Diversity of Southeast Asian Capitalisms: Evolving State-Business Relations in Malaysia

ABSTRACT

Empirical gaps exist in the literature about diverse forms of capitalism. The first is thematic, involving the incomplete institutional and political account of how the state can, through a series of policies, shape the development of domestic enterprises. The second gap is regional in nature: this literature does not deal with the historical development of firms that have played a central role in industrialising Southeast Asia. One reason for this is that since most existing theories are based on Western contexts, they are theoretically ill-equipped to deal with the concepts of power and state-business nexuses when the political system is not democratic in nature. But state-business ties, where politicians in power distribute government-generated rents on a selective basis, have resulted in diverse business systems such as highly diversified conglomerates, state-owned companies and small- and medium-scale enterprises. This article deals with these theoretical and empirical gaps. To better understand the nature and implications of evolving state-business ties in Southeast Asia, this topic is examined through the lens of regulation theory. To appreciate the complexity and implications of state-business configurations on the political system and forms of enterprise development, a case study of Malaysia is provided.     

Administrative Easing: Rule Reduction and Medicaid Enrollment

Administrative burden is widely recognized as a barrier to program enrollment, denying legal entitlements to many potentially eligible individuals. Building on recent research in behavioral public administration, this article examines the effect of voluntary state reductions in administrative burden (administrative easing) on Medicaid enrollment rates using differential implementation of the Affordable Care Act. Using a novel data set that includes state-level data on simplified enrollment and renewal procedures for Medicaid from 2008 to 2017, the authors examine how change in Medicaid enrollment is conditioned by the adoption of rule-reduction procedures. Findings show that reductions in the administrative burden required to sign up for Medicaid were associated with increased enrollments. Real-time eligibility and reductions in enrollment burden were particularly impactful at increasing enrollment for both children and adults separate from increases in Medicaid income eligibility thresholds. The results suggest that efforts to ease the cognitive burden of enrolling in entitlement programs can improve take-up.     

Public shelter admission rates in Philadelphia and New York City: The implications of turnover for sheltered population counts

Abstract

Previous estimates of the size and composition of the U.S. homeless population have been based on cross‐sectional survey methodologies. National enumeration efforts have yielded point‐prevalence estimates ranging from 0.11 to 0.25 percent of the population. This study reports data from shelter databases in Philadelphia and New York City that record identifiers for all persons admitted and so make possible unduplicated counts of users.

Unduplicated counts of shelter users yield annual rates for 1992 of about 1 percent for both cities and rates near 3 percent over three years in Philadelphia (1990–92) and over five years (1988–92) in New York City. The annual rates are three times greater than rates documented by point‐prevalence studies. Shelter bed turnover rates are reported, as are average monthly first admission and readmission counts over a two‐year period. Implications for future research and public policy are discussed.     

Exports and growth: Additional evidence

In a recent article in this journal [Sheehey, 1990], evidence was presented that the results of a substantial number of studies on exports and growth are biased by a built‐in correlation between exports and GDP. In this note, drawing on the parallel literature on government and growth, the analysis is carried further by investigating for 1960–81 how strong a relationship between exports and growth emerges when alternate export variables not subject to this bias are introduced.     

National Competitive Advantage and the Roles of Economic and Political Freedom: Evidence from Hong Kong

The equivocal interrelationships betweeneconomic performance and the institutionsof, respectively, economic and politicalfreedom are examined using data from firmsoperating in Hong Kong, an economy whereboth an erstwhile paramount internationalbusiness reputation for competitiveness andthe institutional basis on which it waspredicated have come into question inrecent years. It is hypothesized that (i)both economic and political freedomdeclines will be associated with a proxyfor future economic performance,competitiveness decline, but that (ii) thecorrelation of economic freedom declineswith competitiveness decline will bemediated by political freedom declines. Hierarchical regression analyses tend tosupport these hypotheses, although resultsvary by firm origin.     

A. Reviews: general

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