{"title":"Minimum Wage and Employment of Malaysian Low-skilled Workers","authors":"Kek Jing Wen, Lai Wei Sieng","doi":"10.22452/mjes.vol60no2.6","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.22452/mjes.vol60no2.6","url":null,"abstract":"The current study is inspired by inconclusive empirical findings on the impacts of minimum wage on employment. The majority of past studies have concluded that an increase in the minimum wage negatively impacts employment, despite certain scholars discovering either an insignificant or a positive impact. Hence, this study aims to investigate the impact of the Malaysian minimum wage on the employment opportunities of low-skilled workers. The data are collected annually from 1995 to 2020. An autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) model is employed to examine the impact of the Malaysian minimum wage on the employment of low-skilled workers. The bounds test method and error correction model (ECM) are subsequently utilised to determine both short- and long-term effects. As a result, the employment of low-skilled labour is found to be positively impacted by the minimum wage, with this impact being statistically significant in both the short and long terms. However, when the interaction variables are included, the effect on the employment of low-skilled workers is negative and insignificant. Furthermore, neither increasing labour productivity nor technological advancement significantly altered the impact of the minimum wage on employment.","PeriodicalId":42743,"journal":{"name":"Malaysian Journal of Economic Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2023-12-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139162417","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Does the Founder CEO Receive a Higher Pay for the Firm’s Performance? Evidence from Malaysia","authors":"S. Foong, B. Lim","doi":"10.22452/mjes.vol60no1.1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.22452/mjes.vol60no1.1","url":null,"abstract":"This paper examines whether firms run by a founder chief executive officer (CEO) have higher pay and whether their power sources from chairing the board, remuneration committee, tenureship, or share ownership affect the pay-performance nexus. Data for the study was hand-collected amongst 362 family-owned firms listed in Bursa Malaysia from 2009 to 2015 and analysed via the generalized method of moments (GMM) system to address endogeneity. The results showed that initially there was a significant positive pay-performance relationship in Malaysian family-owned firms; however, the founder CEOs had a weak influence on the pay-performance nexus. Secondly, the founder CEOs’ influences on the pay-performance nexus mainly came from their ownership power and their structural power as the chairman of the board. Thirdly, the pay-performance nexus tended to be positive and stronger when the family member of the CEO was chairing the board of directors and remuneration committee, instead of themselves, but the relationship changed to negative when more independent directors sat on the board, including a remuneration committee. The findings offered some policy implications for the regulators to enhance corporate transparency on the directors’ remuneration and ownership.","PeriodicalId":42743,"journal":{"name":"Malaysian Journal of Economic Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2023-07-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46279841","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Supporting SMEs Financial Resilience during Crises: A Framework to Evaluate the Effectiveness of Financial Literacy Programs Targeting SMEs","authors":"Aassouli Dalal, Ahmed Mohamed Habib","doi":"10.22452/mjes.vol60no1.6","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.22452/mjes.vol60no1.6","url":null,"abstract":"Financing capital investments and working capital have been the key challenges for small businesses during and in the aftermath of the pandemic. Excessive indebtedness can increase the fragility of firms, particularly during times of uncertainty. While there are several programs globally that target entrepreneurs’ financial literacy, most of them do not take into consideration entrepreneurs’ financial resilience during and after crisis times such as pandemics. The objective of this paper is to discuss the status of financial literacy programs targeting entrepreneurs. This paper conducts a review of the relevant literature to establish the initial understanding and then generates a framework consisting of entrepreneurs’ financial literacy along with its components. This is done by carrying out qualitative content analysis of the various financial literacy initiatives targeting entrepreneurs in twenty countries globally to understand their target segments, scope, initiating organisations and limitations. The paper then suggests a framework for entrepreneurs’ financial education that takes into consideration financial resilience during and after crisis situations in general and pandemics in particular.","PeriodicalId":42743,"journal":{"name":"Malaysian Journal of Economic Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2023-07-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46839786","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Yusoff Saharudin, S. Law, Mohamed Nor Norashidah, Ismail Normaz Wana
