Universitas Gadjah Mada
Faculty of Economics and Business

Undergraduate students of Faculty of Economics and Business UGM won the first winner in an essay writing competition at "Indonesia Economic Outlook (IEO) 2019" organized by Faculty of Economics and Business Universitas Indonesia (FEB UI) on 10-14 November 2018. This year's Indonesia Economic Outlook (IEO) is the 13th, with a theme "Election Year: A New Era of Indonesia’s Economic Triumph."

The competition was followed by 16 finalists from various universities in Indonesia and attended the final round at Universitas Indonesia. The teams that managed to continue to the next stage were Universitas Gadjah Mada and Universitas Indonesia. Ega Kurnia Yazid (Economics, 2015) and Herman Palani (Economics, 2015) joined the team named Ceteris Paribus, who represent FEB UGM successfully qualified for the final round and took home the first champion in that competition. The title of the essay was "Cooling Down The Hot: Inovasi Integrasi Kebijakan Dalam Meredam Ketidakpastian Nilai Tukar Rupiah."

The paper contained a recent policy evaluation and gave a suggestion for policy recommendation for next year. Ega dan Herman focused on the problem of exchange rate volatility that was not managed kindly. Therefore, the alternative policy is needed to create a more stabilize the exchange rate volatility. The suggested recommendation was Tobin Tax Policy on the financial transaction (hot money) which could swift the outflow of capital in short term. In several countries, Tobin Tax has been imposed by the government to reduce exchange rate volatility or even as the alternative to increase tax revenue.

At the last, eventually team FEB UGM won the 1st prize winner and Team 1 University of Indonesia won the 2nd prize and Team 2 University of Indonesia won 3rd prize.

Source: Herman Palani