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Female labour force participation, infant mortality and fertility in Malaysia

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

Abstract

In reviewing the population policy in 1984, the 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 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, 2015. "Female labour force participation, infant mortality and fertility in Malaysia," Journal of the Asia Pacific Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 20(4), pages 613-629, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:rjapxx:v:20:y:2015:i:4:p:613-629
    DOI: 10.1080/13547860.2015.1045326
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Tamura, Robert, 2006. "Human capital and economic development," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 79(1), pages 26-72, February.
    2. 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).
    3. 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.
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    Citations

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    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, March.
    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. Arup MITRA & Sabyasachi TRIPATHI, 2024. "Do More Women Find Employment As The Urban Population Grows?," Theoretical and Empirical Researches in Urban Management, Research Centre in Public Administration and Public Services, Bucharest, Romania, vol. 19(2), pages 88-117, May.
    12. 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.

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