation in employment is not well understood. Providing randomly selected participants with information on the extent of (i) women’s support for women with children working; (ii) husband’s support for sharing day-to-day childcare with wives; and (iii) mothers’ and mother-in-law’s support for working women, increased the probability of choosing an online career mentorin…
Gender Equality and Diversity in Indonesia: Identifying Progress and Challenges
This collection of essays from the annual Indonesia Update conference held at the Australian National University in 2022 is a sequel to a volume published 22 years ago. Women in Indonesia: Gender
Gender Equality and Development: Indonesia in a Global Context
Gender equality in Indonesia is approximately at the level you would expect given the country’s level of development. Indonesia has more gender inequality than some neighbouring countries and less than others; and less than in the vast majority of Muslim-majority nations worldwide, regardless of level of income. Women’s economic participation is, however, low relative to Indonesia’s level of development. Female labour force participation is low a…
The dirty business of eliminating open defecation: The effect of village sanitation on child height from field experiments in four countries
We examine the impacts of a sanitation program designed to eliminate open defecation in at-scale randomized field experiments in four countries: India, Indonesia, Mali, and Tanzania. The programs - all variants of the widely-used Community-Led Total Sanitation (CLTS) approach - increase village private sanitation coverage in all four locations by 7-39 percentage points. We use the experimentally-induced variation in access to sanitation to identi…
Theoretical Underpinnings and Meta-analysis of the Effects of Cash Transfers on Intimate Partner Violence in Low- and Middle-Income Countries
The number of studies examining the effects of cash transfer (CT) programs on Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) has rapidly grown over the last decade. Depending on how violence is modelled, CTs could either increase, decrease or have an ambiguous effect on violence. This paper provides a survey of the theoretical and quantitative empirical literature on the effects of CTs on IPV. We place the existing theories in the context of an overarching mode…
Relationship between water and sanitation and maternal health: Evidence from Indonesia
Childhood stunting and cognitive effects of water and sanitation in Indonesia
Conditional Cash Transfers: Do They Result in More Patient Choices and Increased Educational Aspirations
Conditional cash transfers (CCTs) aim to increase human capital in poor families. They do this directly through conditions but may also influence household decision-making in other ways. Using a regression discontinuity design, we test whether a large CCT program affects discounting choices and aspirations for children’s education. A greater willingness to defer consumption and desire to invest in education may result from habits formed during th…
China's Sex Ratio and Crime: Behavioural Change or Financial Necessity
This article uses survey and experimental data from prison inmates and comparable non-inmates to examine the drivers of rising criminality in China. We find that China's high sex ratios are associated with greater risk-taking, greater impatience and greater neuroticism amongst males. These underlying behavioural impacts explain some part of the increase in criminality. The primary avenue through which the sex ratio increases crime, however, is th…
Female Labour Force Participation in Indonesia: Why Has it Stalled
This paper examines and disentangles the factors that have led to the largely unchanged participation (about 51%) of women in Indonesia’s labour force in the past two decades. We use data from the National Socio-economic Survey (Susenas) and Village Potential Statistics (Podes) from 1996 to 2013 in order to conduct a cohort analysis that distinguishes the effects of time and age on female labour force participation. We find that the raw labour ma…
Scaling up sanitation: Evidence from an RCT in Indonesia
We investigate the impacts of a widely used sanitation intervention, Community-Led Total Sanitation, which was implemented at scale across rural areas of Indonesia with a randomized controlled trial to evaluate its effectiveness. The program resulted in modest increases in toilet construction, decreased community tolerance of open defecation and reduced roundworm infestations in children. However, there was no impact on anemia, height or weight. …
Present Value
The present value of a series of future cash flows differs from the sum of those future cash flows.
Expected Present Value
When calculating the present value of future cash flows, it is important to consider whether these cash flows are definite or uncertain.
