Shamzaeffa Samsudin

Healthcare Utilization by Older Age Groups in Northern States of Peninsular Malaysia: The Role of Predisposing, Enabling and Need Factors

Determining factors that affect healthcare utilization by the elderly is vital for the health system to be more responsive in providing care to this vulnerable group. The main objective of this paper is to identify the effect of the predisposing, enabling, and need factors on doctor visits and in-patient care for the elderly residing in the northern region of Malaysia. A multistage cluster sampling was used in selecting the sample for the study. A total of 1414 respondents aged 60 and over were interviewed face-to-face using a structured questionnaire. A probit model was used in estimating the utilization equations. At a significance level of 0.05, except for age, all predisposing and enabling factors were not statistically significant in affecting the doctor visits. On the other hand, being a male, smoker, medical insurance holder or had not actively involved in social interaction within the reference period increases the likelihood of being in-patient. Health-related variables remain the most significant factors that determine healthcare utilization, including both doctor visits and in-patient stays, in the area of study, which suggests that government policies to improve population health may influence the level of healthcare use in the future.

Efficiency of banks in Southeast Asia: Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines and Thailand

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to use the concept of meta-frontiers data envelopment analysis (DEA) to compare the technical efficiencies of banks in selected Southeast Asia countries in the periods of 1998-2012. Design/methodology/approach The authors evaluate bank efficiency in Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and the Philippines by means of DEA, and the authors employ a meta-frontiers approach to calculate efficiency scores in a cross-country setting. Findings The analysis shows that even there are some similarities in the process of financial reforms undertaken in the selected countries, the observed efficiency levels of banks vary substantially across the market. Originality/value It is crucial to take into consideration of different technologies in explaining the efficiency differences.

The impact of HIV and AIDS on aggregate labour productivity: evidence from sub-Saharan Africa

A review of literature indicates that previous studies concentrate on the effects of HIV/AIDS on labour productivity at individual firms. This study investigates the impact of HIV prevalence rate and AIDS on aggregate labour productivity at the macroeconomy level in sub-Saharan Africa, using panel data from 1990-2013. The analysis considers both the instantaneous effect shown by HIV and the effect after the disease converts to AIDS. The sensitivity of the results was also examined within two sub-samples. System generalised method of moments (GMM) estimator was used in the estimation. HIV prevalence has significant negative effect on aggregate labour productivity in both the full sample and the two sub-samples. AIDS has a positive influence on aggregate labour productivity in the full sample and Eastern and Southern Africa sub-sample. This is, however, not beneficial. Rather, it is detrimental, as it was attributable to reduce availability of labour due to increase in mortality.