{"title":"Effects of Government Expenditure on the Poverty Level: A Nonlinear ARDL Approach","authors":"Yusoff Saharudin, S. Law, Mohamed Nor Norashidah, Ismail Normaz Wana","doi":"10.22452/mjes.vol60no1.3","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.22452/mjes.vol60no1.3","url":null,"abstract":"The argument on the behaviour of government expenditure toward reducing the poverty level is still controversial among economists and policymakers. This study investigates the role of government development expenditure in alleviating poverty in Malaysia. The study employs a nonlinear autoregressive distributed lag (NARDL) model from 1970 to 2019 using annual time series data. The bounds test of the NARDL specification suggests the presence of cointegration among the variables, namely the poverty level, development expenditure, gross domestic product per capita, inflation rate, physical capital and human capital. The empirical findings demonstrate that an increase in development expenditure is an insignificant determinant of poverty, but the reductions in development expenditure significantly eradicate the poverty level in the long run. For robustness checks, the share of development expenditure on gross domestic product is used in the estimation. The findings show that all development expenditure has little to no impact on lowering poverty levels over the long and short runs. The Malaysian government should therefore consider how crucial it is to allocate public funds effectively and make sure that the emphasis on spreading development gains across all economic sectors must have an influence on the poverty level.","PeriodicalId":42743,"journal":{"name":"Malaysian Journal of Economic Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2023-07-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45136677","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Income Inequality, Income Growth and Government Redistribution in Malaysia: What Do We Know in the Long Run?","authors":"S. Goh, K. Wong, Ayupp Kartinah, You Wah Lai","doi":"10.22452/mjes.vol60no1.4","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.22452/mjes.vol60no1.4","url":null,"abstract":"Malaysia has a good track record of reducing income inequality, especially between ethnic groups. In recent years, increasing attention has been paid to national inequality – notably by targeting the bottom 40% income group while sustaining growth with inclusivity. This paper uses the latest cointegration technique, namely, the augmented autoregressive distributed lag (A-ARDL) to examine the long-run determinants of income inequality in Malaysia. The long-run results suggest that income inequality is negatively driven by real GDP per capita and government redistribution of income. The findings provide some possible policy implications that could reduce income inequality in the long run, in particular, through the enhancement of the quality and skills of the workforce, and the government’s benevolent role by using redistributive instruments such as progressive income tax and cash transfers to low-income groups.","PeriodicalId":42743,"journal":{"name":"Malaysian Journal of Economic Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2023-07-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46346131","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Does Local Risk Still Matter in the Highly Liberalised Emerging Market of Malaysia?","authors":"Ying-Yin Koay, C. Hooy","doi":"10.22452/mjes.vol60no1.7","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.22452/mjes.vol60no1.7","url":null,"abstract":"Since 2009, both foreign and local investors in the Malaysian equity market have faced a single set of rules, enjoyed equal access to the same set of financial instruments, and benefited from international levels of minority investor protection, thus fulfilling the conditions for full integration with the world market. Malaysia can be identified as a highly liberalised Asian emerging equity market that aligns with the definition of an “integrated market” in existing empirical studies. Using a sample dataset from 2009 to 2016, we test whether Malaysia, as a highly liberalised emerging equity market, is still subject to local market risk pricing, along with six other Asian emerging markets, including China, India, Indonesia, the Philippines, South Korea and Thailand. The results from our study show that both world and local market risk are still priced in Malaysia and other Asian emerging markets, leading to the conclusion that none of them are fully integrated into the world market. This suggests that there may be other implicit barriers affecting equity market integration in emerging markets.","PeriodicalId":42743,"journal":{"name":"Malaysian Journal of Economic Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2023-07-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42329411","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Nik Ab Rahim Nik Nor Rahimah, Othman Jamal, Mohd Salleh Norlida Hanim, Chamhuri Norshamliza, Sahrir Syazwani
{"title":"Including Public Realism in Determining New Pricing Scheme for Sanitary Landfill in Malaysia","authors":"Nik Ab Rahim Nik Nor Rahimah, Othman Jamal, Mohd Salleh Norlida Hanim, Chamhuri Norshamliza, Sahrir Syazwani","doi":"10.22452/mjes.vol60no1.5","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.22452/mjes.vol60no1.5","url":null,"abstract":"Financial restriction and excessive demand for solid waste disposal is a press-ing issue in developing countries. Neglecting this problem can worsen environmental damage and endanger public health. To address this challenge, this study investigated the influence of social factors on the willingness to pay for a sanitary landfill in Malaysia using choice modelling. Focusing on neighbouring districts, Kota Bharu and Bachok, where households share a crude-dumping landfill, the study collected data from 624 respondents. The findings revealed a common preference among respondents for a sanitary landfill attribute related to controlled disease vectors, with willingness to pay ranging from RM10.66 to RM13.33 per month. Interestingly, despite experiencing adverse effects