Risk-Taking Behavior in the Wake of Natural Disasters
We investigate whether experiencing a natural disaster affects risk-taking behavior. We conduct standard risk games (using real money) with randomly selected individuals in rural Indonesia. We find that individuals who recently suffered a flood or earthquake exhibit more risk aversion. Experiencing a natural disaster causes people to perceive that they now face a greater risk of a future disaster. We conclude that this change in perception of bac…
The double burden of malnutrition in SE Asia and the Pacific: Priorities, policies and politics
The double burden of malnutrition is defined by the co-existence of serious levels of under- and overnutrition.(1) Nowhere have overweight rates risen as fast as in the regions of South East Asia and the Pacific. The regions are also burdened with high and often stagnant levels of undernutrition. For countries for which data are available, the regions contain nearly half of the individuals, world wide, suffering from a double burden of malnutriti…
Can Mistargeting Destroy Social Capital and Stimulate Crime? Evidence from a Cash Transfer Program in Indonesia
Cash transfer programs can provide important financial support for poor households in developing countries and are becoming increasingly common. However the potential for mistargeting of program funds is high. This article focuses on the social consequences arising from misallocation of resources in close-knit communities. We find that the mistargeting of a cash transfer program in Indonesia had significant negative social consequences. The preva…
Little Emperors: Behavioral Impacts of China's One-Child Policy
Assessing Singletons The one-child policy introduced by the government of China in 1979 increased the proportion of urban families with an only child; later referred to as "little emperors" in media reports. In 2010, Cameron et al. (p. 953 , published online 10 January) recruited approximately 400 residents of Beijing who had been born either before the implementation of the policy (1975 and 1978) or after (1980 and 1983). Using economic games to…
Gender, Culture, and Corruption: Insights from an Experimental Analysis
A substantial body of recent research looks at differences in the behavior of men and women in diverse economic transactions. We contribute to this literature by investigating gender differences in behavior when confronted with a common bribery problem. Our study departs from the previous literature on gender and corruption by using economic experiments. Based on data collected in Australia (Melbourne), India (Delhi), Indonesia (Jakarta), and Sin…
Is the relationship between socioeconomic status and health stronger for older children in developing countries
Recent research on the relationship between child health and income in developed countries reveals a positive gradient that is more pronounced for older children, suggesting that the impact of income upon health accumulates. This article examines whether the same is true in a developing country. Using data from the Indonesian Family Life Survey on children aged 0 to 14 years, we find that although low income adversely affects health, its impact d…
The Impact of Minimum Wages on Employment in a Low-Income Country: A Quasi-Natural Experiment in Indonesia
The extensive literature on the employment impact of minimum wages has focused heavily on industrialized nations and very little on the developing world, despite the importance of minimum wages in many low-income countries. One such country, Indonesia, was the setting for an unusual quasi-natural experiment: not only did minimum wages in Indonesia increase sharply between 1990 and 1996, but the resultant increment in average wages varied markedly…
Economic Geography and Wages
This paper estimates the agglomeration benefits that arise from vertical linkages between firms in the context of Indonesia. The analysis is based on international trade and economic geography theory developed by Krugman and Venables (1995). We identify the agglomeration benefits off the spatial variation in firm level nominal wages. Unusually detailed intermediate input data allow us to more accurately capture spatial input/output linkages than …
Do coresidency and financial transfers from the children reduce the need for elderly parents to works in developing countries
China's Sex Ratio and Crime: Behavioural Change or Financial Necessity
This article uses survey and experimental data from prison inmates and comparable non-inmates to examine the drivers of rising criminality in China. We find that China's high sex ratios are associated with greater risk-taking, greater impatience and greater neuroticism amongst males. These underlying behavioural impacts explain some part of the increase in criminality. The primary avenue through which the sex ratio increases crime, however, is th…
The residency decision of elderly indonesians: A nested logit analysis
This paper is the first study of which the author is aware that examines elderly Indonesians’ residency decisions. The 1993 Indonesian Family Life Survey provides detailed data on the living children of a sample of elderly individuals. This allows a nested logit to be estimated, which pays due respect to the role of children’s characteristics in determining the residency outcome. The estimated earnings potentials of the parents and their children…
Education and Labor Market Participation of Women in Asia: Evidence from Five Countries
Female Labour Force Participation in Indonesia: Why Has it Stalled
This paper examines and disentangles the factors that have led to the largely unchanged participation (about 51%) of women in Indonesia’s labour force in the past two decades. We use data from the National Socio-economic Survey (Susenas) and Village Potential Statistics (Podes) from 1996 to 2013 in order to conduct a cohort analysis that distinguishes the effects of time and age on female labour force participation. We find that the raw labour ma…
