Social Justice and Affirmative Action in Malaysia: The New Economic Policy after 50 Years

Malaysia's New Economic Policy (NEP), promulgated in 1971, established a two-pronged national social justice agenda of poverty reduction, and social restructuring or pro-Bumiputera affirmative action. This distinction of these policy objectives must be appreciated, but various misconceptions, especially regarding affirmative action, have resulted in polarization and stalemate after 50 years of the NEP. Social justice and affirmative action must be conceptualized and evaluated with clarity and rigor, with policy objectives, mechanisms and outcomes aligned. Malaysia needs to systematically formulate a new social justice paradigm, building on the NEP and anchored on the principles of equality and fairness. In the affirmative action sphere, this framework must focus on developing capability and competitiveness, and balance identity, need and merit in the allocation of opportunity.     

“Bad” Decisions,Poverty, and Economic Theory: The Individualist and Social Perspectives in Light of “The American Myth”

Social outcomes are analyzed either by placing responsibility for those outcomes on the individual or to locate the cause in a specific social factor – discrimination. Here, I argue that individual decision-making cannot be the cause of poverty, illustrative of one outcome, and that commentary specifying a particular social factor is insufficient to address the fundamental, underlying cause of poverty. Rather, one must examine the nature of the economic system that lies at the root of such issues. In the process of developing the argument, it is shown that the individualist explanation of poverty is linked to the neoclassical framework, and that this individualist explanation is a product of the (capitalist) economic system itself which then induces an ideology both privileging such an explanation and preventing the development of satisfactory theory that would inform proper policy. An example of this point is drawn from the 1960’s “war on poverty” program.

The Concept of “Progressive” Institutional Change and Its Implications for Economic Policy Formation

Institutional economics has long shown that entrepreneurship plays a critical role in the pursuit of economic development and wellbeing. At the same time, entrepreneurship is complex and evolving. The path between entrepreneurship and wellbeing is not clear-cut, and not all types of entrepreneurial activity are correlated with economic growth. Failure to acknowledge this heterogeneity has important consequences for entrepreneurship policy and human development, particularly where gender is concerned. The paper treats the complexities involved in defining and conceptualizing entrepreneurship, setting the stage for a focus on the gender dimension. As female entrepreneurial activity has risen in many countries around the world, it is important to acknowledge the diversity of such activity and the ways it does (or does not) correspond to an increase in human freedom. Highlighting the differences between necessity and opportunity entrepreneurship, this paper illustrates the formal and informal institutions that shape gender inequity in the entrepreneurial environment. It concludes with some suggestions for addressing this important issue.     

An Empirical Study on the Relationship between Diversification and Corporate Performance

Based on the earlier work, this paper re-examines the relationship between diversification and corporate performance and finds a statistically significant U-shape relationship in the Chinese market. The result is tested and confirmed for robustness by controlling for the firm size, age and indusu＇y effects. The findings do not support the notion that diversification is a return-reducing strategy and the understanding in the western economic and financial literature about diversification performance may not be automatically applicable to the case of China.     

Is the CSR Craze Good for Society? The Welfare Economic Approach to Corporate Social Responsibility

Abstract

Welfare economic analysis of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) equates CSR with the provision of private goods bundled with provision of public goods (or, in the symmetrical case, bundled with the curtailment of public bads). Two common examples are cause-related marketing and “green goods” where private goods are sold at premiums that are then used to pay for provision of public goods and/or curtailment of public bads. This paper expands upon the model of Besley and Ghatak (2007 Besley, T. and Ghatak, M. 2007. “Retailing Public Goods: The Economics of Corporate Social Responsibility,”. Journal of Public Economics, 91(9): 1645–1663. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) for the case of imperfect government to develop a complete typology for analyzing whether the provision/curtailment of public goods/bads will be best served by companies (through CSR), by imperfect governments or by non-profit organizations. Finally the paper discusses the main differences between the welfare economic approach to CSR and the general multi-disciplinary CSR literature.     

