Evelyn Devadason

Evelyn Devadason
University of Malaya | UM · Department of Economics

PhD

About

154
Publications
52,059
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1,239
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Introduction
Evelyn Devadason is a Professor at the Department of Economics, Faculty of Business & Economics, University of Malaya. Her research focuses on International Trade and Regional Integration. She currently serves as Editor-in-Chief for Institutions and Economies, Associate Editor for International Journal of Social Economics and members to the the Editorial Board of the Journal of Contemporary Asia and International Journal of Rural Management.
Additional affiliations
January 2021 - December 2022
University of Malaya
Position
  • Editor
September 2005 - December 2008
University of Malaya
Position
  • Professor (Associate)
August 1994 - September 2005
University of Malaya
Position
  • Lecturer
Education
November 2000 - August 2006
University of Malaya
Field of study
  • Economics
June 1990 - November 1992
National University of Singapore
Field of study
  • Economics
July 1987 - August 1990
University of Malaya
Field of study
  • Analytical Economics

Publications

Publications (154)
Article
The electric vehicles (EVs) market in Malaysia, though growing remains relatively small. Previous related studies on Malaysia focused mainly on consumer preferences and the country’s readiness towards a higher adoption of environmentally friendly alternative vehicles. This study extends previous work to examine consumer preferences towards EVs thro...
Article
This paper examines the diffusion of external (output and price) shocks to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) through the agri‐food trade channel for the 1990Q1 to 2020Q4 period. For that purpose, the study develops a Global Vector Autoregressive (GVAR) model to simulate the region's economic resilience (output, inflation, interest...
Article
Full-text available
The objective of the study is to determine the effect of carbon (CO2) emissions, energy consumption and the usage of renewable energy on the Gross Domestic Product. Using Malaysian data from 1990 to 2020, this study employs multivariate VAR estimation, namely the impulse response function and the Toda-Yamamoto Granger causality method to identify t...
Article
Using a new micro-based dataset of 8,472 firms covering 19 industries, this paper employs a stochastic production frontier analysis to compare time-varying technical efficiencies of foreign firms vis-à-vis local firms for the 2014 to 2019 period. The empirical findings indicate that on average, foreign firms are only marginally more (technically) e...
Article
The complex global value chains (GVCs) underlying the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) raise an important question on the macroeconomic (output, inflation, exchange rate and interest rate) exposure of ASEAN to output shocks in the non‐ASEAN‐RCEP members, within the context of expanded regional architecture. This paper uses quarter...
Article
Given the ambiguity of the overall welfare effects of non-tariff measures (NTMs), this paper furthers our understanding of the well-being of consumers by focusing on a single sector analysis. It examines the welfare effects associated with the highly regulated food processing sector in Malaysia. A comparative static computable general equilibrium m...
Article
Full-text available
The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) region has become more integrated through trade and migration. Yet, public policies in ASEAN do not consider the interrelations between trade and immigration policies. Therefore, the paper employs a static panel gravity model for the 10 ASEAN countries over five-year intervals between 1990 and 2020...
Article
This article investigates policy constraints for the environmental goods sector in Malaysia based on the dimensions of market-based (including regulatory) instruments and trade policies. In-depth structured interviews with the government and key industry players are conducted, and six overarching themes constraining the efficacy of the instruments...
Chapter
The final chapter concludes with key inferences from the assessments of both the extent of interdependencies and effects of output shocks (Chaps. 2, 3 and 4) in understanding the economic resilience of the ASEAN region based on the direct and indirect trade channels. It concludes with some new insights into the cross-border transmission patterns, e...
Chapter
The first chapter elaborates on the motivation for the study and frames the direction of the volume. It introduces the reader to the relevance of examining the transmission of output shocks via the trade channel for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), a highly integrated trade region. In examining the response of ASEAN to output sho...
Chapter
The fourth chapter furthers the investigation of the third chapter on the implications of the transmission of output shocks to ASEAN6, by taking a sectoral perspective, to provide a richer description of trade interdependencies and comparative effects of China versus regional and extra regional shocks. The food sector is chosen since modern food pr...
Chapter
The third chapter presents a formal vector autoregressive (VAR) model for the empirical assessment of output shocks of China on ASEAN6 (Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, the Philippines, Indonesia, and Viet Nam) based on its overall trade interdependence and its linkages through trade in intermediate goods and consumption goods. A comparative perspect...
