Research

Gabriel Hoh Teck Ling ·Institutions and Economies ·2019 ·JEL: P48; D23; D02; D62; H4; K11

Within a housing estate, neighbourhood public open spaces (NPOS) are typically governed and managed under the state property regime. However, issues of NPOS overexploitation, mismanagement, and underinvestment persist, which consequently compromise community neighbourhood sustainability. Underpinned by Lin Ostrom’s self-organising-and-governing collective action as a third alternative to addressing theneighbourhoodcommonsissues, this paper examines the applicability and feasibility of the modified Ostromeight design principles (DPs) to the institutional-social-physical system of local public open spaces (POS) andshowcaseshowthecurrentlocalstate-owned common-pool-resource (CPR) can potentially be shifted to a polycentric common property club good NPOS. The residential Country Lease (CL) NPOS and Native Title (NT) NPOS of two districts, namely Kota Kinabalu and Penampang in Sabah, Malaysia, were chosen. The local institutional-social-NPOS performanceis validated and assessed, using a systematic coding system that expresses the extent of absence and presence of DPs. The modified DPs are valid in curbing the existing local NPOS dilemmas as the former may minimise the enforcement costsand perverse incentives (opportunism) of the social-NPOS system, and they are likely to be feasibly adapted into the local NPOS system since the spatial and institutional attributes of some NPOS (especially CL NPOS) highly resemble and adhere to the modified DPs.Thisstudy provides awareness and insights to policymakers that the integrated, adaptive self-governing and organising collective action system is a potential solution, creating a liveable, resilient and sustainable community neighbourhood

Siti Marsila Mhd Ruslan · Gairuzazmi M. Ghani · Haniza Khalid ·Institutions and Economies ·2019 ·JEL: R49; L91; L98

The Malaysian government introduced a cabotage policy in 1980 to protect and enhance the competitiveness of the Malaysian shipping industry. The policy requires all foreign vessels to unload at Port Klang, the designated national port, after which only Malaysian-flagged vessels can carry cargo to other ports in Malaysia. The policy was criticised for creating additional freight costs to importers and for allowing domestic shippers to monopolise the market. Critics claimed that the higher rates for transhipment services were subsequently passed on to the consumers resulting in higher prices of goods and services. This study examines the influence of Malaysia’s cabotage policy on prices and competitiveness of the shipping industry in the state of Sabah. This study used stakeholders and force-field analysis to examine the influence of the cabotage policy. The stakeholder analysis identified four different stakeholder groups, examined their positions, and rate their positions on the influence of cabotage policy using force-field analysis technique. The analyses show that the cabotage policy was not the only factor causing high prices. Port conditions, efficiency, level of infrastructure, trade imbalance, and political will must also be addressed to remedy the issue.

Louise S.L. Teh · Lydia C.L.Teh · Gavin Jolis ·Marine Policy ·2018

This study quantifies the Total Economic Value (TEV) marine turtles contribute to the Semporna Priority Conservation Area in Sabah, Malaysia, based on field surveys conducted in May 2014 with marine stakeholders, including 60 fishing households, 9 resorts, and 7 government and academic institutions. The estimated TEV of marine turtles was USD 23 million per year, ranging from USD 21–25 million. The estimated non-consumptive value of marine turtles far exceeded the consumptive use value. Moreover, the protection of marine turtles could potentially generate 1146 tourism jobs, equivalent to USD 469,000 in employment income per year. Conservation could be partially funded from tourism, as tourists were willing to contribute USD 1.5 million for marine turtle protection and conservation annually. Scenario analysis showed that the discounted TEV of marine turtles could reach up to USD 716 million over 30 years if full protection of turtles was implemented now. This is more than double the discounted TEV of marine turtles under status quo conditions (USD 262 million). By showing the substantial economic value derived from marine turtles, this study not only provides an important incentive for protecting marine turtles in Semporna, but also for investing in conserving marine resources in the wider Coral Triangle and Asia Pacific region.

Gabriel Hoh Teck Ling · Pau Chung Leng and Chin Siong Ho ·Economies ·2019 ·JEL: D01; D02; D23; D62; K11; O21; P25; Q24; Q26

There are severe issues of public open space (POS) underinvestment and overexploitation. However, few studies have been conducted on the property rights structure and its impacts on rural commons governance, specifically concerning local neighbourhood residential POS quality and sustainability. The social-ecological system framework and the new institutional economics theory were employed to examine the local diverse property rights system and its e_x000B_ects on the emergence of POS dilemmas. Rural commons covering neighbourhood residential Country Lease (CL) and Native Title (NT) POS from the districts of Kota Kinabalu and Penampang, Sabah Malaysia were selected. A mixed-method phenomenological case study, involving multi-stakeholders’ perspectives across public-private-user sectors, was employed. This study revealed four main interconnected property rights issues, including attenuated rights, incomplete rights, maladaptive rights, and security-based de facto perceptive rights, under the complex state-private regime, which incentivise the opportunistic behaviour of individuals in externalising POS commons dilemmas. The findings further inferred that the local diverse property rights issues and POS dilemmas caused, and are associated with, other rights issues and dilemmas, forming a rights-dilemmas nexus. Not only do the institutional failures actuate POS dilemmas, but the former also engender other forms of property rights failures, while the latter cause other POS dilemmas. This paper suggests policy and management insights to public o_x000E_cials, in which the importance of the institutional-social-POS behavioural factor and the re-engineering of POS governance via adaptive property rights realignment are emphasised.