Poverty In Malaysia Research Articles

Inequality and Poverty in Malaysia

Inequality and Poverty in Malaysia

Role of Zakat to Eradicate Poverty in Malaysia

This paper discusses the role of zakat as a mechanism for poverty eradication. Zakat is defined as ‘purification’ or ‘growth’. Zakat enables the wealthy or rich people to purify their hearts from greed by giving a part of their wealth to the needy. The needy who receive the zakat are then able to fulfil their needs, and, thus, the economic wealth bestowed by Allah s.w.t is spread to all the people and real economic growth is achieved. Zakat, if managed effectively and efficiently, should be able to reduce the gap between the rich and the poor. Each year, the annual reports of zakat institutions in Malaysia highlight the significant increase in zakat collection. Does the increase in zakat collection contribute to the alleviation of poverty in Malaysia? To find answers to this question, this paper observes the trend of zakat collection and analyses the pattern of zakat distribution. It is hoped that the outcome of this discussion will contribute to a better understanding of zakat management relative to its role as a tool for poverty eradication. Keywords: Zakat; poverty eradication; zakat management; zakat distribution; asnaf ABSTRAK Kajian ini membincangkan peranan zakat sebagai mekanisme untuk membasmi kemiskinan. Zakat boleh didefinisikan sebagai 'pembersihan' atau 'pertumbuhan'. Zakat membolehkan orang-orang kaya atau berada membersihkan hati mereka dari sifat tamak dengan memberikan sebahagian daripada kekayaan mereka kepada yang memerlukan. Oleh itu, orang-orang miskin yang menerima zakat dapat memenuhi keperluan mereka, dan, dengan itu, kekayaan ekonomi yang dikurniakan oleh Allah s.w.t dapat disebarkan kepada semua umat dan pertumbuhan ekonomi dapat dicapai. Zakat, jika diuruskan dengan cekap dan berkesan, sepatutnya boleh mengurangkan jurang antara yang kaya dengan yang miskin. Setiap tahun, laporan tahunan institusi zakat di Malaysia menonjolkan peningkatan yang ketara dalam pungutan zakat. Adakah peningkatan dalam pungutan zakat menyumbang kepada pembasmian kemiskinan di Malaysia? Untuk mencari jawapan kepada soalan ini, kajian ini memerhatikan pola kutipan zakat dan menganalisis corak pengagihannya. Adalah diharapkan bahawa hasil perbincangan ini dapat menyumbang kepada pemahaman yang lebih baik tentang pengurusan zakat berdasarkan peranannya sebagai alat untuk membasmi kemiskinan. Kata kunci: Zakat; pembasmian kemiskinan; pengurusan zakat; pengagihan zakat; asnaf

Examining the Effect of Microcredit on Poverty in Malaysia

This study employs a cross-sectional design with stratified random sampling method to examine if the microcredit programme of the Amanah Ikhtiar Malaysia (AIM) improves the income of hardcore poor households. This study uses a quasi-experimental approach and selected control and treatment group members from AIM’s client’s base — new and old clients respectively. It is evident that the AIM’s microcredit programme increased the household’s income and reduced the poverty rate among their hardcore poor clients in Peninsular Malaysia. Findings of the study indicate the effectiveness of microcredit in eradicating poverty. This programme should, therefore, focus on diversifying their products and services in order to increase outreach and decrease inactive borrowers and dropouts.

Vulnerability of Climate Change and Hardcore Poverty in Malaysia

Vulnerability of Climate Change and Hardcore Poverty in Malaysia

Poverty Lines Based on Fuzzy Sets Theory and its Application to Malaysian Data

Defining the poverty line has been acknowledged as being highly variable by the majority of published literature. Despite long discussions and successes, poverty line has a number of problems due to its arbitrary nature. This paper proposes three measurements of poverty lines using membership functions based on fuzzy set theory. The three membership functions, namely exponential, trapezoidal and quadratic sigmoid together with their calculation steps are discussed. Average monthly household incomes of Malaysians are used to illustrate the proposed poverty line. Three new sets of poverty lines were derived for 3 years as numerical application to the proposed membership functions. The numerical results show the flexibility of poverty lines resulted from the composition of the proposed functions. It suggests that the official poverty line for Malaysians is too low thus creating an underestimation of the extent of poverty in Malaysia.

