Malaysia

Sources:

Overall inequality: Gini coefficient for household income (not equivalised) from Department of Statistics Malaysia, Household Income and Basic Amenities Survey Report 2014 (accessed via the eStatistik data request service) (see also Ragayah, 2008, Table 1); linked at 1970 back to 1967 using  the observation from Rao (1988) taken from Krongkaew and Ragayah (2006, Table 2); linked in 1970 again back to 1957 using the Gini coefficient from household income from Ikemoto (1985) Table III, p. 353.

Top income shares: Shares of top 1 and top 0.1 per cent in total gross income from WID.world (individuals, excluding capital gains).

Poverty measures: Share of bottom 40 per cent in total household income (not equivalised) from Department of Statistics Malaysia, Household Income and Basic Amenities Survey Report 2014 (Table 5.4). See also Ragayah (2008, Table 1).

Percentage of households below official absolute poverty line from Department of Statistics Malaysia, Household Income and Basic Amenities Survey Report 2014 (Table 5.6); see also Snodgrass (2002, Table 2-1). The series is shown in two parts because the poverty line was revised upwards when the 2005 methodology was introduced in place of the earlier 1977 methodology (see UNDP, 2007).

Dispersion of earnings: No suitable data were found.

Wealth inequality: No suitable data were found.

References:

• Anand, S, 1983, “Inequality and Poverty in Malaysia: Measurement and Decomposition”, published for the World Bank, Oxford University Press.
• Atkinson, A B, “Top incomes in Malaysia 1947 to the present”, WTID Methodological Note, December 2013.
• Department of Statistics Malaysia, 2014, “Household Income and Basic Amenities Survey Report 2014”. Accessed 2 March 2017, from the eStatistik (Data Request) facility of the Department of Statistics Malaysia website.
• Department of Statistics Malaysia, 2009, “Household Income and Basic Amenities Survey Report”.
• Department of Statistics Malaysia, 2012, “Household Income and Basic Amenities Survey Report”.
• Ikemoto,Y, 1995, “Income distribution in Malaysia: 1957-1980”, The Developing Economies, XXIII-4
• Krongkaew, Medhi and Ragayah, Haji Mat Zin, 2006, “Income distribution and sustainable economic development in East Asia: A comparative analysis”.
• Ragayah, H M Z, 2008, “Income inequality in Malaysia”, Asian Economic Policy Review, vol 3: 114-132.
• Rao, V.V. B, 1988. ‘Income Distribution in East Asian Developing Countries’, Asian-Pacific Economic Literature, vol. 2, no. 1, March, pp. 26-45.
• Snodgrass, D R, 2002, “Economic growth and income inequality: The Malaysian experience” in M G Asher, D Newman and T P Snyder, editors, Public policy in Asia, Quorum Books, Westport.
• UNDP, 2007, Malaysia: Measuring and monitoring poverty and inequality, UNDP Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur.