Is There an Underside to Economic Growth ? A Mixed-Methods Analysis of Malaysia

M Asadullah, Monica Biradavolu, Vijayendra Rao and Kenneth Simler

No 10968, Policy Research Working Paper Series from The World Bank

Abstract: This paper sheds light on a Malaysian paradox that may have lessons for the rest of the world. Despite high gross domestic product growth with concurrent sharp reductions in income poverty and inequality, there was widespread discontent in the country. The paper first documents various dimensions of the Malaysian “miracle” with diverse data. It then draws on qualitative, open-ended focus group discussions to go below the surface of the quantitative data to analyze how Malaysian citizens perceive these changes, the challenges they face, and their sources of discontent. The findings reveal a broad consensus that while material living standards have improved, they have been accompanied by an underside such as a large “imbalance” between income and expenses, a need to rely on dual incomes and multiple jobs, growing indebtedness, increased stress, and polarization across ethnic groups. The paper argues that the Malaysian paradox may reveal something more general about the underside of economic growth.

Date: 2024-11-05
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-sea
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/0996492 ... 6dd-3b21f74755c6.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:10968

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Policy Research Working Paper Series from The World Bank 1818 H Street, N.W., Washington, DC 20433. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Roula I. Yazigi ().