Grace H.Y. Lee

Female labour force participation infant mortality and fertility in Malaysia.

In reviewing the population policy in 1984, the Malaysian government called for a major shift from family planning to family and human resource development to achieve an ultimate population of 70 million by 2100. However, regardless of the governments initiatives since 1984, Malaysias fertility rate still declined. This study examines the short-run and long-run relationship and causality between female labour force participation rate, infant mortality rate and fertility in a developing country in Asia – Malaysia. We employ the unit root test which allows for two structural breaks, and the break dates are then used as dummy variables in the bounds testing procedure within an autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) modelling approach and Granger-causality test. The results indicate that mortality changes have a significant and positive long-run impact on fertility rate and womens child bearing decisions are unaffected by their employment situation. In addition, we do not find evidence that presence of children hinders re-employment and continuous female employment.

Tolerance and Economic Growth Revisited: A Note

Berggren and Elinder (BE) in this journal write on the relationship between the degree of tolerance in a nation and its rate of economic growth. They are disturbed to find in their cross sections that higher economic growth statistically goes together with low tolerance of homosexuals. In this comment, we revisit the issue and demonstrate that the concern expressed by BE is unwarranted if we properly account for “conditional convergence�? in the regressions for economic growth. Other things being equal, a country grows faster if it starts from a poorer initial position. In the BE dataset, China since the Deng reforms is a prime example. At about the same time, another group of countries managed to accelerate their economic growth after a long period of stagnation: the ex-communist countries in central and Eastern Europe. Many of these nations also grew exceptionally fast for a number of years, once freedom had been regained and the initial chaos overcome. With simple modeling of these historical initial conditions, we find no statistical pattern that associates low tolerance for homosexuals with weaker economic growth. Our results are robust under alternative specifications.

Aggregate Shocks Decomposition for Eight East Asian Countries

All economies experience peaks and troughs in their business cycles. This paper examines eight East Asian economies, employing a Bayesian dynamic factor model that allows the decomposition of aggregate shocks into country-specific, regional and world common business cycles. It therefore allows the identification of causes for major events experienced by these countries. Empirical evidences show that country-specific factors are the most important in determining the major events for all the countries examined here, implying the need for each country to rely more heavily on its own independent counter-cyclical policies. Although the regional factor plays a less important role than the country-specific factor, it accounts for a sizeable share in the output fluctuation of the region. The regional factor is most prevalent for Singapore, Korea, Malaysia and Thailand, indicating that a regional coordinated policy is rather more effective for these economies to respond to disturbances. The world factor explains only around 7% of the output variation in East Asia, which might explain why the East Asian economies are relatively insulated from the recent global financial crisis.

Female Age at First Marriage and Fertility Levels: A Comparison of Developed and Developing Countries

Family is an important institution to a society for its effective functioning; hence factors affecting family formation decisions are important within the context of the Second Demographic Transition (SDT). This research focuses on two main changes which have occurred over the past decades; delayed entry into marriage and decline in fertility levels across both developed and developing countries. A cross-sectional study is undertaken for 32 developed and 34 developing countries to explain marriage timing and fertility level differences using both economic and cultural factors. The results indicate that economic development and females’ attitudes towards marriage are important determinants of marriage timing differences across developed nations. In developing countries, however, marriage timing is explained by the level of female education and religious denomination of countries. Religious denomination is also an important indicator of fertility level differences among both developed and developing nations. While fertility levels in developed nations are affected by female labour force participation, the extent of religiosity is important in explaining fertility levels in developing countries. Overall, the findings suggest that both economic and cultural factors are important in explaining differences in marriage timing and fertility levels albeit to different degrees.

Family Ties and Civic Virtues: A Comparison between the East and the West

Civic virtue consists of a set of moral values which can be cultivated through personal living habits to promote successful community. With greater moral sense, people are less likely to be selfish and more social trust can be created which lead to higher level of social capital. Strong family ties are sometimes seen as a menace to the society as it could result in selfish behavior and lack of trust outside the family, impeding economic development. An alternative view is that strong family ties and kinship networks drive successful economies. These values vary across different countries and cultures. Since past researchers have mainly focused on the West, this study provides insightful information on the strength of family ties and civic virtues from the Eastern perspective. Given the vast differences in economic conditions and life chances according to social class and education and income group, it is not controversial to argue that individuals with different level of social class and education exhibit different level of civicness. Using a Hierarchical Linear Model approach, this research examines the: effect of the strength of family ties on civic virtues in East Asia and the West; relationship between the education level and civic virtues; and the prevailing impact of class based system on individual level of civicness. Findings reveal that stronger family ties promote civic virtues and upper class individuals from the East and the West are less civic. While education level is important in fostering civicness in the West, it is not a significant indicator in the East.