Research

Chia-Guan Keh · Pei-Tha Gan · Yan-Teng Tan · Fatimah Salwa Binti Abd. Hadi · Norasibah Binti Abdul Jalil ·International Journal of Sustainable Economy ·2022

Determining the relationship between financial development and economic growth is important to make precise projections of economic growth. As most of these studies rely on a symmetric relationship, they can lead to misleading policy implications. To overcome this shortcoming, this paper uses a technique involving an asymmetric relationship. This paper examines the asymmetric relationship between financial development and economic growth in Malaysia from 1980 to 2017 using a nonlinear autoregressive distributed lags model. The banking sector and stock market development have been employed as indicators of financial development. The findings suggest that the asymmetric relationship between banking sector development and economic growth exists in the long-run. Banking sector development shows no asymmetric relationship with economic growth in the short-run, while stock market development does not present any asymmetric relationship with economic growth in the short and long-terms. The study infers that the banking sector development is an essential engine of growth promotion. Policymakers should consider banking and stock market development for better policy decision-making.

Mohd Azlan Shah Zaidi · Zulkefly Abdul Karim · Noor Amirah Zaidon ·Economies ·2022

Movements in palm oil price give important signals to various stakeholders of the palm oil industry in Malaysia. Thus, understanding external and internal factors that may affect the palm oil price is vital to the industry players for sustainability of their activities. This study investigates relative importance of external and internal shocks on the movement of palm oil price in Malaysia. Employing a structural vector autoregressive (SVAR) model on quarterly data from 1990 to 2019, the findings reveal that external shocks are more dominant in affecting the palm oil price. Shocks to the crude oil price, the prices of substitution goods (soybeans oil, rapeseed oil, and sunflower oil), the world palm oil price, and foreign income significantly affect the palm oil price in the short and medium run. The results also indicate that a shock to soybean oil price has a more profound effect on the palm oil price than a shock to rapeseed oil or sunflower oil prices, respectively. Likewise, shocks to incomes from India as well as from Netherlands create greater impacts on the palm oil price than a shock to income from the other trading partners, respectively. The study has shown the importance of external factors in affecting the palm oil industry.

Scott A. McDonald · Amirah Azzeri (University of Malaya · Fatiha Hana Shabaruddin · Maznah Dahlui · Soek S. Tan · Adeeba Kamarulzaman · Rosmawati Mohamed ·Applied Health Economics and Health Policy ·2018

Introduction The World Health Organisation (WHO) has set ambitious goals to reduce the global disease burden associated with, and eventually eliminate, viral hepatitis. Objective To assist with achieving these goals and to inform the development of a national strategic plan for Malaysia, we estimated the long-term burden incurred by the care and management of patients with chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection. We compared cumulative healthcare costs and disease burden under different treatment cascade scenarios. Methods We attached direct costs for the management/care of chronically HCV-infected patients to a previously developed clinical disease progression model. Under assumptions regarding disease stage-specific proportions of model-predicted HCV patients within care, annual numbers of patients initiated on antiviral treatment and distribution of treatments over stage, we projected the healthcare costs and disease burden [in disability-adjusted life-years (DALY)] in 2018–2040 under four treatment scenarios: (A) no treatment/baseline; (B) pre-2018 standard of care (pegylated interferon/ribavirin); (C) gradual scale-up in direct-acting antiviral (DAA) treatment uptake that does not meet the WHO 2030 treatment uptake target; (D) scale-up in DAA treatment uptake that meets the WHO 2030 target. Results Scenario D, while achieving the WHO 2030 target and averting 253,500 DALYs compared with the pre-2018 standard of care B, incurred the highest direct patient costs over the period 2018–2030: US$890 million (95% uncertainty interval 653–1271). When including screening programme costs, the total cost was estimated at US$952 million, which was 12% higher than the estimated total cost of scenario C. Conclusions The scale-up to meet the WHO 2030 target may be achievable with appropriately high governmental commitment to the expansion of HCV screening to bring sufficient undiagnosed chronically infected patients into the treatment pathway.

