Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/273896 
Year of Publication: 
2022
Series/Report no.: 
WIDER Working Paper No. 2022/104
Publisher: 
The United Nations University World Institute for Development Economics Research (UNU-WIDER), Helsinki
Abstract: 
Malaysia provides for interesting paradoxes. Poverty was reduced by adopting a horizontal perspective to policy planning through affirmative action targeting one ethnic group lagging economically in society. However, outcomes of affirmative action include growing wealth and income disparities, a problem this policy was supposed to address. Furthermore, the government has not been able to dictate the pattern of enterprise development despite a variety of state-business relations to shape the evolution of Malay-owned enterprises. This study assesses the efficacy of horizontal-based policy instruments to redress ethnic inequalities and wealth disparities. It focuses on how politics influenced policy implementation through state-business relations and highlights how inequalities are structurally shaped but ethnically expressed, provoking different responses between and within ethnic groups about affirmative action. The results ascertain whether social cohesion is best pursued through vertical-type policies that address structural factors contributing to socioeconomic inequalities, thereby allowing communities to transcend class and ethnic differences.
Subjects: 
politics
horizontal-based policies
enterprise development
affirmative action
state- business relations
JEL: 
D63
D72
D73
D74
Persistent Identifier of the first edition: 
ISBN: 
978-92-9267-238-6
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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