Abstract
Poverty has long been a topic of conversation in all parts of the world. It is a big worry that one-fifth of the world's population is experiencing multidimensional poverty. According to the World Bank, poverty reduction is a complicated issue that must be addressed prudently and continuously. On that topic, Malaysia has also made great progress since its liberation from British colonialism decades ago. With a suitable strategy in place, the National Economic Planning (NEP) that was implemented from 1971 to 1990 resulted in significant economic growth, which translated into higher household incomes for citizens. Even though the NEP has made significant progress in lowering the poverty line, poverty has become more multidimensional, dividing the problem into a few sectors, such as rural poverty and urban poverty. Many states have removed their forests to establish rubber, oil palm, paddy, coconut, and vegetable crops as their agricultural sectors have expanded. FELDA, RISDA, and FELCRA are just a few of the government entities that are launching initiatives to provide land and employment to citizens. Solving poverty concerns is a difficult endeavor due to the dynamic complexity of demographics, ethnicity, education, and data reliability. Malaysia's government is working tirelessly to eliminate poverty, reduce economic inequality, and develop legislation to address the concerns, yet it is still not sufficient to eradicate poverty as a whole. This article will look at urban poverty among middleincome households (M40) and low-income households (B40) and how they cope with rising prices for necessities such as housing, food, services, health care, and education. The researcher aims to determine why M40 and B40 are the most affected and fall into urban poverty.
Keywords
- Poverty Search this journal for Poverty (opens in a new tab)
- Household Income Search this journal for Household Income (opens in a new tab)
- Policy Search this journal for Policy (opens in a new tab)
- Income Inequality Search this journal for Income Inequality (opens in a new tab)
- Rural-Urban Migration Search this journal for Rural-Urban Migration (opens in a new tab)
- Urban Poverty Search this journal for Urban Poverty (opens in a new tab)
References
- Abdul-Hakim, R. (2001). Income inequality, poverty and development policy in Malaysia. ResearchGate. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/252953691_Income_Inequality_Poverty_and_Development_Policy_in_Malaysia
- Adnan, N. I. M., Hamat, Z., Yahaya, M. Z., & Mat Zain, M. N. M. (2017). Agihan zakat secara mikro kredit: Analisis daripada perspektif maslahah [Distribution of alms giving through micro credit: An analysis from maslahah perspective]. Journal of Contemporary Islamic Law, 2 (1), 45–59. https://www.ukm.my/jcil/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/JCIL-2017-21-Article-3.pdf
- Ahad, R., Ismail, K., & Radzi, Z. M. (2023). Urban poverty and life well-being among lower-ranking police officers: An exploratory study in Kuala Lumpur. Malaysian Journal of Society and Space, 19 (3). https://doi.org/10.17576/geo-2023-1903-07
- Alkire, S., & Foster, J. (2011). Understandings and misunderstandings of multidimensional poverty measurement. The Journal of Economic Inequality, 9 (2), 289–314. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10888-011-9181-4
- Alkire, S., Foster, J., Seth, S., Santos, M. E., Roche, J. M., & Ballon, P. (2015). Multidimensional Poverty Measurement and Analysis. Journalof Data Analysis and Information Processing.
- https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199689491.001.0001
- Bruno, M., Ravallion, M., & Squire, L. (1996). Equity and growth in developing countries: Old and new perspectives on the policy issue (Vol. 1563).
