Regional development programmes and poverty reduction in East Coast states of Malaysia

Regional disparities can be found in Malaysia. The Central Region can be considered as a developed region; while Sabah and the states in the Eastern Region,the least developed. Such disparities exist not only in the form of income, but also in terms of social welfare. It is then important to highlight the problems related to poverty in the poorer states of Malaysia. Many regional programs which involve a lot of resources have been carried out in every Malaysian plan. One of its aims is to eradicate poverty among the poor. In the same vein, the objective of this paper is to analyze the implication of regional development programs in reducing poverty. This paper made use of the Household Income Survey (HIS) for 1999 and 2004 data to calculate the relevant indexes to trace the changes in poverty incidence, extent and severity. These indexes include the head-count index, poverty gap and income-gap ratio, Sen’s index of poverty, as well as the Foster, Greer and Thorbecke (FGT) index. Results revealed that the regional programs conducted between the two periods improved poverty situations in the region; thus, such programs should be continued to increase the economic performance of the so-called poor states of Kelantan, Terengganu and Pahang and reduce their poverty situation

The Impact of Economic Growth on Child Labour in Developing Countries

Child labouring in developing countries constitutes an alarming proportion of the entire workforce and international organizations and NGOs have suggested ways to curb this problem.  This study empirically investigates the relationship between child labour and economic growth in a cross-section of (67) countries over time. A dynamic system GMM approach was adopted and the growth child labour Kuznet curve as presented by Kambhampati &Rajan, (2005) was established. The results shows that economic growth initially increase child labour but as growth is sustained over time, child labour tend to decline in developing countries. This findings suggest serious commitment by governments of the developing countries to promote long term growth in order to curtail the menace of child labour. Keywords: Child Labour, Economic growth, system GM

The impact of economic growth on child labour in developing countries

Child labouring in developing countries constitutes an alarming proportion of the entire workforce and international organizations and NGOs have suggested ways to curb this problem. This study empirically investigates the relationship between child labour and economic growth in a cross-section of (67) countries over time. A dynamic system GMM approach was adopted and the growth child labour Kuznet curve as presented by Kambhampati &Rajan, (2005) was established. The results shows that economic growth initially increase child labour but as growth is sustained over time, child labour tend to decline in developing countries. This findings suggest serious commitment by governments of the developing countries to promote long term growth in order to curtail the menace of child labour

The effect of value add tax on economic growth and its sources in developing countries

Today the role of economic growth for its effect on social welfare is undeniable. For this reason, the factors influencing the economic growth are taken into account by policy makers and researchers. On the other hand, the VAT has been considered by most of the countries due to its numerous advantages and benefits. Hence, investigating how this type of tax affects the economic growth seems to be indispensable, particularly in developing countries. In this study, the effect of value added tax on economic growth was examined especially on the developing countries. In details, the effects of VAT on the economic growth of 19 developing countries for duration of 1995 to 2010 were investigated. For analysing the data, the GMM panel was employed because of the structure of the model. Afterwards, the effect of VAT through the channel of saving on the capital accumulation and productivity and ultimately the economic growth was examined. The results revealed that VAT has a negative effect on capital accumulation growth in the level; the positive effect of VAT on the level of economic growth seems to have been imposed through channels other than the increase of saving and its effect on capital accumulation

Return of education and retirement age decision: a case study among management graduates from Malaysia

In this study we propose a simulation approach using Cost and Benefit Analysis (CBA) to evaluate effects of the increase in retirement age on education return among tertiary management graduates in Malaysia. All data are computed into CBA model using simulation approach to measure the Internal Rate of Return (IRR) once the retirement age is increased yearly. The overall findings of this study show that the IRR is not sensitive to the assumption made about the retirement age decisions; and the IRR does not change from the compulsory retirement age proposed by the Malaysian government. Therefore, the 56 years for retirement age for management graduates in Malaysia is still ideal in term of education return

Bad government as a reason of recent financial crisis in Europe

In spite of emphasizing on a market by economic liberalism, most experts believe that market failure caused the deepest global crisis after Great Depression (1929) to happen. Although we cannot ignore the importance to the role of attendance of government to the economy, we believe that sometimes governments are the reason behind the problems in economic situation. Factors like the lack of political integration between European governments and cooperation of national government, the absence of mighty government to make decision and policy and undisciplined financial plans, as well as, loss of proper rules and low, which are occasions of bad government.peer-reviewe

Bad government as a reason of recent financial crisis in Europe

In spite of emphasizing on a market by economic liberalism, most experts believe that market failure caused the deepest global crisis after Great Depression (1929) to happen. Although we cannot ignore the importance to the role of attendance of government to the economy, we believe that sometimes governments are the reason behind the problems in economic situation. Factors like the lack of political integration between European governments and cooperation of national government, the absence of mighty government to make decision and policy and undisciplined financial plans, as well as, loss of proper rules and low, which are occasions of bad government.peer-reviewe

Returns to investment on tertiary education: the case of non-conventional business and management graduates

This study provides estimates of the private returns of tertiary nonconventional education (NCE) for management graduates in Malaysia. The term 'non-conventional education' used in this research refers to distance learning and part-time management degree program graduates. We evaluate the private returns using the basic concept of educational cost and benefit analysis. The data used were derived from alumni dataset from Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) and National University of Malaysia (UKM) alumni division. Calculating the private returns of lifetime earnings, we find that the internal rates of return for NCE graduates are similar in both public and private sectors. Nevertheless, the results presented in this study are the first approximation ever of the private rate of returns to NCE in Malaysia, based on surveys on management NCE graduates in the Malaysian labor market. This study also seeks to contribute to the existing knowledge of economic analysis on lifelong learning in Malaysia

Education and growth in Malaysian knowledge-based economy

The Malaysian economy of today is in the process of evolving from a production-based economy (P-economy) into a knowledge-based economy (K-economy). In the theory of K-economy, knowledge is recognized as one of the primary factors in sustaining economic growth aside from land, labor and physical capital. In this study, we focus on formal education as a knowledge-based input in the Malaysian production function. 'The multivariate cointegration test result indicates that education, technical progress, labor, capital and economic growth of the country have a long-run equilibrium relationship, which allows them to elevate together over time. Even though several previous studies show that education might not contribute significantly to the growth of developing countries, our short-run estimated results, based on vector error-correction modeling, show that human capital, with the stock of knowledge accumulated through education, does contribute to Malaysian economic growth. In fact it can be considered as, based on the estimated production elasticities, the second most important input factor, alter physical capital, that promotes economic growth. This result provides empirical evidence that education, which is causally linked to the physical capital and technological progress, is an important mechanism to escalate the transformation of Malaysia into a fully-developed K-economy

The relationship between output And unemployment in Malaysia: does Okun’s Law exist?

Unemployment is an important issue in developing economies. High unemployment means that labour resources are not being used efficiently. In the macroeconomic framework there is a well known relationship called Okun’s Law, which states that the negative relationship between movements of unemployment rate and real GDP can be determined. This paper examines whether there exist an Okun-type relationship between output and unemployment in the Malaysian economy. The empirical results show that the negative relationship between output and unemployment is present. Some policy implications are discussed at the end of the paper