Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship among fertility, female education and female labour participation in ASEAN-7 countries: Malaysia, Indonesia, Brunei, Myanmar, the Philippines, Vietnam and Thailand, between 1990 and 2015. The choice of these countries is informed by their economic, social and political importance in the ASEAN Bloc; while Indonesia boasts of the largest population in ASEAN, Brunei and Malaysia boast of relatively advanced economies, in GDP terms. Design/methodology/approach Pesaran’s test of panel unit root in the presence of cross-sectional dependence was employed to test for the stationarity properties of the series. The dynamic long-run coefficients of the variables were examined using the pooled mean group, common correlated effect and dynamic OLS techniques, while the Granger causality test was used to estimate the direction of causality among the variables. Findings The findings indicate that there is both negative and positive relationship between fertility and labour force participation, with causality running from labour force participation through fertility – on the one hand, and between education and labour force participation, with no causality between the two – on the other hand. Research limitations/implications The study, therefore, upholds the role incompatibility and societal response hypothesis, as well as human capital and opportunity cost theories. Practical implications The appropriate policies are those that gear the countries’ fertility decisions towards the societal response hypothesis in order to enhance human capital development and increase productivity. This implies that the governments of ASEAN-7 countries should ease hindrances on a balanced combination of family-care and workforce participation on married women in view of the gender-wage gap created by female work apathy, which largely reduces domestic productivities. Appropriate policies in this direction include rising availability and affordability of childcare facilities, incentives for women higher education, attitudinal changes towards job-participating mothers, as well as legislated paid parental leaves which have balanced the, hitherto, incompatibility between work and childbearing. Originality/value Except for Abdullah et al. (2013), the authors have no knowledge of other authors who have worked on this relationship in the chosen ASEAN countries. This study is, however, an improvement upon that of Abdullah et al. (2013) in different ways, one of which is that it considers seven ASEAN countries, thus making the results more valid representation of the ASEAN Bloc. Furthermore, the Pesaran (2007) technique of unit root testing has not been found in any recent literature on the subject-matter. This technique, being a second-generation test, tests variable unit root in the presence of cross-sectional dependence.

Purpose Oil palm is a labor-intensive crop where the labor issue is one of the most intransigent problems facing the industry. The negative perception toward this sector associated with the unattractive working environment which commonly refers to dark, dirty and dangerous has distress local youth to stay away from this occupation. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to explore the level of job satisfaction among oil palm plantation workers in Malaysia and analyze the factors that contribute to their satisfaction level. Design/methodology/approach The survey was conducted in 2014 through interviews from the selected samples of oil palm plantation workers who aged ranging from 16 to 40 years old, which was considered as youth category and staying within the location 5 km radius within the plantation area. The structural equation modeling is used to analyze the factors affecting job satisfaction among workers in the plantation sector. Findings The study found that the government and employer policies associated with plantation worker and economic profitability offered in this sector were the most significant factors that positively contribute to the joy of working among them. On the other hand, the negative relationship between working environment and perception of social job status with job satisfaction proven that these two factors were repulsion factors. Research limitations/implications Currently, with the local youth negative perception on the agriculture sector and Indonesia’s economy booming and wages on the rise, Malaysia is struggling to attract new expatriate workers and retain those already active in the sector. Oil palm plantation companies have to counter this by enhancing worker’s welfare to ensure their job satisfaction in plantation environment. This study is to convince the organization that worker’s job satisfaction is a crucial factor to enhance their performance. With the strategy recommended by this study, employees will be getting higher level of job satisfaction, thus increasing their performance and enjoying working in the plantation sector. Originality/value To the best of the author’s knowledge, there are yet to be studies that look at the agricultural employees’ job satisfaction particularly in the plantation sector. Most of the previous studies in the field of plantation sector highlight on the labor productivity, economic performance of palm oil plantation sector and environmental impact of oil palm plantation. Thus, this study provides a better understanding of the factors that contribute to job satisfaction among plantation workers.

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Determining factors that affect healthcare utilization by the elderly is vital for the health system to be more responsive in providing care to this vulnerable group. The main objective of this paper is to identify the effect of the predisposing, enabling, and need factors on doctor visits and in-patient care for the elderly residing in the northern region of Malaysia. A multistage cluster sampling was used in selecting the sample for the study. A total of 1414 respondents aged 60 and over were interviewed face-to-face using a structured questionnaire. A probit model was used in estimating the utilization equations. At a significance level of 0.05, except for age, all predisposing and enabling factors were not statistically significant in affecting the doctor visits. On the other hand, being a male, smoker, medical insurance holder or had not actively involved in social interaction within the reference period increases the likelihood of being in-patient. Health-related variables remain the most significant factors that determine healthcare utilization, including both doctor visits and in-patient stays, in the area of study, which suggests that government policies to improve population health may influence the level of healthcare use in the future.