Chapter
The second chapter analyzes the shifts in the dynamic trade relationship and interdependence between China and ASEAN to set the background of the study. Namely, it identifies some stylized facts on China’s trade flows with ASEAN from the perspectives of trade balances, trade shares, participation in global value chains (GVCs), trade in intermediate...
Article
Arguably, leveraging the intraregional market is important for a commodity like palm oil that constantly faces challenges to sustain global demand in extraregional markets. The article, therefore, compares intraregional export potentials for palm oil in two regions that are at the frontier for palm oil expansion, Southeast Asia and Latin America. T...
Book
This book highlights the critical relationship between China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) associated with its trade interdependency. As the largest trade partner in the region, China has not only presented itself with opportunities for ASEAN to tap its market, but also created great challenges for the region. The fundament...
Article
Non-tariff measures (NTMs) affect the labour market indirectly through trade. However, much ambiguity surrounds the labour market effects of NTMs, as conditions of the labour market are somewhat contextual. With a specific focus on the highly regulated food processing sector in Malaysia, this paper examines the impact of reductions in ad valorem eq...
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Though negotiations on an Association of Southeast Asian Nations – European Union (ASEAN-EU) trade agreement began in 2007, the region-wide agreement stalled, and the EU has since pursued bilateral agreements with individual ASEAN member states (AMS). Nevertheless, the goal to form an interregional agreement remains as the European Commission and t...
Article
Purpose This study examines the influence of human capital, overall and by dimensions, on the export performance of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the manufacturing sector of Pakistan. The study also investigates the role of absorptive capacity in the relationship between human capital dimensions and export performance. Design/methodology/...
Article
The over-dependence of Malaysian manufacturing on unskilled foreign workers suggests the lack of policy alignment with the needs of the labour market. Despite the use of “price restrictions” (foreign worker levy and minimum wage) to control the demand for foreign labour, there are few indications of policy instruments having influenced the foreign...
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This article studies the resilience of the ASEAN region to external shocks amid the unfolding effects of the USA–China trade war. It investigates and compares the effects of regional (ASEAN) and global (USA, China) shocks on ASEAN-5 using a Structural VAR (SVAR) framework. To identify the propagation of economic shocks and spillovers on ASEAN-5, th...
Article
This article identifies the dilution of key aspects of labor standards and establishes their systematic links with the global integration of the Malaysian economy through capital and labor inflows. The approach taken in this article is that investors and migrants, may, serve as channels of (lower) labor rights. For this purpose, the study consolida...
Article
The insurance industry worldwide has become less fragmented through liberalization reforms. Yet, following the transformational changes, there is little empirical evidence on identifying the determinants of managerial efficiency. This paper employs a truncated regression analysis to determine the factors driving managerial efficiency of Malaysian i...
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Full-text available
China, through its open policy, has enhanced its cooperation with Africa through outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) in the region’s production capacity. Though China’s investment prospects in Africa remain vast and diversified, the continent constitutes a small share of the stock of Chinese global OFDI. There is a dearth of research on the re...
Article
The 21st century suggests a somewhat vexing scenario of “new protectionism”, especially with the rise of protectionist non-tariff measures or NTMs. This largely refers to standard-like NTMs (sanitary and phytosanitary measures and technical barriers to trade, known as SPS and TBTs respectively) with a dual purpose of non-trade policy objectives and...
Article
Full-text available
This study examines the association between foreign remittances and poverty (incidence and severity) in the Punjab province of Pakistan. Logit regression is used to deal with binary headcount ratio, while the instrumental variable approach is employed to avoid possible endogeneity. Household‐based data, covering more than 40,000 household units in...
Article
Full-text available
This article analyzes the overall and type of developmental impacts of remittances for migrant-sending households (HHs) in districts of Punjab, Pakistan. For this purpose, an HH-based human development index is constructed based on the dimensions of education, health and housing, with a view to enrich insights into interactions between remittances...
Chapter
The chapter examines how Malaysia has responded to global challenges through product and market diversification, investment promotion and trade strategies. The chapter begins with a historical overview of the Malaysian economy since Independence. It then profiles the FDI-trade nexus that generated supply chain linkages and reviews the industrial po...
