Growth with equity: The Malaysian case

While Malaysia is one of the few economies which has successfully enjoyed economic growth with equity from 1970 to 1990, recent studies suggest that income inequality rose in the 1990s. This paper re-examines these arguments in the light of Malaysia’s economic development and the policies undertaken for the 1990s and beyond. In relation to Malaysia’s progress to a second-tier newly industrializing economy, its success with growth and equity enables important lessons to be drawn for increasingly open developing economies facing the challenges of globalization and deregulation.