- Bulí?, A., & Gulde, A. M. (1995). Inflation and income distribution: Further evidence on empirical links. (IMF Working Paper No. 95/86). International Monetary Fund. https://doi.org/10.5089/9781451850826.001
- Cole, J., & Towe, C. (1996). Income distribution and macroeconomic performance in the United States. SSRN Electronic Journal. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.882993
- Deininger, K., & Squire, L. (1997). Economic Growth and income inequality: Re-examining the links. Finance & Development, 0034(001). https://doi.org/10.5089/9781451953206.022.a012
- Department of Statistics Malaysia (2022). Household Income & Expenditure Survey Report (HIES), https://open.dosm.gov.my/data-catalogue/hies_state
- Department of Statistics Malaysia (2022). Income Inequality in Malaysia, https://open.dosm.gov.my/data-catalogue/hh_inequality
- Department of Statistics Malaysia (2022). Penemuan Utama Banci Penduduk dan Perumahan Malaysia 2020.pdf. Malaysian Government Document Archives. https://govdocs.sinarproject.org/documents/department-of-statistics/population-and-housing-census-of-malaysia-2020/penemuan-utama-banci-penduduk-dan-perumahan-malaysia-2020.pdf/view
- Department of Statistics Malaysia (2022). Poverty Malaysia, https://open.dosm.gov.my/data-catalogue/hh_poverty
- Deyshappriya, N. P. R. (2017). Impact of Macroeconomic Factors on Income Inequality and Income Distribution in Asian Countries. ADBI Working Paper, 696. https://www.adb.org/sites/default/files/publication/234271/adbi-wp696.pdf
- Fishlow, A. (1996). Inequality, poverty, and growth: Where do we stand? In Annual World Bank Conference on Development Economics 1995 (25–39). World Bank.
- Ha, N. M., Le, N. D., & Trung-Kien, P. (2019). The impact of urbanization on income inequality: a study in Vietnam. Journal of Risk and Financial Management, 12(3), 146. https://doi.org/10.3390/jrfm12030146
- Ibrahim, D., Isa, Z. M., & Ali, N. (2012). Malaysian savings behavior towards retirement planning. In Proceedings of 2012 International Conference on Economics, Marketing and Management, 28, 102-105.
- Islam, R., Ghani, A. B. A., Abidin, I. Z., & Rayaiappan, J. M. (2017). Impact on poverty and income inequality in Malaysia’s economic growth. Problems and perspectives in management, 15(1), 55-62.
- Jamil, N., & Mat, S. H. C. (2014). Realiti kemiskinan satu kajian teoritikal. Jurnal Ekonomi Malaysia, 48 (1), 167–177. https://doi.org/10.17576/jem-2014-4801-14
- Khalid, M. A., & Yang, L. (2020). Income inequality and ethnic cleavages in Malaysia: Evidence from distributional national accounts (1984–2014). Journal of Asian Economics, 72, 101252. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.asieco.2020.101252
- Kuznets, S. (1955). Economic Growth and Income Inequality. American Economic Review, 45, 1-28.
- Lee, H. A., & Choong, C. (2019). Inequality in Malaysia: Empirical questions, structural changes, gender aspects. Journal of Southeast Asian Economies, 36 (3), 329–354. https://doi.org/10.1355/ae36-3b
- Leng, K. S., Samsurijan, M. S., S G. P., Malek, N. M., & Hamat, Z. (2018). Urban Poverty Alleviation Strategies from Multidimensional and Multi-Ethnic Perspectives: Evidence from Malaysia. Kajian Malaysia, 36 (2), 43–68. https://doi.org/10.21315/km2018.36.2.3
- Martin, N. (2023). Income Inequality and Economic Growth: An Analysis. ScholarWorks@UARK. https://scholarworks.uark.edu/econuht/49
- Murad, M. W., Hasan, M., Islam, S., Alam, M.M. (2014) Socio-Economic Profile of the Low Income and Poor Communities in Kuala Lumpur City, Malaysia. National Journal of Ethics in Social Sciences, 2 (1), SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2476201
- Nair, S & S Sagaran. (2015) "Poverty in Malaysia: Need for a Paradigm Shift," Institutions and Economies (formerly known as International Journal of Institutions and Economies), Faculty of Economics and Administration, University of Malaya, 7(3), 95-123.