Suhaiza Ismail · Zuhudha Rasheed ·Meditari Accountancy Research ·2019

Purpose This paper aims to identify the influence of personal factors on the ethical judgement of future accountants in Malaysia. In particular, there are two research objectives for this study: first, to investigate the influence of ethical ideology on the ethical judgement of accounting students and second, to investigate the influence of emotional intelligence (EI) on ethical judgement. Design/methodology/approach The respondents of the study were final year undergraduate accounting students from three public universities in Malaysia. A survey questionnaire comprising instruments about ethical ideology, EI and ethical judgement was distributed. A total of 205 responses were received and were deemed as useable. To achieve the research objectives, multiple regression was performed. Findings The findings indicate that idealism and EI have a positive influence on the ethical judgement. In contrast, the study discovered that relativism influences ethical judgement negatively. Originality/value This study fills the research gap as research on personal factors on the ethical judgement of future accountants is very limited and scarce. It gives insights to the various parties concerning how to enhance ethical judgement among future accountants, which ultimately will improve the credibility of the accounting profession.

Alexandra Dales · Neil M. Coe · Martin Hess ·Economic Geography ·2019

The last two decades have seen a major wave of retail globalization that has driven the transformation of retail markets in the emerging economies of Southeast Asia and beyond. This article provides a systematic analysis of the divergent pathways of retail market transformation in Malaysia and Thailand through exploring the interface of foreign retailers’ strategies of market development and regulatory efforts by the state. Drawing on the variegated capitalism approach and relational economic geography perspectives, the article develops a dynamic analytical framework for investigating and contrasting contestation and negotiation in the process of market transformation. Based on extensive fieldwork and comprehensive secondary data analysis carried out in Malaysia and Thailand, it demonstrates the different trajectories of the Malaysian and Thai retail markets since the turn of the millennium, and explains the political-economic context, and state-regulatory and retail firm strategies that interactively shape market change. While Malaysia has seen substantial levels of state intervention to protect domestic interests and create a two-tier retail system, the Thai retail market transformation has been based on less rigid but more geographically varied state regulation and foreign retail firm strategies. Thus, this article sheds new light on the host economy impacts of retail globalization in the context of local and national contestation and regulation. It concludes with a summary of the findings and reflections on the value of the analytical frame developed here for research on comparative capitalism beyond the retail sector.

Nur Azura Sanusi · Noor Hayati Akma Shafiee · Nor Ermawati Hussain · Zuha Rosufila Abu Hassan · Mohd Lazim Abdullah · Nor Hayati Sa’at ·Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business ·2021 ·JEL: E47, G17, H52, I123

This study estimates the financial value of return on investment (ROI) of research funds. Four simulation estimations are employed to measure ROI finance value that considers the outputs, outcomes, impacts and total ROI from the allocation input received. Research outputs, outcomes, and impacts can be quantitatively measured based on improvements to existing systems. In terms of input, the Malaysian government has allocated MYR301,350,000 for fundamental research in the 2021 budget compared with 2019, up 9.5 percent from 2019. It brings up the question: To what extent does the input of research funds allocated by the government yield a good return in outputs, outcomes, and impacts to the academic community, society, and country? The result of total ROI shows around MYR7 return is generated by researchers for each Malaysian ringgit channeled by the funder. More specifically, for a research project, it is more difficult to produce impacts and outcomes compared to research outputs. The positive return is evidence that all the allocated funds are beneficial to the stakeholders. The government can apply this approach in calculating ROI for evaluation and fund allocation to universities. Furthermore, the positive financial value of research output, outcome, and impact automatically contribute to a positive innovation environment in Malaysia.

