Dr Nurina Merdikawati (Dika) is a Lecturer at the Indonesia Project, Crawford School of Public Policy. Dika is an applied microeconomist, and her primary research area is development economics, focusing on the economics of labour and gender. She has published a number of journal articles, book chapters, and books, such as in World Bank Economic Review and Journal of Development Studies. While her research primarily focuses on Indonesia, she has also conducted studies on Australia, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, Vietnam, and Malaysia.

Dika earned a BA (Hons) in Economics from Nanyang Technological University, an MPP from the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore, and a PhD in Economics from the Crawford School of Public Policy at the Australian National University. Prior to joining the ANU Indonesia Project, she was a Research Fellow at the Global Institute for Women’s Leadership (GIWL) and a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL) Southeast Asia.

Her ongoing research explores the impact of women in politics, government programs and policies that change gender norms and improve women’s labour market outcomes, and social assistance.

Before pursuing her PhD, Dika worked as a consultant for ADB and JANCPEC, a contributor to the Economist Intelligence Unit, a Research Associate at NUS and INSEAD, and taught at Keming Primary School.

Research interest

- Women in politics

- Impact evaluation of government policies and programs

- Women’s labour market outcomes