Income inequality has become a major economic
growth problem faced by most countries in the world. The income
gap that exists between the rich and the poor grows wider every
year. The Malaysian government have set up multiple economic
policies and provided various aids that focuses on improving the
B40's economic situation and reduce the income gap that exist
amongst them. Data for this study are obtained from the
Household Income Survey (HIS). This study makes the
comparison on the range and average of income amongst the B40
household income of each state in Malaysia. This comparison
analyses the income gap that exist amongst the local households.
Income inequalities amongst B40 households are prominent in
Selangor, which recorded a huge income gap amongst the
households. Kelantan has the lowest maximum and average
income value amongst B40 from all states. The demographic
factors that have significant impacts on the distribution of income
amongst the B40 population in Malaysia was analysed using
regression models. Residential area, levels of academic studies
and working status of the head of household are the factors that
effects B40 populations in Malaysia.
This paper investigates the linkages among economic growth, small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and employees in Malaysia. It uses the total number of SME employees as a third variable to be associated with economic and SME growth using a panel dataset covering the period from 1998 to 2017. There are five main economic sectors in Malaysia: agriculture, construction, mining, manufacturing and services. The aim of the paper is to provide a better understanding of the relationship between SMEs, economic growth and the number of employees in the different sectors. Our findings indicate various causal relationships among the three variables in different sectors. The results of the study found that Malaysian economic growth contributed to the growth of the SME sector. In contrast, it showed that the growth of the SME sector only contributed to the growth of the manufacturing industry. The information gained will be useful for policymakers and help the government to plan for the future of the country by focusing on worthwhile activity. Contribution/Originality: The paper's primary contribution is finding that SME is a key driver in contributed to the economic growth only in manufacturing activities. Otherwise in other activities, we found that the economic growth was the factor that stimulated the SMEs and at the same time increased the total number of employees.
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