- Ogbeide, E. N., & Agu, D. O. (2015). Poverty and income inequality in Nigeria: any causality? Asian Economic and Financial Review, 5 (3), 439–452. https://doi.org/10.18488/journal.aefr/2015.5.3/102.3.439.452
- Ragayah, H. M. Z. (2008). Income inequality in Malaysia*. Asian Economic Policy Review, 3(1), 114–132. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1748-3131.2008.00096.x
- Rasool, M. S. A., Harun, M. F. M., Salleh, A. M., & Idris, N. (2011). Poverty measurement in Malaysia: a survey of the literature. Akademika, 81 (1). http://journalarticle.ukm.my/1894/
- Razin, A., Sadka, E., & Yuen, C.-W. (1996). Tax principles and capital inflows: Is it efficient to tax nonresident income? (NBER Working Paper No. 5513). National Bureau of Economic Research. https://doi.org/10.3386/w5513
- Rudi, N., Khamisah, A. L., Pravina, D., Nabihah, A., Nachia, B. A. R., Muhammad M. A. R., Nelson L. B. L. (2023). Poverty and Depression among the Urban Poor in Malaysia: A Narrative Revi. Mal J Med Health Sci 19(SUPP20): 235-239
- Sagala, P., Akita, T., & Yusuf, A. A. (2014). Urbanization and expenditure inequality in Indonesia: Testing the Kuznets hypothesis with provincial panel data. Letters in Spatial and Resource Sciences, 7 (3), 133–147. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12076-013-0106-7
- Sarabia, J. M., Jordá, V., & Remuzgo, L. (2016). The THEIL Indices in Parametric Families of Income Distributions—A Short Review. Review of Income and Wealth, 63 (4), 867–880. https://doi.org/10.1111/roiw.12260
- Shari, I. (2000). ECONOMIC GROWTH AND INCOME INEQUALITY IN MALAYSIA, 1971–95. Journal of the Asia Pacific Economy, 5 (1–2), 112–124. https://doi.org/10.1080/13547860008540786
- Tan, Z., Shi, F., Zhang, H., Li, N., Xu, Y., & Liang, Y. (2018). Household income, income inequality, and health-related quality of life measured by the EQ-5D in Shaanxi, China: a cross-sectional study. International Journal for Equity in Health, 17(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12939-018-0745-9
- Tey, N. P., Lai, S. L., Ng, S. T., Goh, K. L., & Osman, A. F. (2019). INCOME INEQUALITY ACROSS STATES IN MALAYSIA. PLANNING MALAYSIA, 17. https://doi.org/10.21837/pm.v17i10.625
- Wang, J., Pei, Z. K., Wang, Y., & Qin, Z. (2024). An investigation of income inequality through autoregressive integrated moving average and regression analysis. *Healthcare Analytics, 5*, 100287. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.health.2023.100287
- Warr, P. (2004). Globalization, Growth, and Poverty Reduction in Thailand. ASEAN Economic Bulletin 21(1), 1-18. https://muse.jhu.edu/article/387681.
- Wu, D., & Rao, P. (2016). Urbanization and income inequality in China: An empirical investigation at the provincial level. Social Indicators Research, 131(1), 189–214. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-016-1229-1
- You, J., & Dutt, A. K. (1996). Government debt, income distribution and growth. *Cambridge Journal of Economics, 20*(3), 335–351. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordjournals.cje.a013619
Downloads
No downloads have been recorded for this article yet. Figures appear here once readers begin downloading the full text.
How to Cite
Share this article
License
Copyright (c) 2025 Fairul Izad Bin Mohd Zin, Afiza Azura Mohamad Arshad, Chuah Soo Cheng, Azlin Shafinaz Arshad, Azitadoly Mohd Arifin (Author)
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Author (s) should affirm that the material has not been published previously. It has not been submitted and it is not under consideration by any other journal. At the same time author (s) need to execute a publication permission agreement to assume the responsibility of the submitted content and any omissions and errors therein. After submission of revised paper in the light of suggestions of the reviewers, the editorial team edits and formats manuscripts to bring uniformity and standardization in published material.
This work will be licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) and under condition of the license, users are free to read, copy, remix, transform, redistribute, download, print, search or link to the full texts of articles and even build upon their work as long as they credit the author for the original work. Moreover, as per journal policy author (s) hold and retain copyrights without any restrictions.
Keywords
- Poverty Search this journal for Poverty (opens in a new tab)
- Household Income Search this journal for Household Income (opens in a new tab)
- Policy Search this journal for Policy (opens in a new tab)
- Income Inequality Search this journal for Income Inequality (opens in a new tab)
- Rural-Urban Migration Search this journal for Rural-Urban Migration (opens in a new tab)
- Urban Poverty Search this journal for Urban Poverty (opens in a new tab)
Section
Published
Submissions
Have research to publish? Information Management and Business Review welcomes submissions.
Make a Submission