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 Malaysia's 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.

The Determinants of Urban Household Poverty in Malaysia

Since independence in 1950s Malaysia has been recognized as one of the more successful countries in fighting poverty: head count ratio came down to 5.7% by 2004. However the recent process of rapid urbanization has led to an increase of urban poverty aggravated further by the 1997 Asian financial crisis. It is important to understand the nature and scale of urbanization, the various driving forces that affect it and the determinants of urban poverty as linked to this process. Our research identified the determinants of urban poverty in Malaysia using a logistic regression. A sample of 2,403 urban households from the 2004-05 Household Expenditure Survey (HES) had been used in this research. We first estimated the probability of households with specified characteristics to fall below Malaysia’s official poverty line. Then we analyzed the sensitivity of the probability estimated to shift of the poverty line over a reasonable range. Results showed that human capital significantly reduced the chance of being poor while migrant workers are more prone to poverty. Household size, race and regions were also important determinants of poverty outcome in urban Malaysia. The findings had important policy implications for Malaysian government which had pledged to reduce overall poverty rate to 2.8% and eradicated hardcore poverty by 2010 under the Ninth Malaysian Plan.

Modern Malaysia in the global economy: political and social change into the 21st century

Part 1 General: introduction, Colin Barlow. Part 2 Economics and income distribution: the macroeconomy up to 1997, Prema-chandra Athukorala openness to trade, capital and labour flows up to the Currency Crisis - degree and impacts, Jayant Menon the 1997 Currency Crisis and subsequent policy response, Michael Yap Meow-Chung structural change in Malaysian manufacturing industry, Tan Eu Chye and Mohamed Ariff income distribution in Malaysia, Zainal Aznam Yusof poverty in Malaysia, Nasir Hashim the development paradigm shift in Sabah, Pang Teck Wai the new realities for Sarawak, Michael Leigh. Part 3 Politics and other aspects: politics after Mahathir, Khoo Boo Teik Malaysia's foreign policy, Chandra Muzaffar Melayu Baru and modernization of Malay society, Abdul Rahman Embong the Chinese in Malaysia, Lee Kam Hing the struggle for women's rights within the religious framework - the experiences of sisters in Islam, Zainah Anwar non-government organizations (NGOs) as a vehicle of social change, Chandra Muzaffar. Part 4 Conclusions, Colin Barlow.

Distribution of Income and Expansion of Education in some East Asian Countries

This paper examines the trends in income inequality in Singapore during 1974–1999 using Labour Force Survey data of Government of Singapore. It is found that income inequality in Singapore is quite high. This paper investigates the Singapore government’s efforts in bringing about equality in educational opportunity. This paper also examines the relationship between inequality and poverty in Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand. Governments’ efforts in these three countries in bringing social justice through enhancing educational opportunities are examined at a comparative basis.

Path Independent Inequality Measures

This paper explores a natural decomposition property motivated by Shorrocks (1980, Econometrica48, 613–625) and Anand (1983, “Inequality and poverty in Malaysia,” Oxford University Press) that we call path independent decomposability. Between-group inequality is found by applying the inequality measure to the smoothed distribution, which replaces each income in a subgroup with its representative income. Within-group inequality is the measure applied to the standardized distribution, which rescales subgroup distributions to a common representative income level. Path independence requires overall inequality to be the sum of these two terms. We derive the associated class of relative inequality measures—a single parameter family containing both the second Theil measure (the mean logarithmic deviation) and the variance of logarithms. Journal of Economic Literature Classification Numbers: C43, D31, D63, 015.

Educational and Income Inequality in Malaysia

The poverty rate in Malaysia has dropped tremendously, whereas income inequality has followed an upward and downward trend. Beginning 1957/58 until 1990, Malaysia has completed one cycle of Kuznets Inverted‐U Hypothesis. However, since the 1990s income inequality is beginning to move upward again. One of the major concerned by the government in line to reduce poverty and income inequality is the role of education. Inequality in educational attainment may contribute inequality in income distribution. This paper attempts to analyze trend of income inequality and poverty in Malaysia. The main objectives of this paper are to look at the distribution of employment by educational status and the relationship between educational attainments amongst employees with income inequality.

