All Research

Syazreen Niza Shair · Thomas Sachi Purcal ·Pertanika Journal of Social Science and Humanities ·2021

This research compares the quality of life of Malaysian elderlies living in public formal long-term care institutions, including residential care and nursing home care. It provides evidence of the cost-effectiveness of both programs. The sample of Malaysian elderlies aged 60 years and above was collected from the World Health Survey, including five dimensions of health status: mobility, self-care, usual activities, pain and discomfort, and anxiety and depression. Each of the dimensions has three levels, including 1 (“no problems”), 2 (“some problems”) and 3 (“major problem”). The quality-adjusted life-years (QALYs) of elderlies living in both institutions are estimated using a generic health-related measurement method, EQ-5D. In addition, cost-utility analysis is adopted to compare the effectiveness of programs in allocating resources. The QALY of those living in nursing home care is reasonably lower than those in residential care due to their worse chronic health conditions. The majority are categorised as severely disabled. The cost-effectiveness evaluation of each public long-term care model suggests that the residential care program is cost-effective, with the cost per QALY being MYR22 945. At the same time, a nursing home for disabled people is not effective as the cost per QALY is MYR57 822, falls outside the willingness to pay (WTP) range between (MYR 19,929–MYR 28,470).

Chia-Guan Keh · Yan-Teng Tan ·Jurnal Ekonomi Malaysia ·2021 ·JEL: G10, G12, G18, H51, I18, O40

The exponential spread of the coronavirus in Malaysia has caused a significant majority of the economic activities to cease, resulting in poor stock market performance. This pandemic situation has in turn prompted the government to introduce policies to restart and improve economic activity and stock market performance. Hence, does the government’s interference in attempting to control the outbreak of COVID-19 disease, play an important part in affecting the level of economic activity and stock market performance? To resolve this doubt, the impact of government policy responses to COVID-19 in the case of Malaysia was investigated. The sample period of the study was from 28 January 2020 till 29 May 2020, amounting to a total of 84 observations. The findings reveal that the responses taken by the government, such as staying at home requirements, closure of workplaces and debt or contract relief for households, significantly affected both economic activity and stock market performance in the country. Based on the results, these responses appear to have significant policy implications, particularly in displaying that debt or contract relief for households have negative impacts on the economic activities, but a positive impact on the stock market.

Hong Kay Tze · Ng Siew Imm · Ho Jo Ann · Tan Houng Chien · Lim Chui Seong ·International Journal of Economics and Management ·2021 ·JEL: M14, M30, M31

It is commonly accepted that positive corporate social responsibility (CSR) image brings desirable outcomes, for instance, brand loyalty, improved brand image, enhanced store image, as well as increased visit intention; suggesting there are various direct outcomes of CSR image. Underpinned by the Persuasion Knowledge Model (PKM), this paper proposes that these outcomes are presented in a sequential manner, where there is a core mechanism that relates CSR image to store image and brand awareness, and in turn associate with consumers’ visit intention. A quantitative research methodology has been used where a structured questionnaire was distributed to consumers in selected states in Malaysia using the mall intercept method. Structural equation modelling was applied to examine the proposed model. The discoveries of the current study offer the observed evidence for the correlation between perceived CSR image and hypermarket visit intention, mediated by overall store image and brand awareness. The study emphasises a prominent role of CSR schemes, bringing together the overall hypermarket store image and the hypermarket brand awareness, which will enable hypermarket management to further boost visit intention from consumers

Muhamad Rias K V Zainuddin · Md Shafiin Shukor · Muhamad Solehuddin Zulkifli · Amirul Hamza Abdullah ·Jurnal Ekonomi Malaysia ·2021 ·JEL: F10, F14