Chapter
To inform the debate on the importance of regulatory convergence for nutritional labelling, the chapter assesses the trade-related concerns of a non-harmonized nutritional labelling on the industry through a firm-level survey of food exporters in Malaysia, Thailand, Philippines and Indonesia. The information solicited through the survey centres on...
Article
Full-text available
Many a time, the relationship between China and Africa is stereotyped as an energy quest to sustain China's economic growth, leading to anti-Chinese resistance narratives in Africa. Against this background, the observed presence of China in Nigeria, more specifically, warrants attention, as the strategic relationship has expanded significantly to e...
Article
Full-text available
Purpose This paper investigates the potentials and barriers to trade in the Malaysia-Chile partnership. Design/methodology/approach This paper estimates two-way export potentials from an augmented three-dimensional panel gravity model of bilateral trade between Malaysia and the Latin America and Caribbean (LAC) region, spanning the 1990-2014 per...
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This study measures technical efficiency of the Malaysian insurance companies using a new framework for performance efficiency, built on the intermediation approach, by decomposing the complex service processes of insurance companies into two functional divisions, premium accumulation and investment capability. The study employs a dynamic network d...
Article
Researches on whether female fertility determines labour force participation or vice versa have reached mixed results. A high participation of females in the labour market can limit the family size, and conversely, low female fertility can free up their time and increase their participation in the labour market. As such, this paper sets out to answ...
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This study proposes a framework that quantifies and integrates both the tangible and intangible aspects of HC to comprehensively measure the overall level of human capital index (HCI) in small and medium manufacturing enterprises (SMEs). Data were collected from 100 SME experts through the use of questionnaires in two stages. The data collected wer...
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This paper provides a poverty profile of households and then investigates the effects of international remittances on poverty incidence and severity in Punjab, Pakistan. Using cross-section data from the latest Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey for Punjab, the disaggregated analysis on the remittance-poverty nexus is examined by districts and urban...
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Infant mortality in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has been declining, yet disparities remain between the nations. This paper therefore explores the determinants of infant mortality in the older ASEAN-4 economies, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines using an Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) Error Correction Mo...
Article
Full-text available
Devadason, E.S. and VGR Chandran (2019). “Regulatory Incoherence in Nutrition Labelling of Prepackaged Food in ASEAN: What Next?” Aida Idris and Nurliana Kamaruddin (eds.), Contemporary Issues and Challenges in Regional Integration: The Case of ASEAN, Palgrave MacMillan: Singapore, pp.203-229. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-8043-3
Article
Malaysia continues to have a mixed record on human rights issues, partly explained by some idiosyncrasies in the laws and regulations pertaining to women. Clearly, there has been some neglect on the women folk in nation building. To put into perspective the treatment towards women workers and their rights, one has to first understand the role of wo...
Article
The paper reviews and assesses the performance of the manufacturing sector in general, as well as the catalytic industries identified in the Eleventh Malaysia Plan (11MP), to ascertain whether the initiatives and targets proposed in the Plan are adequate to energize and move the sector forward. In doing so, the paper uses industrial policy argument...
Article
Regulatory heterogeneity continues to be identified as a challenge for food trade in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) as the progress of harmonization of food standards among Member states remains slow. Using a new and comprehensive database on non-tariff measures (NTMs), this paper examines the coverage, frequency and diversity o...
Article
This paper explores the impact of non-tariff measures (NTMs) on Malaysian exports to the markets of the European Union (EU), Japan and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), spanning the period 2000-2009. The empirical findings reveal the presence of a dual effect of NTMs on Malaysian exports; NTMs can facilitate trade or restrict it....
Article
This paper examines the relationship between research and development (R&D), human capital and performance of the manufacturing sector in Malaysia, spanning the period 2000-2010. It takes into account ownership structure to highlight differences in the roles of R&D and human capital in boosting performance. The results show the significant role of...
Article
This paper examines strategic responses by exporters to non-tariff measures (NTMs) in major export destinations, based on a newly constructed representative firm-level survey. The responses are examined for exporting firms, with differing levels of trading intensities, given prior evidence that NTMs disproportionately affect exporters. The assessme...
Article
Natonal policymakers and trade negotators lack a clear understanding on what non-tariff measures (NTMs) their exporters perceive as predominant impediments to trade. This paper therefore examines the stringency of NTMs, by NTM-type and partner country, from the perspective of Malaysian exporters. The information is compiled through a representatve...
