IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ukm/jlekon/v46y2012i2p127-139.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

An Analysis of the Reduction of the Ethnic Economic Gap in Malaysia under the New Economy Policy: Evidence from Ethnic Occupation Segregation and Wage Differential

Author

Listed:
  • Shahiri, Hazrul Izuan

    (Fakulti Ekonomi dan Pengurusan Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia 43600 UKM Bangi Selangor MALAYSIA)

Abstract

This paper estimates the ethnic economic gap in Malaysia before the New Economic Policy (NEP) in 1970 and after the end of the NEP in 1986. Specifically, this paper uses the Duncan Dissimilarity Index to estimate occupation segregation between ethnic Malays and the ethnic Chinese; ethnic Malays and ethnic Indians; and the ethnic Chinese and ethnic Indians before and after the policy. Next, the paper estimates the wage gap between the three ethnicities by using A Generalized Oaxaca Decomposition, both before and after the NEP. The data of this study is obtained from two principal sources. Data concerning wage and salary figures is obtained fromthe1966-67 West Malaysian Family Survey; 1976-77 First Malaysian Family Life Survey; and the 1988 Second Malaysian Family Life Survey. The other sources of data variables are obtained from the 1970 Population Census of Peninsular Malaysia; the 1980 Population Census of Peninsular Malaysia; and the 1991 Population and Housing Census of Malaysia. The study finds that occupation segregation was reduced between all ethnicities by the end of the NEP. However, the wage gap between the ethnic Chinese and ethnic Malays; and the ethnic Chinese and ethnic Indians continued to rise after 1986.Additionally, while the wage gap decreased between ethnic Malays and ethnic Indians in some specific occupations, the wage gap increased between ethnic Malays and the ethnic Chinese in all specific occupations during the same period.

Suggested Citation

  • Shahiri, Hazrul Izuan, 2012. "An Analysis of the Reduction of the Ethnic Economic Gap in Malaysia under the New Economy Policy: Evidence from Ethnic Occupation Segregation and Wage Differential," Jurnal Ekonomi Malaysia, Faculty of Economics and Business, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, vol. 46(2), pages 127-139.
    • Handle: RePEc:ukm:jlekon:v:46:y:2012:i:2:p:127-139
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.ukm.my/jem/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/jeko_462-11.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. repec:eee:labchp:v:3:y:1999:i:pc:p:3143-3259 is not listed on IDEAS
    2. Leping, Kristian-Olari & Toomet, Ott, 2008. "Emerging ethnic wage gap: Estonia during political and economic transition," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 36(4), pages 599-619, December.
    3. Ishak Shari, 2000. "Economic Growth And Income Inequality In Malaysia, 1971–95," Journal of the Asia Pacific Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 5(1-2), pages 112-124.
    4. Gallup, John, 1997. "Ethnicity And Earnings In Malaysia," Harvard Institute for International Development (HIID) Papers 294413, Harvard University, Kennedy School of Government.
    5. Tony Fang & John S. Heywood, 2010. "Immigration, Ethnic Wage Differentials and Output Pay in Canada," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 48(1), pages 109-130, March.
    6. Altonji, Joseph G. & Blank, Rebecca M., 1999. "Race and gender in the labor market," Handbook of Labor Economics, in: O. Ashenfelter & D. Card (ed.), Handbook of Labor Economics, edition 1, volume 3, chapter 48, pages 3143-3259, Elsevier.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Toomet, Ott & Van Der Leij, Marco & Rolfe, Meredith, 2013. "Social networks and labor market inequality between ethnicities and races," Network Science, Cambridge University Press, vol. 1(3), pages 321-352, December.
    2. Kerly Krillo & Jaan Masso, 2010. "The Part-Time/Full-Time Wage Gap in Central and Eastern Europe: the Case of Estonia," Research in Economics and Business: Central and Eastern Europe, Tallinn School of Economics and Business Administration, Tallinn University of Technology, vol. 2(1).
    3. Jaanika Meriküll & Pille Mõtsmees, 2017. "Do you get what you ask? The gender gap in desired and realised wages," International Journal of Manpower, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 38(6), pages 893-908, September.
    4. Victor Hiller, 2014. "Gender Inequality, Endogenous Cultural Norms, and Economic Development," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 116(2), pages 455-481, April.
    5. Mujcic, Redzo & Frijters, Paul, 2013. "Still Not Allowed on the Bus: It Matters If You're Black or White!," IZA Discussion Papers 7300, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    6. José de Sousa & Guillaume Hollard, 2021. "From Micro to Macro Gender Differences: Evidence from Field Tournaments," Post-Print hal-03389151, HAL.
    7. Hirsch, Boris, 2007. "Joan Robinson Meets Harold Hotelling : A Dyopsonistic Explanation of the Gender Pay Gap," Discussion Papers 51, Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg, Chair of Labour and Regional Economics.
    8. Valentine Fays & Benoît Mahy & François Rycx, 2023. "Wage differences according to workers' origin: The role of working more upstream in GVCs," LABOUR, CEIS, vol. 37(2), pages 319-342, June.
    9. Ye Zhang, 2020. "Discrimination in the Venture Capital Industry: Evidence from Field Experiments," Papers 2010.16084, arXiv.org, revised Aug 2022.
    10. Thomas Buser & Muriel Niederle & Hessel Oosterbeek, 2014. "Gender, Competitiveness, and Career Choices," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 129(3), pages 1409-1447.
    11. Carneiro, Pedro & Heckman, James J & Masterov, Dimitriy V, 2005. "Labor Market Discrimination and Racial Differences in Premarket Factors," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 48(1), pages 1-39, April.
    12. Saugato Datta & Vikram Pathania, 2016. "For whom does the phone (not) ring? Discrimination in the rental housing market in Delhi, India," WIDER Working Paper Series 055, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    13. Christian Pfeifer & Gesine Stephan, 2019. "Why women do not ask: gender differences in fairness perceptions of own wages and subsequent wage growth," Cambridge Journal of Economics, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 43(2), pages 295-310.
    14. Jonas Agell & Helge Bennmarker, 2003. "Endogenous Wage Rigidity," CESifo Working Paper Series 1081, CESifo.
    15. Kelley Sarussi & Thomas Walstrum, 2019. "Education and the Evolution of Earnings Across Population Groups Since 2000," Profitwise, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, issue 5, pages 1-13.
    16. Contreras, Dulce/D & Sánchez, Rosario/R & Soria, Delfina/D, 2012. "Mobility, wages and gender across Europe," MPRA Paper 42589, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised Nov 2012.
    17. Cowan, Benjamin & Schwab, Benjamin, 2016. "Employer-sponsored health insurance and the gender wage gap," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 103-114.
    18. Ritwik Banerjee & Nabanita Datta Gupta, 2015. "Awareness Programs and Change in Taste-Based Caste Prejudice," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 10(4), pages 1-17, April.
    19. David Bravo Urrutia & Sergio Urzúa & Claudia Sanhueza, 2007. "Is There Labor Market Discrimination Among Professionals In Chile? Lawyers, Doctors And Business-People," Working Papers wp264, University of Chile, Department of Economics.
    20. Benjamin Bennett & Isil Erel & Léa H. Stern & Zexi Wang, 2020. "Paid Leave Pays Off: The Effects of Paid Family Leave on Firm Performance," NBER Working Papers 27788, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Oaxaca; Occupation; segregation; wage;
    All these keywords.

    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:ukm:jlekon:v:46:y:2012:i:2:p:127-139. 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: Muhammad Asri Abd Ghani (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/feukmmy.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.