Does the Indonesian Village Fund stimulate rural development?

Since the establishment of Indonesia’s Village Law in 2014, the village, as the lowest tier of regional government in Indonesia, has the autonomy to regulate its budget. A mandate of the Village Law is implementing the Village Fund program. As stated in the law, the objective of the Village Fund program is to improve the welfare and equity of village development. This research paper analyses the impact of the Village Fund on rural development in Simalungun District, in North Sumatera Province, which has significant economic potential. This empirical design relies on a difference-in-difference approach and panel data for 386 villages from 2014 to 2018. The Village Development index reflects rural development. The result indicates that Village Fund partially impacted the village development status by improving the quality of infrastructure and enhancing village government administration.