Institutions and Economies

Leaving No One Behind: Risk Assessment of the Indian Displaced Community in Malaysia

Raja Manickam Suresh — 2025-01-01

Tracking the socioeconomic risk of displacement is crucial for policymakers to
design better intervention programmes and plan future resettlement interventions. Yet
such efforts are lacking, leaving the displaced community behind. This paper assesses
the socioeconomic risk of displaced Indian plantation households in Malaysia to provide
key evidence for the government to achieve its goals of shared prosperity and inclusive
development in two areas of risk: joblessness and marginalisation. This study uses a
mixed method, combining a questionnaire survey with selective interviews. The results
show that socioeconomic risks are crucial for the displaced community, especially in
terms of employment, the ability to earn a decent income and financial stability. The
lack of occupational mobility, lack of appreciation of work experience, skills bias, gender
discrimination and limited intergenerational mobility contribute to marginalisation.
The study suggests implications for intervention policy design to effectively address
socioeconomic risk.

Contract Enforcement and Marketing Relationship Management: Effects of Digital and ICT Transformations

Aprillia Elly Kusumastuti — 2025-01-01

The development of the digital era makes transactions easier and more
transparent, making it necessary to build new management for creating cooperation
contracts between companies. This study aims to operationalise contract enforcement
functions and confirm their impacts on improving inter-company relations. This research
offers a new perspective on contract management and opportunism in business-tobusiness
e-procurement through the marketplace. Transparency in online procurement
would provide a view of the contingency of information technology (IT)-enabled
interactions of the buyers’ contract enforcement relationships on the opportunistic
behaviours which will affect the marketing channel performance. From analysing
the data collected from 97 producers, this study finds that contract enforcement has
negative effects on opportunistic behaviour. Second, opportunistic behaviour also has
negative effects on channel cooperative performance. Meanwhile, IT-enabled interactions
moderate the effects of contract enforcement on opportunistic behaviour. Overall, contract
enforcement and IT-enabled interactions improve channel cooperative performance
because they can suppress opportunistic behaviour. This research enriches and adds
insight into the pieces of literature on contract management by operationalising contract
enforcement and IT-enabled interactions toward channel cooperative performance with
digital platforms.

Factors Influencing the Consumption of Renewable Energy in Selected ASEAN Countries: A Dynamic Panel Data Analysis

Umme Humayara Manni — 2025-01-01

Governments and policymakers have discussed energy security due to the
instability of the global energy market and the risks greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions
cause to the environment. Renewable energy generation and consumption reduce
carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions most effectively. Thus, this paper highlights factors
that, if aggressive environment policies are implemented, might enhance or even avoid
energy security degradation. The study uses a balanced panel data set for Indonesia,
Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam that covers the 1990 to
2020 period. Pooled panel dynamic least squares are employed in this study. Renewable
energy consumption is favourably influenced by gross domestic product (GDP) per
capita, energy intensity per capita, and installed renewable energy capacity. Utilisation
of renewable energy is inversely related to per capita consumption of electricity, CO2
emissions, and use of fossil fuels. Given the lack of research identifying the factors
influencing energy security in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN),
this study focuses on the drivers that influence energy security, which is explained by
the proportion of renewable energy in final energy consumption. Without identifying
energy demand and supply sources, especially renewable energy-based power generation,
policymakers cannot fulfil their goals.

Determinants of Bank Lending to Microenterprises: Evidence from Vietnam’s Commercial Banks

Le Van Chi — 2025-01-01

Microenterprises largely rely on bank loans for external funding. In an
emerging market such as Vietnam, the role of commercial banks in providing loans to
micro-firms is even more crucial. The present paper examines the question of what the
determinants of bank lending to microenterprises are. This study conducts a two-step
system generalised method of moments (GMM) estimation to investigate the relationship
between bank-specific variables, macroeconomic factors, and bank industry characteristics
on bank loans to microenterprises using the panel data from 26 Vietnamese commercial
banks from 2011 to 2020. The results show that the microenterprise loan growth rate
depends on bank-specific variables and macroeconomic factors. However, bank-specific
variables and banking industry characteristics determine microenterprise lending
propensity. This paper also contributes to the debate concerning microenterprise
lending as the best approach, and which type of commercial banks would most often
choose this alternative. Interestingly, it was demonstrated that larger banks had higher
microenterprise loan growth rates, and smaller banks experienced a greater proportion
of microenterprise loans in their total business loans.

What are the Current Determinants that Influence the Total Amount of Greenhouse Gases Produced by Selected Asian Nations?

Jayanthi R Alaganthiran — 2025-01-01

Asian countries have been concentrating on providing sustainable economic
growth since they have had to face the severe consequences of climate change. Thus,
this study aims to fill a research gap by investigating whether waste sector emissions
significantly contribute to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. In general, this study
proposes three research hypotheses derived from a review of the literature on GHG
emissions. The first and second hypotheses examine whether waste sector emissions,
economic growth and other indicators significantly contributed to the total GHG
emissions in 13 Asian countries between 2000 and 2016. The third hypothesis
investigates whether countries individually and significantly determine waste sector
emissions. Using pooled ordinary least squares and least squares dummy variable
(LSDV) estimations, the study shows that that the emissions from the waste, agriculture,
manufacturing, and construction sectors, as well as from land use and change, were
positively associated with total GHG emissions. Second, economic growth and urban
and rural population growth show the possibility of reducing GHGs in Asian countries.
Subsequently, the LSDV estimation identified that India and Indonesia emitted 72
million tonnes and 148 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent between 2000 and
2016 from the waste sector.