Selamah Abdullah Yusof

The long-run and dynamic behaviors of wages, productivity and employment in Malaysia

Purpose - This paper aims to examine the long-run and dynamic behaviors of real wage-employment-productivity relationship, using Malaysian manufacturing data, and to determine which related labor theories are supported. Design/methodology/approach - Time-series econometric techniques, which include stationarity and cointegration tests, vector error correction model, impulse response function and variance decomposition, are applied to analyze the relationships of real wages, employment and productivity. Findings - A long run relationship exists between real wages, employment and real productivity, with real wages being the main variable that adjusts to maintain cointegration. The theory that real wages inversely affect employment is not supported, while the performance-based pay scheme theory, and not the efficiency wage theory, is validated. Research limitations/implications - Although the data used to measure wages and employment account for most of the production in the various manufacturing sectors, they do not include all the manufacturing industries. The analysis is also limited in time span since data for earlier periods are not available. Practical implications - The findings can provide assistance to policy makers in their implementation and evaluation of labor policies. Originality/value - The real wage-employment-productivity relationship is examined in the framework of the Malaysian manufacturing sector, and the study includes both the long-term and short-run behaviors of the variables.

Formation of desired values: the role of parents

This study investigates the values of teenagers and their parents, and the influence parents have on the values of their children. Values are categorized into terminal and instrumental values. Different from previous works on values, the measurement of both these values is based on al‐Ghazali’s works in line with Islamic ethics. In addition, this study also determines the “oughtness” of both categories of values. The results reveal that overall, both teenagers and parents had good instrumental and terminal values. However, there were differences in the terminal values of teenagers and parents across ethnic groups. The analysis also shows that teenagers shared similar terminal and instrumental values as their parents, implying that parents had a significant influence on the development of their children’s values. Thus parents play an important role in transmitting good values to their children in resisting negative influences.

A Survey on the Objective of the Firm and Models of Producer Behavior in the Islamic Framework@@@دراسة استطلاعية لهدف المنشأة ونماذج سلوك المنتج من منظور إسلامي

This paper presents a review of related works that have been written over the years on the objective of the firm from the Islamic perspective. For the purpose of analysis, a general framework on proper economic conduct and objective of economic order as discussed by al-Ghazali and Maududi, respectively is provided. Several studies that provide mathematical models to explain the producer behavior are further examined in a separate section. Our analysis finds that, in general, the arguments provided in justifying the objective of the firm as found in the various studies have the Islamic framework in mind. The theoretical models that have been developed can be used as a basis to formulate a more comprehensive model on Islamic producer behavior that provides more rigor and robustness to the analysis.