Do coresidency and financial transfers from the children reduce the need for elderly parents to works in developing countries
Scaling up sanitation: Evidence from an RCT in Indonesia
We investigate the impacts of a widely used sanitation intervention, Community-Led Total Sanitation, which was implemented at scale across rural areas of Indonesia with a randomized controlled trial to evaluate its effectiveness. The program resulted in modest increases in toilet construction, decreased community tolerance of open defecation and reduced roundworm infestations in children. However, there was no impact on anemia, height or weight. …
Can Mistargeting Destroy Social Capital and Stimulate Crime? Evidence from a Cash Transfer Program in Indonesia
Cash transfer programs can provide important financial support for poor households in developing countries and are becoming increasingly common. However the potential for mistargeting of program funds is high. This article focuses on the social consequences arising from misallocation of resources in close-knit communities. We find that the mistargeting of a cash transfer program in Indonesia had significant negative social consequences. The preva…
Is the relationship between socioeconomic status and health stronger for older children in developing countries
Recent research on the relationship between child health and income in developed countries reveals a positive gradient that is more pronounced for older children, suggesting that the impact of income upon health accumulates. This article examines whether the same is true in a developing country. Using data from the Indonesian Family Life Survey on children aged 0 to 14 years, we find that although low income adversely affects health, its impact d…
Education Expenditure Responses to Crop Loss in Indonesia: A Gender Bias
The Impact of Minimum Wages on Employment in a Low-Income Country: A Quasi-Natural Experiment in Indonesia
The extensive literature on the employment impact of minimum wages has focused heavily on industrialized nations and very little on the developing world, despite the importance of minimum wages in many low-income countries. One such country, Indonesia, was the setting for an unusual quasi-natural experiment: not only did minimum wages in Indonesia increase sharply between 1990 and 1996, but the resultant increment in average wages varied markedly…
Poverty and inequality in Java: Examining the impact of the changing age, educational and industrial structure
The dirty business of eliminating open defecation: The effect of village sanitation on child height from field experiments in four countries
We examine the impacts of a sanitation program designed to eliminate open defecation in at-scale randomized field experiments in four countries: India, Indonesia, Mali, and Tanzania. The programs - all variants of the widely-used Community-Led Total Sanitation (CLTS) approach - increase village private sanitation coverage in all four locations by 7-39 percentage points. We use the experimentally-induced variation in access to sanitation to identi…
Conditional Cash Transfers: Do They Result in More Patient Choices and Increased Educational Aspirations
Conditional cash transfers (CCTs) aim to increase human capital in poor families. They do this directly through conditions but may also influence household decision-making in other ways. Using a regression discontinuity design, we test whether a large CCT program affects discounting choices and aspirations for children’s education. A greater willingness to defer consumption and desire to invest in education may result from habits formed during th…
The double burden of malnutrition in SE Asia and the Pacific: Priorities, policies and politics
The double burden of malnutrition is defined by the co-existence of serious levels of under- and overnutrition.(1) Nowhere have overweight rates risen as fast as in the regions of South East Asia and the Pacific. The regions are also burdened with high and often stagnant levels of undernutrition. For countries for which data are available, the regions contain nearly half of the individuals, world wide, suffering from a double burden of malnutriti…
Female Education and Child Mortality in Indonesia
This paper uses a sample of 6620 women from the 1994 Indonesian Demographic and Health Survey to examine the relationship between female education and child mortality in Indonesia. Female education is measured in terms of both years of education and literacy. Both primary education and secondary schooling significantly decrease the probability of child death, while literacy plays an insignificant role. When the sample is divided into urban and ru…
Gender Equality and Development: Indonesia in a Global Context
Gender equality in Indonesia is approximately at the level you would expect given the country’s level of development. Indonesia has more gender inequality than some neighbouring countries and less than others; and less than in the vast majority of Muslim-majority nations worldwide, regardless of level of income. Women’s economic participation is, however, low relative to Indonesia’s level of development. Female labour force participation is low a…
Relationship between water and sanitation and maternal health: Evidence from Indonesia
The Impact of the Indonesian Financial Crisis on Children: An Analysis Using the 100 Villages Data
This paper examines the impact of the Asian financial crisis on children in Indonesia. Specifically, data from four rounds of the 100 Villages Survey are used to examine changes in school attendance rates, child labour force participation and health status. The paper also examines ways in which households are coping with the crisis. The findings provide little evidence that the crisis has had a dramatic negative impact on children. School attenda…
Raising the Stakes in the Ultimatum Game: Experimental Evidence From Indonesia