BOOK REVIEW

The Books Reviewed in this Article: Income Inequality and Poverty in Malaysia by Shireen Mardziah Hashim, Lanham, Md., Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 1998, xxv + 243pp.

Income Inequality and Poverty in Malaysia

Income Inequality and Poverty in Malaysia

Urban development and urban poverty in Malaysia

Reports that urban poverty in Malaysia is not considered a serious phenomenon; however, rapid urbanization and industrialization is expected to bring in rural migrants into urban centres bringing along low incomes while putting pressure on urban services, infrastructure and the environment. Reviews past and present trends of urbanization and urban poverty, especially in the metropolitan city of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and highlights evidence on the nature and causes of urban poverty based on a recent survey of urban poverty in Kuala Lumpur. Also assesses past policies on urban development and urban poverty alleviation programmes and makes recommendations for alternative policies.

NEW BUDGET STANDARD POVERTY LINES FOR MALAYSIA

In this paper, shortcomings of the official poverty line are examined. A new set of budget standard poverty lines were derived for various years between 1959 and 1981, by first estimating the food budget for Malaysian households. Then, an allowance for non‐food items was obtained on the basis of the estimated food budget, and the relationship between the proportion of income allocated on food and non‐food items, together yielding the poverty line. The results suggest that the official and other estimates of the poverty line income were generally higher, and thus have overestimated the extent of poverty in Malaysia.

Development in Malaysia: Poverty, Wealth and Trusteeship

Part One 1. The origins of Economic Trusteeship Part Two 2. The Structure and Incidence of Rural Poverty in Malaysia 3. Rural Poverty and Policy Interventions Under Trusteeship 4. Managed Industrialisation Under Trusteeship Part Three 5. Wealth Concentration Under Trusteeship: Corporate and Human Capital 6. The Social Costs of Trusteeship: Deficits, 'Distributional Coalitions' and Quasi-rents Part Four 7. Summing Up: Problems, Prospects and Alternatives Index

Inequality and poverty in Malaysia: Measurement and decomposition, by Sudhir Anand. New York: Oxford University Press, 1983, 371 pp. Price: $27.50

Inequality and poverty in Malaysia: Measurement and decomposition, by Sudhir Anand. New York: Oxford University Press, 1983, 371 pp. Price: $27.50

Inequality and Poverty in Malaysia: Measurement and Decomposition

This report gives a perspective on Malaysia, by tracing the development and importance of ethnic pluralism in the country. This pluralism has led the government to show special concern for racial income, distribution and, more generally, for racial economic disparities. The income distribution data used in this study were collected through the Post-Enumeration Survey (PES) of 1970. A comparison shows that the PES is the best source of income data to date on household and individual incomes in Malaysia. The broad features of the PES household income distribution show overall inequality in Malaysia to be fairly high. The individual income distributions show large inequalities within the racial groups. These suggest that racial income disparities may be only part of a much wider problem of income inequality in the country. A profile of poverty in Malaysia is constructed, which identifies the poor in terms of socioeconomic variables such as race, location, employment status, occupation, and education. Such information is useful not only in understanding better the correlates and circumstances of poverty, but also in identifying areas of government intervention for the redress of poverty. The reports concludes if there are no data on the distribution of physical wealth among individuals in Malaysia, the breakdown of the personal income distribution by employment status does shed some light on the distribution of capital assets.

ON MEASURING POVERTY

This paper investigates the properties of various measures of poverty and of the “difficulty of alleviation of poverty”. It is found that the ranking properties of both kinds of indices can be quite counter‐intuitive and that they could be misleading if used for policy evaluation. An alternative index is proposed; it is compared to the other indices and seems to fare rather well. To illustrate, a special reference is made to S. Anand's recent article on poverty in Malaysia.

ASPECTS OF POVERTY IN MALAYSIA

This paper is concerned with the definition and measurement of poverty in Malaysia. A poverty line is estimated after considering both the absolute and relative approaches to the definition. Various indices of poverty are discussed, ranging from the simple “incidence of poverty” measure to others which take account of the “poverty gap”. There is a derivation of a new index due to Sen, and alternative normalizations are suggested for it. Estimates of all these measures are presented for Malaysia. Finally, the simple “incidence of poverty” measure, which is decomposable, is adopted to construct a “profile” of the poor in Malaysia.