A note on ‘Corporate Social Responsibility and Marketing Channel Coordination’

Goering (2012) works on a bilateral monopoly with perfect marketing channel coordination to analyze the effects of corporate social responsibility. He starts the analysis of a bilateral monopoly with socially concerned firms where either the manufacturer or the retailer is additionally to its profit interested in a share of consumer surplus. In this short note, we extend this analysis and study the case where both firms are socially concerned. As a result, we enlarge the analysis started by Goering (2012) and get further interesting insights into a bilateral monopoly with corporate social responsibility. First, we are able to summarize ‘Proposition 1’ and ‘Proposition 4’ into a common one and figure out the circumstances when the wholesale price fixed by the manufacturer is below marginal costs. Second, we explain analytically the findings from ‘Proposition 3’ and ‘Proposition 6’. We point out the model's key assumption – the perfectly coordinated marketing channel – as the driver of the results and the reason for the equilibrium results' independence from retailer's social concern.     

The Dragon-shape Strategy of China＇s Regional Economic Development and Policy Analysis

According to this paper, the dragon-shape strategy is the optimized option of China＇s future strategy with respect to the geographic distribution of regional economy.     

The Impact of the Corporate Social Responsibility on China Textile ＆ Apparel＇s Competitiveness

This paper introduces the situation and the comparative advantage of Chinese textile ＆ apparel industry. The negative impact of Corporate Social Responsibility on Chinese textile ＆ apparel＇s competitiveness is that it will alter corporation＇s pricing strategies and lack of green competitiveness. The positive impact is that it will uphold enterprise competitiveness and upgrade enterprise strategy resilience. Chinese textile and apparel should mix CSR strategy into enterprise production, management, employees＇ training as well as the marketing in order to improve its competitiveness.     

Demographic Factors,Corporate Social Responsibility,Employee Engagement and Corporate Reputation： A Perspective From Hotel Industries In Indonesia

Hotel as a hospitality industry should manage its reputation as a valuable asset for the business continuity. The hotel＇s reputation is built up by the employee＇s perceptions of treatment and sense of belonging and engagement of the hotel. The purpose of this study is to analyze employee＇s perceptions of corporate social responsibility （CSR） activities, employee engagement, and corporate reputation that have been undertaken by the hotel industry in Jakarta and how demographic factors influence these perceptions. The structure equation model （SEM） was implemented to find each variable influence. Samples were taken from hotel employees who work in five-star hotels in Jakarta with 221 respondents （response rate 78.9%）. The results indicate that CSR activities significantly influence employee engagement and corporate reputation, and at the same time, employee engagement significantly influences cor0orate reputation.     

The National State and Identity Politics: State Institutionalisation and “Markers” of National Identity

Nationality has been a key identity in international relations for much of the modern period, and the marriage of “nation” and “state” produced a powerful polity – the national state – that dominated global politics. This article investigates the forces that “pushed” and “pulled” nations and states together and explores the factors associated with violent identity politics. It argues that while recent decades have witnessed increasing instances of divorce between “nation” and “state” and a simultaneous proliferation of identity conflicts, the likelihood that identity conflicts will be expressed violently depends both on the character of the state (the timing of state institutionalisation relative to the construction of national consciousness, the democratic or non-democratic nature of the state, and the national or non-national basis for the legitimation of state authority) and on the principal “marker” used to construct national identity (blood, language, culture, religion, or citizenship).     

The Reasolis Why Informal Finance Exists and Some Suggestions on Policy

Compared with formal finance, informal finance owns advantages in information and collateral. These are the reasons why informal finance exists widely in many ways. However, informal finance has its deficiencies too. On the basis of the analysis of the advantages and deficiencies of informal finance, the paper also offers some suggestions on policy that government should adopt on informal finance.     

Pigou,Del Vecchio,and Sraffa: the 1955 International “Antonio Feltrinelli” Prize for the Economic and Social Sciences

In 1955, the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei awarded the inaugural International “Feltrinelli” Prize for the Economic and Social Sciences to Arthur Cecil Pigou. This paper considers Gustavo Del Vecchio's active role on the selection committee in recommending Pigou for the Feltrinelli Prize and the related correspondence between Pigou, Piero Sraffa, and Del Vecchio. One of the most significant discovery reported in this paper is Sraffa's contention, expressed in an unpublished letter to Del Vecchio, that Pigou had “never been honoured in proportion to his merits.”