Finance, Institutions and Economic Growth

Using data from 72 countries for the period 1978-2000, we find that financial development has larger effects on growth when the financial system is embedded within a sound institutional framework. This is particularly true for poor countries, where more finance without sound institutions is likely to fail in delivering more growth. For these countries, we find that improvements in institutions are likely to deliver much larger direct effects on growth than financial development itself. They are also likely to have positive indirect effects through the financial system, particularly when the latter is already providing large amounts of credit to the private sector. We also find that financial development is most potent in delivering extra growth in middle-income countries. Its effects are particularly large when institutional quality is high. Institutional improvements can also deliver more growth in these countries, especially when the financial system is well developed. Finally, we also find that while the effects of financial development in high-income countries are much smaller than in middle-income countries, even in these countries financial development has larger effects on growth when institutional quality is high.

Openness, Institutions and Financial Development

Using dynamic panel data techniques and data from 43 developing countries during 1980 – 2001, we provide evidence which suggests that openness and institutions are important determinants of financial development. Openness, in terms of trade and capital flows, is particularly potent in promoting financial development in middle-income countries, but much weaker in low-income countries. Our findings are robust to alternative measures of financial and trade openness, as well as estimation method and sample period.

Property crime and macroeconomic variables in Malaysia: Some empirical evidence from a vector error-correction model

In this study we investigated the long-run relationship between property crime and three macro-financial economic variables in Malaysia for the period 1973 to 2003. In order to avoid what the econometrician term as ‘spurious regression problem’ we estimate the model using the vector-error correction (VECM) framework. The results tend to suggest that there are long-run relationship between property crime and the three macroeconomic variables in Malaysia. Our VECM results, however, suggest that there is no long-run and short-run causal effect of the three macro-variables on the property crime. Nevertheless, our variance decomposition results indicate that property crime in Malaysia is affect by economic growth measure by real income per capita. But, given the short sample nature of this study, our results should be viewed with cautious.property crime; Malaysia; vectot error-correction model

THE ROLE OF FINANCIAL DEVELOPMENT ON INCOME INEQUALITY IN MALAYSIA

This study examines the role of financial development in influencing income inequality in Malaysia over the period of 1980-2000. The empirical results based on ARDL bounds test indicate that financial market development is, at best, very weak and statistically insignificant in reducing income inequality in Malaysia. The evidence is valid for a variety of financial indicators, including the banking sector, the stock market and financial aggregate variables. The evidence also highlights that besides various government¡¯s development programs, efforts should also concentrate on improving institutional quality, economic development and maintaining low inflation in its attempt to combat income inequality.Banking Sector, Capital Market, Financial Development, Income Inequality, ARDL Bounds Test

Dynamic linkages among price indices and type of inflation in Malaysia

This study examines the dynamic linkages among consumer price, producer price, industrial production and import price indices in Malaysia using monthly data from 2005 to 2011. The empirical results based on the Johansen multivariate cointegration test reveal that there is a long-run relationship among these indices. The long-run estimations indicate that industrial production and import price are statistically significant determinants of consumer price index, which indicate the phenomenon of demand-pull and international transmission or imported inflation in the long-run. However, the higher producer price is associated with higher inflation or cost-push inflation in the short-run

Financial Liberalisation and Breaks in Stock Market Volatility

This paper proposes a new statistical procedure which aims at providing robust estimates of volatility around official liberalisation dates, by using data driven techniques to identify the number and timing of structural breaks in the variance dynamics of stock market returns. The paper illustrates the usefulness of the procedure by providing an empirical application that focuses on five East Asian emerging markets, all of which liberalised their financial markets in the late 1980s or early 1990s, namely (South) Korea, Malaysia, Philippines, Taiwan and Thailand. It is shown that (i) the detected breakdates in the volatility of stock market returns do not correspond to official liberalisation dates and (ii) the use of official liberalisation dates as breakdates is likely to result in inaccurate inference. By using data driven techniques to detect multiple structural changes a richer - and inevitably more accurate - pattern of volatility dynamics emerges in comparison to focussing on official liberalisation dates.

Institutional quality and CO2 emission–trade relations: evidence from Sub‐Saharan Africa

This paper examines the roles of trade, institutional quality and their interactions in explaining carbon dioxide emissions in a panel sample of 40 Sub‐Sahara African countries using the system generalised method of moments. We find that institutional reforms are unequivocally environmental improving. Meanwhile, the impacts of trade on the environment tend to depend on the institutional setting of a country. More specifically, trade openness is harmful to the environment in countries with low institutional quality and beneficial to the environment in countries with high institutional quality. This means that institutional reforms are a perquisite for the countries with low institutional quality to actualise the beneficial environment effect of trade. As for the countries with adequate institutional quality, trade and institutions are reinforcing each other in bringing down pollution. From these results, we conclude that trade openness implemented in a sound institutional setting potentially brings better trade, more growth and better environment

Dynamic linkages between price indices and inflation in Malaysia

This study examines the dynamic linkages among consumer price, producer price, industrial production and import price indices in Malaysia by using monthly data from 2005 to 2013. The empirical results based on Johansen multivariate cointegration test reveal that there is a long-run relationship among these indices. The long-run estimations indicate that industrial production and import prices are statistically significant determinants of consumer price index, which indicates that Malaysian inflation is due to demand-pull and international transmission, or imported inflation in the long-run. However, the higher producer price is associated with higher inflation or cost-push inflation in the short-run

ARDL bound test approach for co-integration between FDI, human capital and innovation activities

FDI can be beneficial in term of creating spillover in the hosts’ country, but there is no direct evidence to confirm that FDI affects innovation activities in Malaysia. Innovation means fresh thinking and approaches that add value to consistently create wealth and social welfare. This study examines the effect of inward FDI and human capital on innovative activities thus to provide an evidence on the interaction term between inward FDI and human capital using the ARDL bound test approach. The results show that inward FDI is negatively related with the innovation activities in the short run but is positively related in the long run. The presence of the human capital as an absorptive tool helps in mediating the effects of inward FDI on innovative activities in Malaysia. Meanwhile, it suggests that the injection of inward FDI require human capital to facilitate the innovation process in order to enhance the innovation capacity. To raise the contribution of inward FDI and human capital on innovative activities, there is a need to shift from the old trend assembly of goods and products into the knowledge-based economy that concentrates on research, knowledge and skills