IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/mos/moswps/2014-54.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Female Labour Force Participation, Infant Mortality and Fertility in Malaysia

Author

Listed:
  • Audrey K.L. Siah
  • Grace H.Y. Lee

Abstract

In reviewing the population policy in 1984, Malaysian government called for a major shift from family planning to family and human resource development to achieve an ultimate population of 70 million by 2100. However, regardless of the government’s initiatives since the 1984, Malaysia’s fertility rate still declined. This study examines the short-run and long-run relationship and causality between female labour force participation rate, infant mortality rate and fertility in a developing country in Asia - Malaysia. We employ the unit root test which allows for two structural breaks, and the break dates are then used as dummy variables in the bounds testing procedure within an autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) modelling approach and Granger-causality test. The results indicate that mortality changes have a significant and positive long-run impact on fertility rate and women’s child bearing decisions are unaffected by their employment situation. In addition, we do not find evidence that presence of children hinders re-employment and continuous female employment.

Suggested Citation

  • Audrey K.L. Siah & Grace H.Y. Lee, 2014. "Female Labour Force Participation, Infant Mortality and Fertility in Malaysia," Monash Economics Working Papers 54-14, Monash University, Department of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:mos:moswps:2014-54
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.buseco.monash.edu.au/eco/research/papers/2014/5414malaysiafemalelaborforceinfantmortalityandfertilitysiahlee.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Tamura, Robert, 2006. "Human capital and economic development," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 79(1), pages 26-72, February.
    2. Gary S. Becker, 1960. "An Economic Analysis of Fertility," NBER Chapters, in: Demographic and Economic Change in Developed Countries, pages 209-240, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. Lalive, Rafael & Zweimüller, Josef, 2005. "Does Parental Leave Affect Fertility and Return-to-Work? Evidence from a "True Natural Experiment"," IZA Discussion Papers 1613, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Luis A. Gil-Alana & Juncal Cunado & Rangan Gupta, 2017. "Persistence, Mean-Reversion and Non-linearities in Infant Mortality Rates," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 131(1), pages 393-405, March.
    2. Dalibor Gottwald & Libor Švadlenka & Hana Pavlisová, 2016. "Human Capital and Growth of E-postal Services: A cross-country Analysis in Developing Countries," Post-Print hal-01307145, HAL.
    3. Waliu Olawale Shittu & Norehan Abdullah & Habiba Muhammed Bello Umar, 2019. "Does Fertility Affect Female Labour Participation Differently in Malaysia and Singapore?," The Indian Journal of Labour Economics, Springer;The Indian Society of Labour Economics (ISLE), vol. 62(2), pages 201-217, June.
    4. Ovikuomagbe Oyedele & Sheriffdeen Adewale Tella, 2023. "Examining the Dynamics of Labour Force Participation, Carbon Dioxide Emission and Population Health in Sub-Saharan Africa," International Journal of Energy Economics and Policy, Econjournals, vol. 13(5), pages 382-393, September.
    5. Seema Narayan & Tri Tung Nguyen & Xuan-Hoa Nghiem, 2021. "Does Economic Integration Increase Female Labour Force Participation? Labour Force Participation?," Bulletin of Monetary Economics and Banking, Bank Indonesia, vol. 24(1), pages 1-34.
    6. Chor Foon Tang & Nai-Peng Tey, 2017. "Low fertility in Malaysia: Can it be explained?," Journal of Population Research, Springer, vol. 34(2), pages 101-118, June.
    7. Ahmet Koncak & Gökhan Konat, 2023. "A Study on Interregional Determinants of Infant Mortality Rate in Turkey with Spatial Econometric Analysis," EKOIST Journal of Econometrics and Statistics, Istanbul University, Faculty of Economics, vol. 0(38), pages 149-170, June.
    8. Arianna Garofalo, 2022. "Fertility and migration," UB School of Economics Working Papers 2022/421, University of Barcelona School of Economics.
    9. Ghosh, Sudeshna, 2017. "South Asian Countries : Economic Growth and Fertility," MPRA Paper 99891, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    10. OlaOluwa S. Yaya & Luis A. Gil-Alana & Acheampong Y. Amoateng, 2019. "Under-5 Mortality Rates in G7 Countries: Analysis of Fractional Persistence, Structural Breaks and Nonlinear Time Trends," European Journal of Population, Springer;European Association for Population Studies, vol. 35(4), pages 675-694, October.