The recent pandemic outbreak has distorted international trade flows as the global economic activity reaches a nearstandstill due to stricter movement control imposed by most countries worldwide. Despite gaining the researcher’s attention, the impact of Covid-19 on trade performances are still relatively understudied. Hence, this study aims to analyse the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic outbreak on the bilateral sectoral export for Malaysia. This study employs Poisson Pseudo Maximum Likelihood (PPML) regressions to analyse the sectoral impact in gravity models. The findings provide new perspectives on the varying impacts of the current pandemic outbreak on sectoral trade performances. The dummy variables that represent the existence of Covid-19 have significantly reduced bilateral exports for 11 sectors while increased the exports for seven sectors. Meanwhile, the severity of the Covid-19 outbreak (measured by the number of new cases and death cases) in Malaysia has negative impacts on 14 sectors. The reason for this is that when the current pandemic outbreak in Malaysia is more severe, the government has to enforce stricter movement controls that affect productions and reduce exports. On the other hand, the severity of the Covid-19 outbreak in trading partners has positive impacts on the export for 13 sectors in Malaysia. This is because the more severe pandemic outbreak in trading nations causes lower production capacities and thus higher dependence on imported goods. Differences between the impact of Covid-19 existence and severity by sectors should serve as a red flag for Malaysia’s policymakers to take immediate actions to minimise the impact of the ongoing pandemic outbreak and maximise gains from sectors that have higher demand post Covid-19. The net negative impact on the export performance further reiterates the need for government intervention policies to ensure domestic firms can withstand the current tide, which then minimises the social and economic impacts and helps the economy to recover.

Lian Kee Phua · Char-Lee Lok · Yong Xia Chua · Tan-Chin Lim ·Malaysian Journal of Economic Studies ·2021 ·JEL: G32, M41

In the face of crises such as Covid-19, businesses become devastated by greater risk exposure, particularly in currency exchange, supply chain disruption, and fluctuation in commodity prices that cause volatile earnings trends. Higher earnings volatility is frequently associated with greater risk. Consequently, firms could be inspired to engage in earnings management or derivative use as attempts to mitigate earnings volatility. Using a sample of 169 of the largest non-financial firms with 507 firm-years observations from an emerging market, the researchers examined the relationship among derivative use, earnings volatility, and earnings management. The results of a panel regression analysis showed that derivative use by Malaysian public listed companies was positively connected with earnings volatility, inferring that the use of derivatives did not mitigate earnings volatility as intended. This study also found that both earnings volatility and derivative use have a positive relationship with earnings management. This implies that firms engage in earnings management to curb earnings volatility under circumstances where derivative use is associated with higher earnings volatility. Evidence derived from this study contributes to extant literature on financial risk management involving financial instruments, an area that is very much understudied in the contexts of emerging markets.

Kelvin Lee Yong Ming · Mohamad Jais ·Jurnal Ekonomi Malaysia ·2021 ·JEL: G17, G23, I20

The COVID-19 outbreak significantly impacted the Malaysian stock market. To some extent, the Movement Control Order (MCO) implemented in the country affected the financial performance of listed companies. In consequence investors were quite uncertain of future movements of the stock market. Effective analysis techniques are thus required to study the market movements. Investors shall rely on signals emitted by technical indicators for their investment decisions making. The aim of this study is to examine the performance of the MA rules in Malaysian stock market during the different stages of the MCO. The sample used comprised 30 largest market capitalization stocks listed in the stock market. The period of study spanned 2 January 2020 to 30 August 2020. More than 50% of the buy signals emitted by (5,60,0.01) were found linked with positive returns in the next trading day during the MCO and CMCO subperiod respectively. Conversely, 41.28% and 34.78% of the sell signals emitted by (5,50,0.01) during the respective MCO and CMCO sub-period were linked with negative returns. Among all the MA rules, (5,60,0.01) generated the highest average return of 0.88% during the MCO and CMCO sub-period. Importantly, MA rules, (5,60,0.01) also generated positive returns during the out-of-sample period. The findings of this study shall contribute to the existing literature related to technical analysis. Besides that, the findings will benefit investors the most, inducing them to generate returns or avoid losses during the critical COVID-19 pandemic period. Investors are recommended to take the signals emitted by MA rules as alternative reference for their investments. Lastly, the relevant organizations should conduct more seminars to inform and enhance analytical skill of their clients, particularly retail investors.

Ahmad Fahme Mohd Ali · Naziatul Aziah Mohd Radzi · Ruzanifah Kosnin · Suchi Hassan · Siti Salina Saidin ·Jurnal Ekonomi Malaysia ·2021 ·JEL: B10, D15, D31, E21

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the consumption function among households in Kelantan Malaysia based on the Permanent Income Hypothesis (PIH). This study used secondary data obtained from annual reports, as well as from published and non-published data between 2000 and 2016. The ARDL bound testing approach to deal with cointegration was applied to estimate the long run correlation between the variables. Meanwhile, the error correction method (ECM) was used to determine any short run correlation. This study found a large disparity between the elasticity to consume from current income and the elasticity to consume from permanent income among households in Kelantan. Therefore, it can be concluded that in the case of Kelantan, the PIH is valid.

