This study investigated the degree of synchronization between credit expansion and financial stability in Malaysia at aggregated and disaggregated levels. The dynamic factor model and a broad range of macrofinancial variables are adopted to construct a financial stability index to measure the stability of the Malaysian financial system. The non-parametric method is subsequently employed to gauge the degree of synchronization between credit and financial stability. The empirical findings indicated a negative synchronization between business credit and financial stability in Malaysia, suggesting that an expansion in business credit would lead to financial instability. The results implied that difficulties will arise in designing policies as business credit expands. On the other hand, there is insufficient evidence to show that increasing household credit has any negative influence on Malaysian financial stability.

The present paper analyzes the role of stock market, more specifically real stock prices and stock market uncertainty/volatility, on private consumption behavior for an emerging market, Malaysia, using quarterly data from 1991 to 2009. Employing the autoregressive distributed lag approach to cointegration test, the paper establishes a long-run equilibrium that ties private consumption to its determinants - real income, real stock prices, real lending rate, and stock market volatility. In the long run, the presence of the stock market wealth effect is documented. At the same time, the stock market volatility is also noted to depress private consumption particularly when the volatility is at the degree as observed during the Asian crisis. The authors further note the short-run influences of real stock price changes on consumption growth and the adjustment of private consumption to the long-run level when it is modeled in an error-correction setting. Our simple simulation indicates that the drop in the private consumption due to the decline in stock market wealth post-crisis is substantial, amounting to 2.7% of average post-crisis gross domestic product.

This paper empirically analyses the role of Islamic banking in financial intermediation costs as measured by net interest margins for a leading dual banking country, Malaysia. Controlling for theoretically motivated determinants of the margins, the paper compares the interest/financing margins of conventional and Islamic banks and examines the impacts of Islamic banking presence on bank margins. The analysis provides evidence of the higher margins of Islamic banks compared to those of conventional banks. Further, the difference in bank margins between the two types of banks can be attributed to differences in market power, operating costs, and diversification. Finally, Islamic banking presence or penetration, as represented by the ratio of Islamic financing to aggregate bank credit/financing and, alternatively, the share of Islamic banking assets, is robustly associated with lower bank margins, on average. These results bear important implications for the development of the Islamic banking industry and in fostering the efficient allocation of financial resources by the banking system.

The paper investigates the long run behavior of house prices and their dynamic interactions with bank credits, real output and interest rate for the case of Malaysia. Apart from the aggregate house prices, the analysis also covers various house price sub-indices, namely, the terraced house price index, the semi-detached house price index, the detached house price index and the high-rise price index. From the aggregate perspective, we note the presence of a long run relation among the variables. Moreover, the findings suggest the long run causality that runs from the included variables to both the aggregate house prices and bank credits. Dynamic interactions between house prices and bank credits are further reflected by the generated impulse-response functions. The disaggregate analysis indicates that only the terraced house price index forms a long run relation with bank credits, real output and interest rate with their dynamic interactions to mimic well the aggregate systems. Still, a further analysis reveals that shocks to the terraced house price tend to diffuse to other segments of housing markets. Among the housing types, the detached house price is relatively segmented and affected only indirectly through the diffusion/ripple effect. These findings bear important implications for macroeconomic stability, monetary policy and investment decisions.

This paper examines the roles of trade, institutional quality and their interactions in explaining carbon dioxide emissions in a panel sample of 40 Sub-Sahara African countries using the system generalised method of moments. We find that institutional reforms are unequivocally environmental improving. Meanwhile, the impacts of trade on the environment tend to depend on the institutional setting of a country. More specifically, trade openness is harmful to the environment in countries with low institutional quality and beneficial to the environment in countries with high institutional quality. This means that institutional reforms are a perquisite for the countries with low institutional quality to actualise the beneficial environment effect of trade. As for the countries with adequate institutional quality, trade and institutions are reinforcing each other in bringing down pollution. From these results, we conclude that trade openness implemented in a sound institutional setting potentially brings better trade, more growth and better environment.

Using an innovative threshold estimation technique, this study examines whether the growth effect of financial development in countries with distinct levels of institutional development differs. The results demonstrate that there is a threshold effect in the finance-growth relationship. Specifically, we found that the impact of finance on growth is positive and significant only after a certain threshold level of institutional development has been attained. Until then, the effect of finance on growth is nonexistent. This finding suggests that the financial development-growth nexus is contingent on the level of institutional quality, thus supporting the idea that better finance (i.e., financial markets embedded within a sound institutional framework) is potent in delivering long-run economic development.

This paper examines the responses of sectoral returns to shocks in five macroeconomic indicators using the vector autoregressive (VAR) model and generalised impulse response functions for an emerging stock market, Malaysia. The empirical results suggest that, while the temporal responses of sectoral returns to macroeconomic shocks are relatively identical, their initial responses are slightly different. Monetary policy and exchange rate shocks have the largest effect on the finance sector, whereas output and exchange rate shocks exert most influence on the property sector. Comparatively, among the shocks, monetary shocks (i.e., money supply, interest rate and exchange rate shocks) are more influential in influencing sectoral returns than goods market shocks (i.e., output and consumer price shocks).

The present paper examines the mitigating effect of social capital on the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) for CO2 emissions using a panel data of 69 developed and developing countries. Adopting generalised method of moments (GMM) estimators, the paper finds evidence substantiating the presence of EKC. Moreover, the evidence suggests that the pollution costs of economic development tend to be lower in countries with higher social capital reservoir. Surprisingly, there is also evidence to indicate that the income threshold point beyond which CO2 emissions decline is higher in countries with higher social capital. These results are robust to addition of alternative controlled variables in the EKC specification. Thus, in addition to policy focus on investments in environmentally friendly technology and on the use of renewable energy, investments in social capital can also mitigate the pollution effects of economic progress.

In the 1990s, institutions became an important area of focus when investigating the process of financial development and the success or failure of financial reforms. This was partly a consequence of many developing conuntries that had liberalized their financial systems to realize the expected benefits from such reforms.