    11. Yew Seng Law & Chung-Khain Wye, 2023. "The effects of fertility on female labour force participation in OECD countries: the role of education and health," Studies in Economics and Econometrics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 47(3), pages 280-302, July.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Thomas Baudin & Robert Stelter, 2022. "The rural exodus and the rise of Europe," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 27(3), pages 365-414, September.
    2. Emilia Del Bono & Andrea Weber & Rudolf Winter-Ebmer, 2012. "Clash Of Career And Family: Fertility Decisions After Job Displacement," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 10(4), pages 659-683, August.
    3. Nguyen Thang Dao & Julio Dávila & Angela Greulich, 2021. "The education gender gap and the demographic transition in developing countries," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 34(2), pages 431-474, April.
    4. Ulla Lehmijoki & Tapio Palokangas, 2009. "Population growth overshooting and trade in developing countries," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 22(1), pages 43-56, January.
    5. Luis Angeles, 2010. "Demographic transitions: analyzing the effects of mortality on fertility," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 23(1), pages 99-120, January.
    6. William Lord & Peter Rangazas, 2006. "Fertility and development: the roles of schooling and family production," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 11(3), pages 229-261, September.
    7. Juan Carlos Córdoba & Marla Ripoll, 2016. "Intergenerational Transfers and the Fertility–Income Relationship," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 126(593), pages 949-977, June.
    8. Tamura, Robert & Simon, Curtis, 2017. "Secular Fertility Declines, Baby Booms, And Economic Growth: International Evidence," Macroeconomic Dynamics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 21(7), pages 1601-1672, October.
    9. Ito, Takahiro & Tanaka, Shinsuke, 2018. "Abolishing user fees, fertility choice, and educational attainment," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 130(C), pages 33-44.
    10. Ragchaasuren Galindev, 2011. "Leisure goods, education attainment and fertility choice," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 16(2), pages 157-181, June.
    11. Edgar Vogel, 2009. "From Malthus to modern growth: child labor, schooling and human capital," MEA discussion paper series 09180, Munich Center for the Economics of Aging (MEA) at the Max Planck Institute for Social Law and Social Policy.
    12. Robert TAMURA & David CUBERES, 2020. "Equilibrium and A-efficient Fertility with Increasing Returns to Population and Endogenous Mortality," JODE - Journal of Demographic Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 86(2), pages 157-182, June.
    13. Jonathan J. ADAMS, 2022. "Urbanization, Long-run Growth, and the Demographic Transition," JODE - Journal of Demographic Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 88(1), pages 31-37, March.
    14. Herwig Immervoll & David Barber, 2005. "Can Parents Afford to Work?: Childcare Costs, Tax-Benefit Policies and Work Incentives," OECD Social, Employment and Migration Working Papers 31, OECD Publishing.
    15. Martin Werding, 2014. "Children are costly, but raising them may pay," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 30(8), pages 253-276.
    16. Cuberes, David & Tamura, Robert, 2014. "Equilibrium and Optimal Fertility with Increasing Returns to Population and Endogenous Fertility," MPRA Paper 57063, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    17. Kevin M. Murphy & Curtis J. Simon & Robert Tamura, 2011. "Black and White Fertility, Differential Baby Booms: The Value of Civil Rights (Equal Opportunity for Education)," 2011 Meeting Papers 238, Society for Economic Dynamics.
    18. Lien, Hsien-Ming & Wang, Ping, 2016. "The timing of childbearing: The role of human capital and personal preferences," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 247-264.
    19. Joel M. Guttman & Avi Tillman, 2017. "Land ownership, the subsistence constraint, and the demographic transition," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 15(3), pages 1017-1036, September.
    20. Koji Yasuda & Tomoko Kinugasa & Shigeyuki Hamori, 2019. "An Empirical Analysis Of Marital Status In Japan," The Singapore Economic Review (SER), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 64(03), pages 773-798, June.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:mos:moswps:2014-54. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Simon Angus (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/dxmonau.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.