Search

The information on extra costs of disability among developing countries, including Malaysia, is lacking and the issue seems neglected. As a result, an appropriate amount of monetary assistance that should be provided to the disabled community in Malaysia could not be determined. This paper undertakes a preliminary analysis of the extra costs of having a disability, by taking the staff of International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM) as the sample as to calculate the extra costs of having a disability. The standard of living approach is adopted, and the extra costs are calculated by dividing the estimated coefficient of disability variables by the estimated coefficient of income. This paper analyses the extra costs among households containing one person with disabilities, and also across different severity levels, types of disability, according to gender, and residential area (i.e. urban or rural). Overall, a household containing one person with disabilities accounted 27.5 per cent out of their monthly income to fulfil disability-related needs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is based on a larger ethnographic study of Bidayuh women who are a group of minority indigenous women in the Malaysian stat of Sarawak. The paper discusses women's entry into paid work and life-course squeezes. As the women earned a mere 39 per cent of their husbands' monthly wages even though they had the same years of schooling if not more than their husbands, the women's views on work and marriage are examined. The paper also explores the feminist question as to whether women's employment increases their personal autonomy and independence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Race-based preferential policies have been employed in the United States and other countries such as Malaysia, South Africa, Brazil, and India to foster economic development among economically marginalized ethnic groups. This research applies a two-player signaling model to help understand labor-market effects of race-based preferential policies used in college admissions. The model shows that in the context of imperfect information in the labor market, purely race-based forms of preferential policies in college admissions are likely to lead to statistical discrimination by future employers, reducing the equilibrium wage of targeted minority groups for both college graduates and non-college graduates. In addition, average wages of the targeted group remain unchanged in the model, with the targeted group being worse off to the extent that educational signaling is costly. In conclusion, the paper argues that race-base preferences cannot substitute for policies and programs that genuinely address imbalances in college preparation between ethnic groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper compares early employment outcomes (in terms of income levels and job satisfaction) of Malaysian graduates educated locally with those educated abroad (specifically in US and UK). Factors likely to be related to these outcomes were identified by a comprehensive literature study. A regression model was developed containing the factors identified above. Questionnaire responses from over 400 recent Malaysian graduates were incorporated into the model. Model results show a significant relationship between income levels and gender, duration of employment, self-esteem, ownership, academic major and English proficiency. Surprisingly, location of study was not statistically significant. Furthermore, location of study was not significantly related to job satisfaction either. However job-fit index, self esteem, income and satisfaction with the University were found to bear significant relationships with job satisfaction. The policy implication of these findings were explored. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]