IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/cud/journl/v35y2012i97p26-32.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Is economic growth sufficient for poverty alleviation? Empirical evidence from Malaysia

Author

Listed:
  • Dullah Mulok

    (School of Business and Economics, Universiti Malaysia Sabah, Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia)

  • Mori Kogid

    (School of Business and Economics, Universiti Malaysia Sabah, Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia)

  • Rozilee Asid

    (School of Business and Economics, Universiti Malaysia Sabah, Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia)

  • Jaratin Lily

    (School of Business and Economics, Universiti Malaysia Sabah, Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia)

Abstract

Malaysia’s success story has been highlighted by the remarkable social transformation and poverty reduction accompanying rapid economic growth. Some three decades ago, more than half of the population was poor, the number of illiterates was high, and the average person could only hope to live until the age of 48. The proportion of poor people is currently down to 5.6 percent, 90 percent of adults are literate, and life expectancy is up to 68 years. Although Malaysia’s population has increased from approximately 10 million in the 1960s to about 28 million in 2010, the number of poor people has dropped significantly during this period. This paper attempts to determine the empirical relationship and importance of growth for poverty reduction in Malaysia. The results show that growth explains much, but not all, about the evolution of poverty. Economic growth is necessary but not sufficient for poverty reduction, especially if the objective is rapid and sustained poverty reduction. This study proposes that if a policy’s objective is focused on poverty alleviation, poverty reduction as well as economic growth should be simultaneously taken into account as the final target.

Suggested Citation

  • Dullah Mulok & Mori Kogid & Rozilee Asid & Jaratin Lily, 2012. "Is economic growth sufficient for poverty alleviation? Empirical evidence from Malaysia," Cuadernos de Economía - Spanish Journal of Economics and Finance, Asociación Cuadernos de Economía, vol. 35(97), pages 26-32, Abril.
    • Handle: RePEc:cud:journl:v:35:y:2012:i:97:p:26-32
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://repositorio.uam.es/bitstream/handle/10486/681898/CE_97_4.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Citations

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


    Cited by:

    1. Richard Gardiner & Petr Hajek, 2024. "The Role of R&D Intensity and Education in a Model of Inequality, Growth and Risk of Poverty: Evidence from Europe," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 15(1), pages 1845-1870, March.
    2. Rini Efrianti & Taufiq Marwa & Nurlina Tarmizi & Saadah Yuliana, 2018. "Growth, Unemployment And Its Implication On Poverty: Empirical Study In Districts/Cities Of South Sumatera Province," Eurasian Journal of Economics and Finance, Eurasian Publications, vol. 6(4), pages 27-37.
    3. Sena Kimm Gnangnon, 2021. "Poverty volatility and poverty in developing countries," Economic Affairs, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 41(1), pages 84-95, February.
    4. Jorge Garza-Rodriguez, 2018. "Poverty and Economic Growth in Mexico," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 7(10), pages 1-9, September.
    5. Shah Imtiyaz Ahmad & Haq Imtiyaz ul, 2022. "The Impact of Tourism Development and Economic Growth on Poverty Reduction in Kazakhstan," Acta Universitatis Sapientiae, Economics and Business, Sciendo, vol. 10(1), pages 77-90, September.
    6. Yosra Saidi & Mohamed Ali Labidi & Anis Ochi, 2024. "Economic Growth and Extreme Poverty in Sub-Saharan African Countries: Non-Linearity and Governance Threshold Effect," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 15(2), pages 7819-7851, June.
    7. Emmanuel Kumi & Albert Arhin & Thomas Yeboah, 2014. "Can post-2015 sustainable development goals survive neoliberalism? A critical examination of the sustainable development–neoliberalism nexus in developing countries," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 16(3), pages 539-554, June.
    8. Ernawati Ernawati & Tajuddin Tajuddin & Syamsir Nur, 2021. "Does Government Expenditure Affect Regional Inclusive Growth? An Experience of Implementing Village Fund Policy in Indonesia," Economies, MDPI, vol. 9(4), pages 1-12, November.
    9. Egla Mansi & Eglantina Hysa & Mirela Panait & Marian Catalin Voica, 2020. "Poverty—A Challenge for Economic Development? Evidences from Western Balkan Countries and the European Union," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(18), pages 1-24, September.
    10. Manel Kamoun & Ines Abdelkafi & Abdelfetah Ghorbel, 2020. "Does Renewable Energy Technologies and Poverty Affect the Sustainable Growth in Emerging Countries?," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 11(3), pages 865-887, September.
    11. Anushka Verma & Arun K. Giri & Byomakesh Debata, 2023. "Does ICT diffusion reduce poverty? Evidence from SAARC countries," Poverty & Public Policy, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 15(1), pages 8-28, March.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Real GDP; Poverty rate; Cointegration; Causality; Malaysia;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C12 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric and Statistical Methods and Methodology: General - - - Hypothesis Testing: General
    • C13 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric and Statistical Methods and Methodology: General - - - Estimation: General
    • C22 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Single Equation Models; Single Variables - - - Time-Series Models; Dynamic Quantile Regressions; Dynamic Treatment Effect Models; Diffusion Processes
    • I30 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - General
    • O40 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Growth and Aggregate Productivity - - - General

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:cud:journl:v:35:y:2012:i:97:p:26-32. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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: Erick Tinsson (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    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.