Mohamad Fazli Sabri · Eugene Cheng-Xi Aw · Husniyah Abdul Rahim · Nik Ahmad Sufian Burhan · Mohd Amim Othman · Megawati Simanjuntak ·International Journal of Economics and Management ·2021 ·JEL: G41, G53

This study aims to identify the factors determining financial vulnerability among Malaysia households. A questionnaire-based survey was conducted using multi-stage sampling technique. In total, 578 useable responses were collected and data were analyzed using partial least square structural equation modeling. The empirical results revealed that i) financial literacy positively influenced financial behavior, ii) financial behavior negatively influenced financial vulnerability, iii) financial behavior mediates the relationship between financial literacy and financial vulnerability, iv) gender moderates the relationship between financial behavior and financial vulnerability. This study enriches the theoretical foundations of financial vulnerability through the exploration of mediation and moderation mechanism. Implications and future research suggestions are discussed.

Judhiana A. Ghani · Mohamad Khair Afham · Muhamad Senan · Asna Atqa Abdullah · Norashidah Mohd Noor ·International Journal of Economics and Management ·2021 ·JEL: H72, H77, E62, F34

The link between fiscal decentralisation and state-level economic growth has often been overlooked, particularly in Malaysia, with its highly centralised federal fiscal system. Thus, using data from all 13 Malaysian states from 2006 to 2018, this study evaluated the degree of fiscal decentralisation and examined its effects on state economic growth. This study employed a new proxy for fiscal decentralisation (FD), a composite variable FD comprising two components: fiscal autonomy (FA) and fiscal importance (FI). The model was examined using the fixed effects technique with robust standard error panel analysis. The empirical results demonstrated that FI and FD were significant and positively impacted economic growth across states. The results also showed the significant and negative impact of budget balances resulting from persistent fiscal deficits on state economic growth, signalling states' heavy reliance on intergovernmental grants and borrowings (soft budget constraints). Thus, fiscal decentralisation has enabled the state governments to alleviate the soft budget constraint problem and reduce the negative impact of deficits on local economic growth. Overall, the results supported prior findings that fiscal decentralisation had a significant positive effect on state economic growth.

Siew-Boey Yeoh · Chee-Wooi Hooy ·Malaysian Journal of Economic Studies ·2021 ·JEL: G31, G32

Our paper uses a multidimensional analysis to provide a better insight on the relationship between CEO foreign experience and corporate risk-taking. By decomposing the foreign experience of CEOs from developing economies such as Malaysia, we find that CEOs who have studied in OECD countries undertake higher levels of risk-taking and CEOs’ foreign working experience may have an adverse effect on risk-taking behaviour especially if the working experience is obtained from non-OECD countries. Additional analysis reveals that younger CEOs and family CEOs with foreign working experience matter in reinforcing the firms’ risk-taking activities. Overall, our findings provide implication for researchers and policymakers seeking to nurture risk-taking behaviours and innovativeness in emerging countries.

Chakrin Utit · Anitha Rosland · M Yusof Saari · Muhammad Daaniyall Abd Rahman ·Malaysian Journal of Economic Studies ·2021 ·JEL: Q50, Q53, D57

This paper assesses the economic impact of the recycling sector in Malaysia to gauge its potential for strengthening green-based economic growth in alignment with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This study employs a comparative impact assessment to analyse the input-output multiplier and linkages using the national input-output tables for 2005, 2010 and 2015. Our results indicate that the recycling sector has high potential to transform waste to wealth from which its value-added multiplier is sufficiently high and is also reinforced with high spillover effects. The recycling sector is identified as a strategic sector, where approximately 70% of its products are embodied in intermediate demand. This sector conforms to circular economy practices as other sectors in the economy are utilising recyclables for remanufacturing purposes. The value-added footprint level of the recycling sector also shows an increasing trend that implies its growing importance in supporting the growth of other production sectors in the economy. At the sectoral level, most of the recyclables are utilised by the Wholesale and Retail Trade sector. Hence, our work emphasises the importance of prioritising the recycling sector in development plans, as well as improving and strengthening the backward linkages between the recycling sector with other production sectors.