The ultimatum game has generated considerable interest because experimental evidence strongly rejects the standard game‐theoretic predictions. A limitation to this general result is the possibility that experimental results are an artifact of small stakes. Implementing the ultimatum game in Indonesia makes it possible to raise the stakes to three times the monthly expenditure of the average participant. Even with these sizable incentives, results…
Survey of Recent Developments
Additional informationNotes on contributorsLisa CameronThis Survey has been compiled with the generous assistance of Professor Jamie Mackie, who is mainly responsible for the sections on social and political developments and the people's economy. I also thank Chris Manning for providing the real wage graphs, Peter Gardiner for his comments on the section on the social impact of the crisis and all others who provided information and comments
Female Education and Child Mortality in Indonesia
This paper uses a sample of 6620 women from the 1994 Indonesian Demographic and Health Survey to examine the relationship between female education and child mortality in Indonesia. Female education is measured in terms of both years of education and literacy. Both primary education and secondary schooling significantly decrease the probability of child death, while literacy plays an insignificant role. When the sample is divided into urban and ru…
Poverty and inequality in Java: Examining the impact of the changing age, educational and industrial structure
The residency decision of elderly indonesians: A nested logit analysis
This paper is the first study of which the author is aware that examines elderly Indonesians’ residency decisions. The 1993 Indonesian Family Life Survey provides detailed data on the living children of a sample of elderly individuals. This allows a nested logit to be estimated, which pays due respect to the role of children’s characteristics in determining the residency outcome. The estimated earnings potentials of the parents and their children…
The Impact of the Indonesian Financial Crisis on Children: An Analysis Using the 100 Villages Data
This paper examines the impact of the Asian financial crisis on children in Indonesia. Specifically, data from four rounds of the 100 Villages Survey are used to examine changes in school attendance rates, child labour force participation and health status. The paper also examines ways in which households are coping with the crisis. The findings provide little evidence that the crisis has had a dramatic negative impact on children. School attenda…
Education Expenditure Responses to Crop Loss in Indonesia: A Gender Bias
Education and Labor Market Participation of Women in Asia: Evidence from Five Countries
Do coresidency and financial transfers from the children reduce the need for elderly parents to works in developing countries
Economic Geography and Wages
This paper estimates the agglomeration benefits that arise from vertical linkages between firms in the context of Indonesia. The analysis is based on international trade and economic geography theory developed by Krugman and Venables (1995). We identify the agglomeration benefits off the spatial variation in firm level nominal wages. Unusually detailed intermediate input data allow us to more accurately capture spatial input/output linkages than …
The Impact of Minimum Wages on Employment in a Low-Income Country: A Quasi-Natural Experiment in Indonesia
The extensive literature on the employment impact of minimum wages has focused heavily on industrialized nations and very little on the developing world, despite the importance of minimum wages in many low-income countries. One such country, Indonesia, was the setting for an unusual quasi-natural experiment: not only did minimum wages in Indonesia increase sharply between 1990 and 1996, but the resultant increment in average wages varied markedly…
Gender, Culture, and Corruption: Insights from an Experimental Analysis
A substantial body of recent research looks at differences in the behavior of men and women in diverse economic transactions. We contribute to this literature by investigating gender differences in behavior when confronted with a common bribery problem. Our study departs from the previous literature on gender and corruption by using economic experiments. Based on data collected in Australia (Melbourne), India (Delhi), Indonesia (Jakarta), and Sin…
Is the relationship between socioeconomic status and health stronger for older children in developing countries
Recent research on the relationship between child health and income in developed countries reveals a positive gradient that is more pronounced for older children, suggesting that the impact of income upon health accumulates. This article examines whether the same is true in a developing country. Using data from the Indonesian Family Life Survey on children aged 0 to 14 years, we find that although low income adversely affects health, its impact d…
Little Emperors: Behavioral Impacts of China's One-Child Policy
Assessing Singletons The one-child policy introduced by the government of China in 1979 increased the proportion of urban families with an only child; later referred to as "little emperors" in media reports. In 2010, Cameron et al. (p. 953 , published online 10 January) recruited approximately 400 residents of Beijing who had been born either before the implementation of the policy (1975 and 1978) or after (1980 and 1983). Using economic games to…
Can Mistargeting Destroy Social Capital and Stimulate Crime? Evidence from a Cash Transfer Program in Indonesia
Cash transfer programs can provide important financial support for poor households in developing countries and are becoming increasingly common. However the potential for mistargeting of program funds is high. This article focuses on the social consequences arising from misallocation of resources in close-knit communities. We find that the mistargeting of a cash transfer program in Indonesia had significant negative social consequences. The preva…
Present Value
The present value of a series of future cash flows differs from the sum of those future cash flows.