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Full-text available
This study accounts for the Hicks neutral technical change in a calibrated model of climate analysis, to identify the optimum level of technical change for addressing climate changes. It demonstrates the reduction to crop damages, the costs to technical change, and the net gains for the adoption of technical change for a climate-sensitive Pakistan...
Article
This study empirically investigates the effects of inward foreign direct investment (FDI) on Pakistan's agricultural growth, spanning the period 1977-2015, using the vector error correction model (VECM). Overall, the analysis shows that there is a positive relationship between agricultural growth and FDI. Further, the results indicate that the libe...
Article
Full-text available
This study reviews the literature on human capital firm performance with special focus to the influence of human capital (HC) on various dimensions of a firm. Combining the arguments from human capital theory and resource based theory; study proposes a framework to test the HC-performance relationship. The prominent point of this framework is to fo...
Article
Full-text available
Previous studies have emphasized the asymmetry in the Sino-LAC partnership, solely based on their trade exchanges. This paper extends the boundaries of understanding structural asymmetries in the Sino-LAC trade, by considering unequal opportunities in this partnership. The latter is accounted for by deriving two-way export potentials from the Sino-...
Article
Full-text available
This paper gives a projection of the possible damage of climate change on the agriculture sector of Pakistan for the period 2012–2037, based on a dynamic approach, using an environment-related applied computable general equilibrium model (CGE). Climate damage projections depict an upward trend for the period of review and are found to be higher tha...
Article
Purpose – Pakistan adopted “one-size-fits-all” policy for human capital (HC) development with the assumption that the level of HC is equal across industry and firm size. The purpose of this paper is to test this major assumption on which this policy is based, by comparing the differences in the levels of HC, overall and by dimensions of HC, by indu...
Article
This article explores the global positions of China and India in merchandise trade. It first compares the integration models of China and India and, thereafter, examines the core factors that drive their trading relationships. With respect to their global trading partners, there are considerable differences in the influence of economic drivers of t...
Article
The competitive global environment today has brought with it profound challenges, leading to excessive risk-taking behaviour by insurance companies. These companies require retaining their performance at high levels, while dealing with risk-taking behaviour. Following this, performance evaluation has emerged as a fundamental building block of total...
Article
Full-text available
Purpose – This study aims to examine the influence of relational capital quality on client loyalty, comprising both behavioral and attitudinal, in the pharmaceutical industry of Pakistan. Design/methodology/approach – The partial least squares technique is used to test the relationship using a sample of 111 pharmaceutical firms. We applied a non-p...
Article
This paper examines strategic responses by exporters to non-tariff measures (NTMs) in major export destinations, based on a newly constructed representative firm-level survey. The responses are examined for exporting firms, with differing levels of trading intensities, given prior evidence that NTMs disproportionately affect exporters. The assessme...
Article
This paper examines the impact of common economic factors on intra-ASEAN bilateral exports through estimations of panel data using a gravity model. In particular, the paper compares the determinants of two-way bilateral exports within the pioneer ASEAN member economies from that of the pioneer-newer ASEAN economies, to provide insights on the speci...
Article
The ASEAN countries have been experiencing drastic declines in fertility of more than 10 percent, particularly since the 1990s. Though the literature on fertility has clearly delineated the importance of income, female labor force participation and infant mortality as key determinants of fertility rates (FRs), the empirical findings from previous s...
Article
This study decomposes the structure of Iran's trade, ex-ante and ex-post economic sanctions. It employs two distinct methods of trade growth decomposition, intensive and extensive margins, as proposed in the literature. The major findings on Iran's foreign exports spanning the period 2000-2012 are as follows. First, the intensive margin of trade pl...
Article
This paper presents evidences on differential growth effects for three types of foreign capital inflows (foreign direct investment, portfolio equity and debt inflows). Two major results emerged from the application of threshold regression. First, we find strong evidence that the relationship between private foreign capital inflows and growth is cha...
Article
The paper frames the trade relationship between China and Malaysia within the context of ASEAN and the impending RCEP. Specifically trade potentials are derived for the bilateral partnership within the two structures to identify whether China’s external options under the RCEP affect her relationship with Malaysia. Potentials for trade expansion bet...
