Technical Components of Total Factor Productivity Growth in Malaysian Manufacturing Industry

This article attempts to disaggregate and explore the components of TFP growth that contribute to changes in output, scale of production, and allocative efficiency and technical efficiency of the Malaysian manufacturing sector. The total factor productivity (TFP) concept defined as total output per unit of all inputs used in the production of an industry has gained a prominent place in academia. The investigation on TFP growth is obviously useful for identifying sources of output growth in the development of an industry. The TFP growth is often interchangeably understood as the technical progress or changes in technology as the sole contributor to economic development. Nonetheless there are other factors contributing to its substance. Knowledge on these technical changes would help decision makers to realize the strengths and weaknesses that contribute to the growth and development of an industry. Alternatively this research would be more beneficial in the case of cross-industry or cross-country comparative studies in order to plan for developmental goal. In such a case a model industry or country can be chosen that exhibits special growth features.

Causalities between Price, Pond Area and Employment in Aquaculture Production

The role of aquaculture industry is becoming more prominent in order to supplement marine capture in meeting the food need for the growing Malaysian population. In an attempt to minimize depletion of marine fisheries, only traditional vessels are allowed to fish along the coastal area while bigger vessels are relegated to deep-sea fishing. During the 9th Malaysian Plan (2006-2010) aquaculture has been recognized as the engine of growth in the national food sector’s development strategy. Future fisheries policy is expected to focus more on aquaculture production, marketing and technological improvement as an alternative to marine capture. This paper investigates the causalities between the selected freshwater fish prices, aquaculture area and production. The study aspires to establish whether or not market price is a key contributor to a rise in the aquaculture area and production. Aquaculture firms comprising the individual culturists are generally motivated by the economic potential of the industry which is reflected in excess of price over cost of production. Our hypothesis is that government policy and initiation rather than prices had give rise to greater participation of culturists and hence augmented the level of employment. However, production increase has a negative implication on environment degradation. Thus there is a conflicting view as regards to the employment opportunity generated by aquaculture undertakings and the need for sustainable development arising from this growing industry. Multivariate time series analysis was used in this investigation.

Outflow of traffic from the national capital Kuala Lumpur to the north,south and east coast highways using flow,speed and density relationships

The functional relationships between flow （veh/km）, density （veh/h） and speed （kin/h） in traffic congestion have a long history of research. However, their findings and techniques persist to be relevant to this day. The analysis is pertinent, particularly in finding the best fit for the three major highways in Malaysia, namely the KL-Karak Highway, KL-Seremban Highway and KL-Ipoh Highway. The trans-logarithm function of density-speed model was compared to the classical models of Greenshields, Greenberg, Underwood and Drake et al. using data provided by the Transport Statistics Malaysia 2014. The results of regression analysis revealed that the Greenshields and Greenberg models were statistically significant. The trans-logarithm function was also tested and the results were nonetheless without exception. Its usefulness in addition to statistical significance related to the derived economic concepts of maximum speed and the related number of vehicles, flow and density and the limits of free speed were relevant in comparing the individual levels of traffic congestion between highways. For instance, KL-Karak Highway was least congested compared to KL-Seremban Highway and KL-Ipoh Highway. Their maximum speeds, based on three lanes carriage capacity of one direction, were 33.4 km/h for KL-Karak, 15.9 km/h for KL-Seremban, and 21.1 km/h for KL-Ipoh. Their corresponding flows were approximated at 1080.9 veh/h, 1555.4 veh/h, and 1436.6 veh/h.