Mengdie Ruan · Angathevar Baskaran · Shanshan Zhou ·Millennial Asia ·2021

This article explores the contributions of—and constraints faced by—small and medium enterprises (SMEs) owned by mainland Chinese immigrant entrepreneurs in Malaysia using qualitative research and primary data gathered from five cases. It was found that Chinese immigrant SMEs make significant contributions to the host economy in terms of employment, diverse products and services, exports, innovation, micro foreign direct investment (FDI) and global linkages. Of these, employment creation and exports appear to be their most important contributions. They face various constraints, some of which are largely the same as those faced by local entrepreneurs. However, they additionally face some specific constraints which local entrepreneurs do not, such as language barrier, lack of financial support in the growth stage, lack of government assistance, and onerous bureaucratic problems, such as tax and visa requirements. The findings suggest that the government should create a special department to formulate tailor-made policies and incentives to support immigrant-owned SMEs, so that their contribution to the future economic development of Malaysia can be further strengthened and monitored.

Meng-wai Lee · Kim-leng Goh ·Economics Bulletin ·2019

In Malaysia, infrastructure financing requirements can be served through domestic bond markets, including its corporate bond markets. However, financial crises have exacted a heavy toll on government debts, which are often funded by issuance of government bonds. Persistent fiscal deficits and growing issuance of government bonds can become a double-edged sword and result in crowding-out of private bond markets. This paper represents a first attempt to analyze the potential determinants of the domestic corporate bond market in Malaysia to facilitate a closer examination of the possibility of crowding-out on the Malaysian corporate bond market. This paper finds no evidence of crowding-out effects on Malaysia's domestic corporate bond market from the country's growing government debt. Importantly, findings strongly suggest that the well-functioning Malaysian government bond market has served as a strong foundation for the growth of its domestic corporate bond market.

Abu bakar Hamid Danlami · Shri-Dewi Applanaidu · Rabiul Islam ·Environment, Development and Sustainability ·2018

There exists a high global concern in different nations on environmental sustainability especially at the focal stage of increased economic growth and development process due to high level of environmental degradation and pollution. The major aim of this study was to empirically examine how to minimise carbon emissions (CO2) in Malaysia which are mainly caused by energy production, fossil fuel consumption, population density and economic growth. The study adopted the method of autoregressive distributed lag bound testing approach to analyse the data for the period 1971–2011. The study found that economic growth in Malaysia has a direct relationship with CO2 emissions in both the short run and the long run. Similarly, there is a positive relationship between fossil fuel consumption and CO2 emissions over the same period. Population density was found to have positive impacts on CO2 emissions. Contrarily, the relationship between the activities of energy production and pollution is negative in the long run. The study recommends that a targeted GDP growth rate should be set with the consideration to avoid more environmental pollution. In addition, the positive impact of fossil fuel consumption on the environmental pollution implies that there is a need to make and implement policies that will encourage the use of public transportation system more than private transportations. That is, the unnecessary use of private vehicles should be discouraged in order to reduce the extent of fossil fuel consumption.

Pancawati Hardiningsih · Indira Januarti · Etna Nur Afri Yuyetta · Ceacilia Srimindarti · Udin Udin ·International Journal of Energy Economics and Policy ·2020 ·JEL: E44, M14, Q56

This study aims to analyze the effect of sustainability information disclosure on financial and market performance. Using purposive sampling, this study obtains 21 mining sector companies in Indonesia and 18 companies in Malaysia. Regression analysis with WarpPLS is used to test the proposed hypotheses. The results show that environmental and social disclosure has a significant effect on return on assets, return on equity, price-earnings ratio, and Tobin’Q in Indonesia and Malaysia. Overall, there is no significant difference in financial and market performance between Indonesia and Malaysia. Good sustainability information disclosure further improves financial performance and trust among stakeholders and regulators in decision making, which in turn, increases corporate value.

Shankaran Nambiar ·The European Journal of Development Research ·2021

The purpose of this paper is to argue that the capability approach can benefit from thinking in institutional economics. If the locus of the capability approach is moved from the individual to groups or communities, then it is imperative that institutions (conceived as formal and informal rules) be explicitly considered when applying the framework, particularly when social relations matter, as in microcredit or poverty alleviation. Rules underpin transactions and behaviour in society, so it stands to reason that capability improvement, or its lack, be examined from the vantage point of rules as understood by institutional economics. Applying institutional economics to the capability approach will open up different ways of analysing capabilities in communities.

