Saidatulakmal Mohd

Environmental Kuznets curve and energy consumption in Malaysia: A cointegration approach

ABSTRACT This study examines the long- and short-run relationship between carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, economic growth, energy consumption, foreign trade, and urbanization based on the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) hypothesis in Malaysia for the period 1980–2008. This study employs the Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) methodology for empirical analysis. The results obtained suggest the existence of three forms of long-run relationships among variables when CO2 emissions, foreign trade, and urbanization are the dependent variables. The long-run results support the EKC hypothesis, which assumes an inverted U-shaped relationship between income and environmental degradation. Moreover, both energy consumption and urbanization are found to have positive effects on CO2 emissions in the long run, while trade has a negative effect on CO2 emissions in both short and long runs. The stability of the variables in the estimated model is also examined. Results suggest that the estimated model is stable over the study period.

Welfare Regime, Social Protection and Poverty Reduction

This chapter examines various policies and schemes of social protection, security and assistance, and innovative agricultural programmes, with an emphasis on their impacts upon poverty. The social security schemes include the pension scheme, Employees Provident Fund (EPF), Armed Forces Fund (AFF) and the Employer’s Liability Scheme. The main social insurance scheme to be discussed is the scheme provided by the Social Security Organization (SOCSO). The social assistance programmes are mostly those provided by the Department of Social Welfare (in the Ministry of Women, Family and Community Development). Detailed discussions of the programmes of social assistance are linked to the design of Malaysia’s welfare regime as well as its evolution to eradicate poverty. The discussions on the social security schemes focus on the adequacy of retirement benefits. This chapter also contains a section on reforms and structural changes to the social protection programmes to tackle the issues of poverty associated with inadequate income.

FINANCIAL SECURITY PROTECTIONS IN MALAYSIA, SINGAPORE AND PHILIPPINES: A PERSPECTIVE OF TWO GENERATIONS

The study investigated the formal and informal old age protections in the major cities of Malaysia, Singapore and Philippines. The role of family support as important source of old-age protection in Asian countries was also investigated. Data were collected using a survey-interview method. A total of 250 young population and 250 of the elderly population in Kuala Lumpur were interviewed. Similar number of young and elderly population was interviewed in Manila. In Singapore, data was collected from 206 and 161 young and elderly population respectively. A Venn diagram was constructed to analyse the overlapping of availability of the various old age protections for the two generations and their relative sizes among the three cities were compared. Given the many agreement on the inadequacy of the formal old-age benefits, many reverted to informal protections such as insurance, savings and family support. With the exception of Manila, reliance on the family support as perceived by the younger generations has lost its importance.

ESTABLISHING THE WELL-BEING OF THE RURAL-URBAN ELDERLY POPULATION: A CASE STUDY OF INDONESIA

This study determines and compares the influence of various demographic factors in achieving well-being of the elderly population in the rural and urban areas in Indonesia. Age, marital status, social class, perceived health and economic condition are some of the main contributing factors in measuring well-being. In addition, social aspects such as living and familial arrangement were also investigated to establish elderly population well being. Data were collected using a survey-interview method. A total of 157 elderly in the urban areas and 145 elderly in the rural areas were surveyed. A causal model of well-being was employed to analyse the data obtained. The model of well-being was then tested using path analysis to test the causal relationships among the variables. Although the study indicated that there was no significant difference of well-being between the rural and urban elderly, the social support variables generally help improve the well-being of the elderly population.

CONTEMPORARY ISSUES AND CHALLENGES IN POVERTY: A CASE STUDY OF MALAYSIA

Poverty in Malaysia has decreased significantly from a relative high of more than 50% before independence in 1957 to less than 10% today. The incidence of hardcore or the absolute poor is less than 1%, according to official statistics in 2007. And, it is Malaysias aim to achieve zero absolute poverty by 2015. However, the rate of poverty reduction based on recent data appears to have slowed down beginning the mid 1990s. The slowdown in poverty reduction raises serious concern as this affects the well-being of this disadvantaged group of population. Generally, the poor in Malaysia are the aged households, female and live in the rural areas. Several studies conducted in 2007–2008 identified several issues relating to poverty in the country. This paper will analyse some of the issues and suggest practical solutions that will benefit the poor population.

Trend of Poverty among Elderly: Evidence from Household Income Surveys

ABSTRACT Elderly poverty is a major concern because of the changing in demographic pattern and the fact that elderly people have limited capacity and capability to prolonged employment. This article investigates poverty incidence among people who are elderly and nonelderly in Malaysia and analyzes the factors influencing elderly poverty. This article uses household income surveys of 2009 and 2012. Data indicates that poverty incidence among elderly heads of households is relatively low. Elderly poverty is high among elderly’s female head of household, other marital status, rural area, no or informal education, live alone, not working and in states whose main economic activity is agriculture.

An analysis of the millennium development goal 1: The case ofBangladesh

This article raises four questions: what progress has been made to achieve millennium development goal 1 (MDG1) targets in Bangladesh? What are the reasons for success, if any? What challenges remain? And what more should be done? To examine these questions, this article assesses the progress of MDG1 using the poverty and hunger index (PHI) to measure the net static and dynamic progress. It argues that Bangladesh is on track to achieve MDG1 targets. Social safety nets (SSNs) programs, per capita GDP growth, structural change, and remittance earning have been contributing to achieving MDG1 targets. However, some significant challenges such as a large number of poor people living in extreme poverty, inflation, high unemployment rate, and inequality are still prevailing. Thus, Bangladesh might give more attention on the expansion of SSNs for quick protection and promotion for the poor and vulnerable, the creation of local value chain, and inflation control.