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Middle East countries have experienced a decline in female labor force participation over the last three decades. Indeed, male labor force participation rates remain higher than that of female labor force, making the gender gap in labor force participation is high. This study empirically investigates the possible determinants of female labor force participation in the Middle East countries. The determinants examined in this study included, fertility rate, female primary education, female secondary education, female tertiary education, urban population, female unemployment, and GDP per capita. For this purpose, the study utilizes the three alternative models of static panel data comprising of the pooled ordinary least squares, random effects, and fixed effects. After obtaining a convenient model, the analysis proceeds with the diagnostic tests to check for multicollinearity, heteroskedasticity, and serial correlation, which, together, make the method reliable. The study comprises the annual panel data for ten Middle East countries covering the period from 1996 to 2018. The data were taken from the World Bank online database, World Development Indicators. The empirical results of this study indicate that female tertiary education has positive and significant impact on female labor force participation rate, while fertility rate, female secondary education, and urbanization rate have negative and significant impact on female labor force participation rate. These results reflect the need for the government to provide tertiary education facilities to female students, and encourage them to pursue their tertiary education in order to increase participation of female in labor force. This is particularly significant as the importance of tertiary education is undeniable in terms of generating highly skilled workers and the declining fertility rate. Moreover, policies in the region should remove barriers to women's labor force participation and at the same time, encourage women's active engagement in the labor market for the achievement of economic benefits. JEL Classifications: J01, J13, J21, C23 Keywords: Female labor force participation rate, fertility rate, female education, Middle East, fixed effects, random effects, Contact author's email address: Email: faridosman@um.edu.my, INTRODUCTION This study is motivated by the low rate of female labor force participation in the Middle East. The rate of female labor force participation in the Middle East region [...]

Manuscript type: Research paper Research aims: This paper examines the intention of repurchase towards biobased detergent among Malaysian consumers using the Stimulus- Organism-Response (SOR) theory. Design/Methodology/Approach: This study used a purposive sampling technique to gather 349 responses for data analysis. Research findings: The findings in this paper shows performance expectancy, environmental concern, product, promotion, and place have a significant relationship to intention to repurchase for biobased detergent. Meanwhile the effort expectancy, social influence, and price have an insignificant relationship to repurchase intention of biobased detergent. Theoretical contribution/Originality: This research provides valuable insights to stakeholders to understand the factors that influence repurchase intention to help their businesses develop and market sustainable products effectively. Practitioner/Policy implications: Examining consumer inclination to repurchase biobased detergents can aid the Malaysian government in assessing the efficacy of related initiatives and making regulatory adjustments as necessary. Research limitation/Implications: The research only focuses on biobased detergent users. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the effects of gender of teachers, teachers' qualification, experience and training on mathematics achievement among eighth grade students in Malaysia using data from the Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) 2003. Only gender of teachers has significant influence on student's achievement in mathematics.

As of December 2017, the Malaysian household debt relative to gross domestic product stood at nearly 85%, of which half of them were the residential housing loans. When the level of household indebtedness reaches high, it posts a negative impact on both households and financial institutions in the event of adverse external shock. Hence, there is a need for a deeper understanding of the default risk factors for residential properties. This paper unveiled the determinants of the Malaysian banks' residential properties nonperforming loans (NPLs) using the Autoregressive Distributed Modelling (ARDL) framework. In the sample period of 2006 to 2017, households bore inflation risk whereby a reduction in the household income adjusted for inflation affected their debt repayment obligation. Besides that, households were found vulnerable during the period of unemployment therefore would be more likely to default when they lost their future income. Further, a negative global crude oil shock and a higher overnight policy rate worsened the level of purchase of residential properties NPLs. Finally, the global financial stress index showed no significant impact, indicating the Malaysian households were less affected by external financial shock in the given context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Malaysia has one of the highest household debts relative to gross domestic product in the Asia region. High indebted households have negative net worth and prone to default even during mild shocks. In most economies including Malaysia, household loan default is dominated by mortgages. In Malaysia, however, credit card debt default rate has been growing faster than mortgage default rate. Thus, this paper analyses how combined global and domestic macroeconomic factors impact on credit card nonperforming loan (NPLs) in Malaysia. Estimates from the Autoregressive Distributed Lags (ARDL) model highlights that in the long run, credit card NPLs are procyclical as strong domestic real output reduces credit card default. The study shows positive global crude oil price shocks reduces the credit card NPLs while a stressed global financial market condition has a reverse effect on credit card NPLs. Further, consumer price index negatively relates to credit card NPLs while monetary policy affects NPLs whereby a cut back of the overnight policy rate reduces credit card debt default. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: Health-related quality of life (HRQoL) is an essential dimension of overall human quality of life, in which disparities have been hypothesised between women and men, as well as between citizens and non-citizens of a country in past literatures. This study is to evaluate and compare the HRQoL of citizens and non-citizens living in greater Kuala Lumpur and Johor Bahru, as well as comparing HRQoL between genders. Materials and Methods: The SF-8 questionnaire was used to collect information from 1,708 respondents (1,032 Malaysian citizens and 676 non-citizens), via face-to-face interview between October and December 2015. Results: Overall, respondents reported moderate HRQoL. Non-citizens reported better HRQoL than the Malaysian citizens, while men reported better HRQoL compared to women (for both citizens and non-citizens). Conclusions: The HRQoL of both citizens and noncitizens' in Malaysia could be improved. Measures should be taken to remove the disparity in HRQoL between men and women, aiming to achieve equal health status for both genders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Introduction: Donors per million population and transplantations per million population are standardized, widely used indicators to assess and compare countries' performance in organ donation and transplantation. This study aims to investigate these two particular metrics of organ donation and transplantation performance, and to introduce a new index, namely, 'transplantations per patients on the waiting list'. Methods: Secondary analyses of data on 23 countries in 2016 were used to construct the transplantations per patients on the waiting list indicator for kidney, liver, pancreas, heart, and lung transplantation, as well as for the transplantation of any of the five aforementioned organs. Results: According to the transplantations per patients on the waiting list, the best-performing countries in terms of organ donation and transplantation are Belarus for kidney transplantation, Finland for liver and pancreas transplantation, Australia for heart transplantation, and France for lung transplantation. Considering all five organs together, Sweden, Australia, Finland, Austria, and Poland were the top five best-performing countries, followed by Spain in the sixth position. Conclusion: The deceased transplantations per patients on the waiting list can be an alternative indicator to assess performance, along with the widely-used donors and transplantations per million population, but still has its limitations in certain scenarios. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Foreign workers in Malaysia face various barriers in accessing health care, which results in many of them being unable to obtain appropriate medical treatment in case of sickness. This study investigates the foreign workers' health care-seeking behavior and the demographic and socioeconomic variables that influence it. Data were collected from 502 foreign workers using a self-administered questionnaire. Multiple logistic regression was used to estimate the influence of demographic and socioeconomic variables on health care-seeking behavior among foreign workers. In cases of severe sickness, 20.5% of foreign workers stated that they will not go or are unlikely to go to a clinic or hospital. The multiple logistic regression revealed that foreign workers' tendency to avoid medical treatment is associated with gender, marital status, monthly income, preferred language of communication, and work classification. Nonetheless, in cases of mild sickness, demographic and socioeconomic variables do not influence foreign workers' health care-seeking behavior.