Efficiency Analysis of State Goverments in the Malaysian Fiscal Federalism

By analyzing state governments’ efficiency in allocating fiscal resources, this study evalu-ates the efficiency of state public finances under the Malaysian fiscal federalism. This is reflected in the policies, strategies and decisions made to allocate public expenditure as this measurement would...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Abd. Ghani, Judhiana, Grewal, Bhajan S., Ahmed, Abdullahi D., Mohamed Nor, Norashidah
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Faculty of Economics and Management, Universiti Putra Malaysia 2017
Online Access:http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/61680/
http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/61680/1/Efficiency%20analysis%20of%20state%20government.pdf
_version_ 1848854464425885696
author Abd. Ghani, Judhiana
Grewal, Bhajan S.
Ahmed, Abdullahi D.
Mohamed Nor, Norashidah
author_facet Abd. Ghani, Judhiana
Grewal, Bhajan S.
Ahmed, Abdullahi D.
Mohamed Nor, Norashidah
author_sort Abd. Ghani, Judhiana
building UPM Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
description By analyzing state governments’ efficiency in allocating fiscal resources, this study evalu-ates the efficiency of state public finances under the Malaysian fiscal federalism. This is reflected in the policies, strategies and decisions made to allocate public expenditure as this measurement would enable us to explain the institutional quality of the public sector in respect of the concept of regional competitiveness. In particular, states play important role in supporting the private sector and the market-based economy. The Data Envelopment Analy-sis (DEA) under the dynamic condition and Tobit panel data regression model are conducted on data for all the thirteen states in Malaysia from 1990 to 2009. The results of DEA reveal evidence that the current centralized fiscal federalism system has been unable to create a competitive environment among state governments, resulting in low levels of efficiency in the states. As an extension of the DEA, Tobit panel data regression model is needed to identify the factors that influence technical efficiency in Malaysia and the result showed evidence that fiscal decentralization had positive and significant influence on state efficiency level, but that further efficiency gains could have been realized with greater decentralization. Thus, this study supports the contention that fiscal decentralization provides incentive structures to support higher state efficiency levels. The findings echo the main argument of Market Preserving Federalism theory that states become more efficient if more power is devolved to them whilst ensuring that they spend within their fiscal capacity.
first_indexed 2025-11-15T11:10:17Z
format Article
id upm-61680
institution Universiti Putra Malaysia
institution_category Local University
language English
last_indexed 2025-11-15T11:10:17Z
publishDate 2017
publisher Faculty of Economics and Management, Universiti Putra Malaysia
recordtype eprints
repository_type Digital Repository
spelling upm-616802018-10-31T06:40:54Z http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/61680/ Efficiency Analysis of State Goverments in the Malaysian Fiscal Federalism Abd. Ghani, Judhiana Grewal, Bhajan S. Ahmed, Abdullahi D. Mohamed Nor, Norashidah By analyzing state governments’ efficiency in allocating fiscal resources, this study evalu-ates the efficiency of state public finances under the Malaysian fiscal federalism. This is reflected in the policies, strategies and decisions made to allocate public expenditure as this measurement would enable us to explain the institutional quality of the public sector in respect of the concept of regional competitiveness. In particular, states play important role in supporting the private sector and the market-based economy. The Data Envelopment Analy-sis (DEA) under the dynamic condition and Tobit panel data regression model are conducted on data for all the thirteen states in Malaysia from 1990 to 2009. The results of DEA reveal evidence that the current centralized fiscal federalism system has been unable to create a competitive environment among state governments, resulting in low levels of efficiency in the states. As an extension of the DEA, Tobit panel data regression model is needed to identify the factors that influence technical efficiency in Malaysia and the result showed evidence that fiscal decentralization had positive and significant influence on state efficiency level, but that further efficiency gains could have been realized with greater decentralization. Thus, this study supports the contention that fiscal decentralization provides incentive structures to support higher state efficiency levels. The findings echo the main argument of Market Preserving Federalism theory that states become more efficient if more power is devolved to them whilst ensuring that they spend within their fiscal capacity. Faculty of Economics and Management, Universiti Putra Malaysia 2017-12 Article PeerReviewed text en http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/61680/1/Efficiency%20analysis%20of%20state%20government.pdf Abd. Ghani, Judhiana and Grewal, Bhajan S. and Ahmed, Abdullahi D. and Mohamed Nor, Norashidah (2017) Efficiency Analysis of State Goverments in the Malaysian Fiscal Federalism. International Journal of Economics and Management, 11 (2). 449 - 466. ISSN 1823-836X http://www.ijem.upm.edu.my/vol11_no2.htm
spellingShingle Abd. Ghani, Judhiana
Grewal, Bhajan S.
Ahmed, Abdullahi D.
Mohamed Nor, Norashidah
Efficiency Analysis of State Goverments in the Malaysian Fiscal Federalism
title Efficiency Analysis of State Goverments in the Malaysian Fiscal Federalism
title_full Efficiency Analysis of State Goverments in the Malaysian Fiscal Federalism
title_fullStr Efficiency Analysis of State Goverments in the Malaysian Fiscal Federalism
title_full_unstemmed Efficiency Analysis of State Goverments in the Malaysian Fiscal Federalism
title_short Efficiency Analysis of State Goverments in the Malaysian Fiscal Federalism
title_sort efficiency analysis of state goverments in the malaysian fiscal federalism
url http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/61680/
http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/61680/
http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/61680/1/Efficiency%20analysis%20of%20state%20government.pdf