Article
Full-text available
Human Capital (HC) is considered one of the prominent determinants of economic growth. Perceiving its critical standings, this study analyzed the impacts of human capital on economic growth of Pakistan with special interest to female human capital. Study took primary enrolment rate as proxy of HC. The enrolment rates were further disaggregated into...
Article
Previous studies have emphasized the asymmetry in the Sino-LAC partnership, solely based on their trade exchanges. This paper extends the boundaries of understanding structural asymmetries in the Sino-LAC trade, by considering unequal opportunities in this partnership. The latter is accounted for by deriving two-way export potentials from the Sino-...
Article
This paper explores the relative regional positions of China and India from a geo-economic perspective. The findings of this paper give rise to two important observations. First, the core economic factors driving trade partnerships appear to be, by and large, in the import rather than in the export domain. This suggests that import activities of Ch...
Article
Full-text available
This paper examines the univariate relationship between global linkages of the Malaysian manufacturing sector in the form of export intensity and intra-industry trade, respectively, on inter-industry concentration. The recently developed fully modified ordinary least squares (FMOLS) and dynamic ordinary least squares (DOLS) panel cointegration tech...
Article
Full-text available
The paper reviews policies and laws governing migrant inflows and their presence in the Malaysian economy. The study finds that policy failures are basically built on ad-hoc management of in-migration, lack of enforcement of existing regulations and abusive practices of various stakeholders. Likewise, work and provision of basic rights for migrants...
Article
There has been a rise in the number of cases of abuses towards foreign unskilled women as reported in the mass media and by non-governmental organizations in Malaysia. This has called into question the rights of female migrant workers in Malaysia. To put into perspective the treatment towards female migrants and rights, one has first to understand...
Article
This study seeks to compare bilateral export potential estimates in the Malaysia-Chile partnership within the context of the emerging region of Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) and identify barriers to trade, to provide insights into bilateral market access for exporters. Clearly, the empirical findings suggest overtrading in the major exporti...
Article
This paper aims to examine the dynamics that lie behind Sino-Africa relations through trade and investment channels and provides a comprehensive understanding on the determinants and interactions of these two modalities of cooperation in the Sino-African case. The paper further identifies if the same patterns prevail in China’s relationships with h...
Article
Full-text available
The measurement of human capital is a challenging task for both researchers and professionals. Numerous studies have been undertaken to formulate a technique which can comprehensively encapsulate the various dimensions of human capital. However, there is a need to develop a technique that measures human capital by capitalizing on its intangibles as...
Article
This study empirically investigates the effects of inward foreign direct investment (FDI) on Pakistan’s agricultural growth spanning the period 1975-2013. Overall, the analysis shows that there is a positive relationship between agricultural growth and FDI in the short- and long-run. However, in the long-run, FDI does not exert a significant impact...
Article
Recent debates advocate that closer sub-regional cooperation may be an excellent start to stronger regional cooperation. The study investigates this proposition for the case of CLMV countries that remain less integrated into the ASEAN region, based on their trade links with China. In this respect, the China-CLMV trade flows are examined, prior to d...
Article
Managing the inflows of foreign workers, and the ability of the domestic labour market to integrate them, is now at the heart of the policy debate in Malaysia. It is therefore relevant to assess the socio-economic interactive effects of foreign workers with the domestic job market to provide a better understanding of their assumed influence specifi...
Article
The life expectancy among three major ethnic groups in Malaysia, namely, the Bumiputera, Chinese and Indian varies. The Indian male minority ethnic group, more specifically shows a lower life expectancy compared to that of the Bumiputera, Chinese and the national average. This study therefore compares the determinants of life expectancy between the...
Article
This paper compares trade interactions between six selected ASEAN economies with Latin America with that of China, a forerunner in engagement with Latin America. Trade between China and Latin America suggest that complementary comparative advantages are developing along the lines of center-periphery relations. Contrary to China-Latin America, the A...
Article
This paper compares the role of relative factor endowment differences in driving bilateral trade flows between China and six selected ASEAN economies with Latin America. The findings reveal that relative factor endowment differences are consistently positive and significant for increasing export flows between China and Latin America, suggesting tha...
Article
This paper explores the global positions of China and India in merchandise trade. It first compares the integration models of China and India and, thereafter, examines the core factors that drive their trading relationships. With respect to their global trading partners, there are considerable differences in the influence of economic drivers of tra...

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