Expected Present Value
When calculating the present value of future cash flows, it is important to consider whether these cash flows are definite or uncertain.
Risk-Taking Behavior in the Wake of Natural Disasters
We investigate whether experiencing a natural disaster affects risk-taking behavior. We conduct standard risk games (using real money) with randomly selected individuals in rural Indonesia. We find that individuals who recently suffered a flood or earthquake exhibit more risk aversion. Experiencing a natural disaster causes people to perceive that they now face a greater risk of a future disaster. We conclude that this change in perception of bac…
The double burden of malnutrition in SE Asia and the Pacific: Priorities, policies and politics
The double burden of malnutrition is defined by the co-existence of serious levels of under- and overnutrition.(1) Nowhere have overweight rates risen as fast as in the regions of South East Asia and the Pacific. The regions are also burdened with high and often stagnant levels of undernutrition. For countries for which data are available, the regions contain nearly half of the individuals, world wide, suffering from a double burden of malnutriti…
Scaling up sanitation: Evidence from an RCT in Indonesia
We investigate the impacts of a widely used sanitation intervention, Community-Led Total Sanitation, which was implemented at scale across rural areas of Indonesia with a randomized controlled trial to evaluate its effectiveness. The program resulted in modest increases in toilet construction, decreased community tolerance of open defecation and reduced roundworm infestations in children. However, there was no impact on anemia, height or weight. …
China's Sex Ratio and Crime: Behavioural Change or Financial Necessity
This article uses survey and experimental data from prison inmates and comparable non-inmates to examine the drivers of rising criminality in China. We find that China's high sex ratios are associated with greater risk-taking, greater impatience and greater neuroticism amongst males. These underlying behavioural impacts explain some part of the increase in criminality. The primary avenue through which the sex ratio increases crime, however, is th…
Female Labour Force Participation in Indonesia: Why Has it Stalled
This paper examines and disentangles the factors that have led to the largely unchanged participation (about 51%) of women in Indonesia’s labour force in the past two decades. We use data from the National Socio-economic Survey (Susenas) and Village Potential Statistics (Podes) from 1996 to 2013 in order to conduct a cohort analysis that distinguishes the effects of time and age on female labour force participation. We find that the raw labour ma…
Childhood stunting and cognitive effects of water and sanitation in Indonesia
Conditional Cash Transfers: Do They Result in More Patient Choices and Increased Educational Aspirations
Conditional cash transfers (CCTs) aim to increase human capital in poor families. They do this directly through conditions but may also influence household decision-making in other ways. Using a regression discontinuity design, we test whether a large CCT program affects discounting choices and aspirations for children’s education. A greater willingness to defer consumption and desire to invest in education may result from habits formed during th…
Theoretical Underpinnings and Meta-analysis of the Effects of Cash Transfers on Intimate Partner Violence in Low- and Middle-Income Countries
The number of studies examining the effects of cash transfer (CT) programs on Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) has rapidly grown over the last decade. Depending on how violence is modelled, CTs could either increase, decrease or have an ambiguous effect on violence. This paper provides a survey of the theoretical and quantitative empirical literature on the effects of CTs on IPV. We place the existing theories in the context of an overarching mode…
Economics (25 works) · Economic growth (14 works) · Poverty, Education, and Child Welfare (14 works) · Gender, Labor, and Family Dynamics (12 works) · Political science (12 works) · Demographic economics (11 works) · Medicine (11 works) · Geography (10 works) · Sociology (10 works) · Developing country (9 works)