Mohd Azwan Zainol · Zakaria Abas · Ahmad Shabudin Ariffin ·International Journal of Supply Chain Management ·2019

This paper conceptualizes the innovative supply chain integration and business performance of aquaculture contract farming setting in Malaysia. Based on the SCM philosophy, it highlights three related variables of supply chain integration, namely: external integration with suppliers, external integration with customers and supply chain risks, and technological innovation, and the relation amongst the variables in focus that could produce promising business performance. Hence, ability to conceptualize, observe and give due recognition to the possible relation amongst these variables in question by the prospective aquaculture contract farming participants that could bring about an insightful engagement for the betterment of the aquaculture business performance.

Chee Yoong Liew; YoungKyung Ko; Bee Lian Song; Saraniah Thechina Murthy ·Journal of Industrial Business and Economics ·2022

We examine the association between directors’ compensation and firm value and investigate whether ownership concentration moderates this relationship by utilising a sample of Malaysian public-listed firms for the period from 2004 to 2014. Using fixed effect regression, we find that the remuneration of executive and non-executive directors is positively related to firm value. However, there is no conclusive evidence on the moderating effect of ownership concentration on the relationship between executive directors’ and non-executive directors’ compensation and firm value. Our findings indicate that executive and non-executive directors’ compensation packages should be linked to firm performance. The implication of this research addresses one of the key issues in corporate finance i.e., whether it is worth compensating directors in emerging markets or not.

Adam Abdullah ·Journal of King Abdulaziz University: Islamic Economics ·2020 ·JEL: E12, E31, E42, E52

The purpose of this study is to contrast two recent monetary reform proposals involving the neo-chartalist Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) and the metallist Islamic Monetary Theory of Value (IMTV). Money is the common denominator for all economic transactions and yet, under the fiat standard, we have witnessed an exponential increase in prices and 425 instances of monetary, debt, and financial crises. Therefore, genuine monetary reform must protect the store of value function of money over the long term to protect wealth from confiscation by inflation thereby ensuring monetary and economic stability. This study adopts an MMT sectoral balance analysis of Malaysian macroeconomic data, as well as an IMTV analysis of Malaysian macroeconomic and gold price data to evaluate the effect on nominal and real prices. It finds that MMT provides no new insights about monetary theory, while making unsubstantiated claims about macroeconomic policy that would merely extend the highly inflationary monetary policies experienced under a centralized debt-based monetary system. Conversely, this study empirically establishes that a de-centralized monetary system based on the IMTV and the intrinsic value of pure gold (or silver), maintains its p

Muhammad Syafiq Abdul Latif · Mohd Fahmy-Abdullah · Lai Wei Sieng ·International Journal of Supply Chain Management ·2019

— Machinery manufacturing industry has been introduced since the beginning of the industrial era from European countries and developed until today. However, major challenges in machinery industry still driven by traditional production factors such as capital and labour that caused the industry still left out. Thus, the objective of the study are to analyse the level of TE and identifying determinant factors influenced to technical efficiency in the machinery manufacturing industry in Malaysia. The study was conducted by using the method of Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) two stages. The first stage involves the calculation a score of efficiency through the DEA by using firm’s data while the second stage Regression Tobit Analysis used to identify significant factors influencing to technical efficiency in machinery industrial. This firm’s data are categorized into 3 subindustry 3-digit according to the Malaysian Standard Industrial Classifications which are consists of Manufacture of General-Purpose Machinery, Manufacture of Special Purpose Machinery and Manufacture of Installation Machinery Industrial and Equipment. A total of 636 machinery industry firms were involved in this study. Results showed the average efficiency score is at the medium level while the determinant factors were significant are wage rates, the standard of education and research and development (R&D). The implications of this study show that the machinery industry should focus their attention to the significant factors to improve the level of technical efficiency of the machinery industry.