Harn Shian Boo ·Pertanika Journal of Social Science and Humanities ·2021

This article explores how gender norms rooted in culture and religion influence gender inequality among Malay couples in Malaysia. Studies on the unbalanced division of unpaid domestic work are pivotal because they negatively affect women’s economic status, wellbeing and life. Many studies have indicated that gender inequality in the division of household labour persists even after accounting for paid work time and resources, suggesting that gender norms lead to the unequal division in unpaid domestic work. By using gender perspective as the theoretical perspective, this study explores how men and women behave according to cultural and religious defined gender roles and are expected to behave as such. In this qualitative study, semi-structured interviews were conducted with nine Malay couples in Malaysia. The study suggests that women shoulder a disproportionate amount of housework and childcare due to the cultural and religious gender norms that foster the prescribed roles, emphasising men’s role as the primary breadwinners and women’s role as the homemakers. This study highlights that gender norms rooted in culture and religion plays vital roles in creating gender inequality among Malay couples. Moreover, this study adds support to the gender perspective that not only gender role ideology matter, but also highlights that religiosity matters when accounting for gender norms in Malay society. This study implies that recognising the importance of cultural and religious gender norms around domestic work as women’s work is crucial in narrowing the gender gap in unpaid domestic work.

Siew-Pong Cheah · Lin-Sea Lau · Chee-Keong Choong ·International Journal of Economics and Management ·2021 ·JEL: D3, D63, G51

Most past studies have assumed a symmetric relationship between income distribution and household indebtedness. Therefore, linear or symmetric modelling would miss possible asymmetric relationships between income distribution and household debt, resulting in misleading conclusions and policy suggestions. Thus, this study has explored the potential asymmetries between household debt and income inequality within long-run and short-run relationships. This study discovered that the association between income inequality and household debt was asymmetric in the long and short run using the nonlinear autoregressive distributed lag model. The results showed that only decreases in income inequality had a significant and positive effect on household debt, while increases in income inequality did not have a significant effect. The findings emphasised the need for policies to reduce income inequality to lessen debt among Malaysian households.

Muzafar Shah Habibullah · Mohd Yusof Saari · Badariah Haji Din · Sugiharso Safuan · Chakrin Utit ·Jurnal Ekonomi Malaysia ·2021 ·JEL: H30, I18, J64

In this empirical note, we examine the relationship between the loss of employment and lockdown measures undertaken by the Malaysian government during the Covid-19 pandemic outbreak over the period from 25 January 2020 to 10 September 2020. By using cointegration analysis, our results suggest that there are both long-run and short-run relationships between loss of employment and lockdown measures in Malaysia. Lockdown measures show positive impact on the number of workers who lost their jobs during the pandemic. The loss of employment increases by 0.35% to 1.1% for every 1% increase in the lockdown measures.

Siti `Aisyah Baharudin · Hayyan Nassar Waked · Mohd Shah Paimen ·Jurnal Ekonomi Malaysia ·2021 ·JEL: A1, D1, E7

This research attempts to analyze households’ responses to Movement Control Orders (MCO) and assess the impact of MCO on consumer confidence based on the potential disproportionate impact on various income groups in Malaysia. Households’ responses and consumer confidence are measured through an online survey to collect the targeted groups’ financial situation and household information and expectations during MCO. A total of 660 respondents from all over Malaysia were involved in this study. Analysis of the MCO responses showed that households were able to comply with MCO rules with the highest positive response of 99.7%. In comparison, the households’ responses to the implementation of MCO showed the highest negative response of 18.4%, with the majority represented by the B40 income category (65.2%). The consumer confidence present index is operating at six times higher than the expectation index, which indicates that the implementation of MCO in the short-run has a moderate impact on households’ economic status than in the long-run involving the COVID-19 pandemic effect on the overall economy. According to the people’s confidence to the government in the long-run, current political developments are essential to influence the people’s confidence in the economy. The consumer confidence index gives an overview of two policies that need to be emphasized by the government. Based on the short-run status of food consumption, this study strongly recommends that the policymakers consider establishing a National Food Stockpile in light of the nation’s food security and moving on to food-based agriculture that considers the targeted groups in the long-run.