Rusmawati Said

Disaggregated consumer prices and oil price pass-through: evidence from Malaysia

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to analyze the oil price pass‐through into consumer price inflation for a developing country: Malaysia. The focus is on whether aggregate consumer prices and different consumer price components or sub‐price indexes are related in different ways to oil price in the long run and in the short run.Design/methodology/approach – The analysis adopts the Phillips curve framework augmented to include the oil price. In modeling, a proper consideration is given to the integration and cointegration properties of the variables under consideration. Moreover, the asymmetric effects of oil price changes are also examined.Findings – The paper finds evidence for a long run relation or cointegration of the oil price with only the aggregate consumer price and food price indexes. Moreover, in the short run, the oil price changes have significant bearings on the consumer price inflation, the food price inflation, the rent, fuel and power price inflation and the transportation and communic...

Trade Openness and Wage Inequality: Evidence for Malaysia

This article examines the impact of trade openness on wage inequality in Malaysia during the period 1984–1997. Malaysia has operated a very open trade regime since the 1960s and has pursued aggressive import substitution and export supporting policies. This development strategy is very different to that adopted in many other emerging economies where trade liberalisation has been associated with greater wage inequality. The aim of the present study is to examine whether Malaysias more open approach to international trade has had a similar effect on wage inequality. The results suggest, in fact, that this is not the case.

Factors influencing fertilizer demand in developing countries: evidence from Malawi

Purpose - – The purpose of this paper is to examine some factors that influence the intensity of fertilizer use in Malawi. Design/methodology/approach - – The study uses Engle-Granger, Engle-Yoo three steps and autoregressive distributed lags (ARDLs) approaches to examine the long-run and the short-run dynamics among the variables using annual data from 1961 to 2006. Findings - – The econometric results indicate that all the variables exert significance influence on the quantity of fertilizer demanded excluding population growth, while the results of the short-run model indicate that the responsiveness of fertilizer demand to all the variables is significant. Research limitations/implications - – Although, this study has provided some helpful results in understanding the major factors responsible for low fertilizer consumption in the study but some time series data on important factors are lacking. Originality/value - – The work is different from already existing literature in Malawi. The authors included subsidy and real gross domestic product to account for the effect of macroeconomic shocks and policies, which has not been accounted for by other related empirical studies. Moreover, this study used ARDLs techniques that can overcome the problem of insufficiently long time series data which is a significant contribution to the existing literature.

Traditional Craftsmanship: The Origin, Culture, and Challenges of Batik Industry in Malaysia

Batik is a process of dyeing fabric by making use of a resist technique. Approximately, 70 % of the national industry in Malaysia is derived from SMEs, and microenterprise is one of the main components in SMEs. In the Malaysian context, most of batik enterprises have been categorized in SME industries. Recently, United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). had classified the craft industry as one of the items in the creative industries. They believe the creative industries will provide new opportunities for developing countries to leapfrog into emerging high-income countries due to the contribution on output level, employment, and tourism sector. Even though batik production has long been established in this country, unfortunately, it is still dominated by microenterprises with around 86 %. Hence, this paper is written to bring readers to understand the origin, culture, and the challenges faced by batik makers in order to preserve and flourish batik industry in Malaysia.

Urban poverty, inequality and industry in Nigeria

Purpose - – The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between industrial sector growth, inequalities and urban poverty reduction Design/methodology/approach - – The paper used static panel data analysis. However, the tests suggest that there are no state-specific effects; hence, the pooled panel regression techniques are used for the analysis. Findings - – The findings of the paper suggest that the industrial sector growth exert no significance on urban poverty while the urban wholesale and retail services growth is found to be substantially strong in reducing urban poverty. The results also indicate that there is no statistically significant evidence to conclude that higher incidence of urban poverty was due to the high degree of inequalities. Research limitations/implications - – This paper has provided some helpful results in understanding the heterogeneous effects of sectoral components of growth of urban poverty in the presence of high income inequalities, but the limitation of this study is that there is no disaggregated poverty and growth data on different occupational activity. Practical implications - – There is a need to expand investment in the production and export manufacturing labor-intensive sectors; this will help increase the labor absorption rate of the industry and, thus, reduce poverty in the urban areas. Originality/value - – The paper improves on previous research on poverty in Nigeria by explicitly recognizing the effects of location and inequality.

Determinants of Islamic Bond (Sukuk): Evidence in Malaysia

The virtual isolation of Islamic financial markets from 2008’s financial crisis prompted a quest to find the underlying determinants that stabilise the market’s liquidity. Utilising data from the Malaysian bond market, the paper first provides insight into the trend and liquidity of the sukuk market before analysing sukuk’s liquidity level by using the latent liquidity measurement. This is followed by a random effect regression to determine the liquidity drivers for sukuk. Four variables (issuance amount, maturity, coupon rate and age) are found to be significant drivers of sukuk’s liquidity level. The conclusions drawn from the regression results indicate that sukuk’s investors favour to match long term sukuk with their long term liabilities. In addition they also like to keep their sukuk to amortise the return.