from the crude-dumping landfill, respondents from Bachok still showed a preference for it. This preference could be influenced by lower mean incomes among Bachok residents who live closer to the landfill site compared to respondents in Kota Bharu. To address these dynamics, implementing cross-subsidies by charging higher prices to households in Kota Bharu and lower prices to households in Bachok could facilitate the successful implementation of the sanitary landfill. These results can inform other developing countries by highlighting the importance of considering the local social context when designing sustainable solid waste policies.","PeriodicalId":42743,"journal":{"name":"Malaysian Journal of Economic Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2023-07-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46131680","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Comparing Elicitation Methods of Risk Preferences in Personal Financial Planning: A Field Experiment among Working Adults in Malaysia","authors":"K. Ch’ng, Phaik Nie Chin, Suzanna A. Bono","doi":"10.22452/mjes.vol60no1.2","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.22452/mjes.vol60no1.2","url":null,"abstract":"Risk preference is an important input in designing investment types or port-folios in personal finance. Although there are many reported risk elicitation methods, the risk preference measure obtained from these methods has not been associated with any behavioural or psychological reasons underlying the choices made. This association is important in providing the underlying theoretical understanding of risk preferences and establishing the robustness of a measure. The present paper attempted to test the consistency of risk preferences between two widely used elicitation methods: Grable and Lytton (1999, 2003) risk tolerance score and probability weighting function in prospect theory (Kahneman & Tversky, 1979; Tversky & Kahneman, 1992). The risk score captures the self-reported willingness to engage in risky investment, and the probability weighting function shows overweighting or underweighting of the probability. We conducted a series of field experiments involving working adults of three main ethnic groups in Malaysia. The results showed consistency in risk preferences between the two methods: high willingness to engage in risk was complemented by optimistic probability weighting, and respondents with low willingness to engage in risky investment evaluated high probability more favourably. The study is useful to financial professionals when implementing the questionnaire to measure risk preferences.","PeriodicalId":42743,"journal":{"name":"Malaysian Journal of Economic Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2023-07-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47973069","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Too Much Debt and Budget Deficit on Fiscal Sustainability: Do Institutions Matter?","authors":"Cahyadin Malik, S. Tamat, Khalid Norlin, S. Law","doi":"10.22452/mjes.vol59no2.5","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.22452/mjes.vol59no2.5","url":null,"abstract":"The current study estimates threshold levels of the public debt-to-gross domestic product (GDP) ratio and the budget deficit for 106 developing and 36 developed countries from 1996 to 2018. A PCA-based fiscal sustainability indicator is also constructed and a dynamic panel threshold regression is employed. The main findings reveal a threshold effect in the public debt-to-GDP ratio and budget deficit fiscal sustainability nexus. The public debt-to-GDP ratio and budget deficit are beneficial in maintaining fiscal sustainability at lower or upper threshold levels in different institutional indicators. The highest threshold level of the public debt-to-GDP ratio was 59.56% for developed countries and 64.87% for developing countries. The highest threshold level of budget deficit-to-GDP ratio was 0.41% for developed countries and 3.34% for developing countries. Three institutional indicators contribute significantly to the threshold estimation: regulatory quality, the rule of law and control of corruption. Policymakers are advised to maintain certain threshold points to ensure a fiscally sustainable level. The quality of law enforcement and control of corruption should also be improved.","PeriodicalId":42743,"journal":{"name":"Malaysian Journal of Economic Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2022-12-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46576798","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Political Connection Types and Corporate Tax Avoidance: Evidence from Malaysia","authors":"C. Tee, Teng Tenk Teoh, C. Hooy","doi":"10.22452/mjes.vol59no2.2","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.22452/mjes.vol59no2.2","url":null,"abstract":"This study examines whether dissimilar types of politically connected firms (PCFs) are related to corporate tax avoidance. Additionally, it investigates whether this association is moderated by chief executive officer (CEO) shareholding and institutional ownership. Using the dataset of Malaysian public listed companies from 2002 till 2018, our findings suggest that PCFs are associated with higher corporate tax avoidance which is largely driven by older PCFs and government-linked companies (GLCs). Further analyses reveal that the association between older PCFs and GLCs and higher corporate tax avoidance is stronger in firms with higher CEO shareholding and institutional ownership.","PeriodicalId":42743,"journal":{"name":"Malaysian Journal of Economic Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2022-12-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47076076","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}