The study of changes and choices of living arrangements among older persons has been a key element of demography and sociology of the family. While many studies focus on the elderly respondents in understanding this matter, our aim is to seek answers from the pre-elderly adults concerning their preferred oldage living arrangements and analyse the factors affecting the choice. A multistage sampling technique was used in selecting the respondents aged 40 to 59 years from Peninsular Malaysia. The total of 1,153 respondents were interviewed face-to-face using a structured questionnaire and it was found that 83.8% of the respondents prefer growing old in their own homes. From the probit model, it suggests that age and household size have negatively influenced the likelihood of the elderly to live in their own homes while being a male has the opposite effect. Those who are married or divorced, at work, earn more than RM15,000 a month and have formal education are more likely to prefer to grow old in their own homes as compared to other alternatives. Understand the choices of the pre-elderly groups are deemed vital for early intervention. A comprehensive support system is needed to endorse the popular choice of independent living at old age. JEL Classification: J14

Rantau Panjang Duty-free Zone is located between the state of Kelantan (Malaysia) and Golok Town (Thailand). This paper seeks to identify issues and problems faced by traders in the Rantau Panjang Duty-free Zone. In addition, the study also aims to identify socio-demographic characteristics of the traders, especially in terms of their citizenship status, sources of supply, ownership status of business premises, sources of capital and income. Data collection using questionnaire, conducted via face to face interviews with 52 traders as respondents, indicates that the main issue facing local traders is competing with traders from Thailand who rent business premises owned by local citizens. About 77% of the premises were rented from the original owner without the knowledge of the authorities. The issue of dual citizenships is still an unanswered question when 48% or the respondents refused to ISSN 1948-5468 2012 www.macrothink.org/jsr 47 answer the relevant question. The weakness of enforcement along the Sungai Golok and Rantau Panjang Duty-free Zone causes smuggling of goods where most of the smuggled goods are traded in the business premises in the Duty-free Zone. This study also found that about 70% of the traders" sources of supply are from Thailand, brought-in either legally or illegally. There are a total of 73% of women traders, and about 82% of the capital for business come from own savings or family assistance. Journal of Sociological Research

This article analyses the women labor force participation in Malaysia. The rapid absorption of women into the labor market has been influenced by several factors. The rapid economic growth was due largely to important growth in the manufacturing and services sectors, where substantial and proportionally larger increase of female workers has been registered. Among all sectors of the economy, the manufacturing sector has recorded the highest growth rate during the last decade. The rising in the female labor force participation may also be attributable to improving economic incentives in employment and policies favoring the employment of women. In addition, the combined effects of the increase in years of schooling, access to family planning services, improved maternal and availability of child care, leading to arise in the average age at marriage, have allowed women to take advantage of the increased employment opportunities.

Malaysia dijangka akan menghadapi fenomena menua tahun 2030. Pada tahun 2020 sahaja, warga tua di Malaysia dijangka mencecah 3.21 juta orang. Arus modenisasi banyak mengubah struktur keluarga di Malaysia sehingga perancangan masa hadapan dilihat penting dalam kehidupan. Pertimbangan dalam menempuh kehidupan waktu tua adalah penting untuk masa hadapan bagi mencapai kesejahteraan hidup. Kajian ini dilakukan bagi mengenalpasti keutamaan penyusunan hidup masa tua bagi lelaki dan wanita di Malaysia. Skop kajian ini meliputi tiga wilayah koridor ekonomi (NCER, ECER dan Iskandar) dan bancian yang dibuat terhadap bakal warga emas yang dipilih secara persampelan rawak berstrata. Sejumlah 1153 responden berbangsa Melayu yang terdiri daripada kumpulan umur 40-59 tahun telah berjaya diperolehi dan dianalisis secara deskriptif. Hasil kajian menunjukkan bahawa tiada perbezaan pilihan kehidupan masa tua antara lelaki dan wanita. Berbanding lelaki, responden wanita didapati lebih cenderung untuk tinggal bersama anak-anak berbanding tinggal bersendirian sebagai pilihan kedua. Responden lelaki tidak berminat untuk tinggal di institusi pondok, berbanding wanita yang menganggap tinggal di pondok sebagai salah satu alternatif pilihan hidup bagi meningkatkan pengetahuan agama mereka. Walau bagaimanapun, keseluruhan kajian menunjukkan responden lebih memberi keutamaan untuk tinggal di kediaman sendiri berdasarkan faktor keselesaan untuk diri mereka. Oleh itu, hasil kajian ini dapat menyumbang idea kepada pihak berwajib dalam merancang dasar-dasar yang sesuai untuk bakal warga emas masa hadapan. Kata kunci: gender, kehidupan masa tua, kesejahteraan hidup, perancangan, pilihan, warga emas