Title: Macroeconomic determinants of child abuse in Malaysia: an ARDL approach

Authors: Mohd Shahidan Shaari; Noorazeela Zainol Abidin; Hafizah Abdul Rahim; Abdul Rahim Ridzuan

Addresses: School of Business Innovation and Technopreneurship, Universiti Malaysia Perlis, Malaysia ' School of Business Innovation and Technopreneurship, Universiti Malaysia Perlis, Malaysia ' School of Business Innovation and Technopreneurship, Universiti Malaysia Perlis, Malaysia ' Faculty of Business and Management, Universiti Teknologi MARA. Melaka Campus, Malaysia

Abstract: Child abuse in Malaysia always exhibits a steady increase. Previous studies focused on inflation and unemployment as factors in child abuse. This study includes economic growth as a potential determinant of child abuse. This study embarks on an investigation into the macroeconomic determinants, namely inflation, unemployment and economic growth, of child abuse in Malaysia. Data ranging from 1988 to 2017 were collected and the ARDL approach is employed and the results show that inflation, unemployment and economic growth do not affect child abuse in the long-run. However, in the short-run, all of these macroeconomic factors contribute to child abuse in Malaysia. Therefore, these findings are important for policy makers to formulate policies.

Keywords: ARDL; child abuse; inflation; unemployment; economic growth; Malaysia.

DOI: 10.1504/IJEPEE.2022.121373

International Journal of Economic Policy in Emerging Economies, 2022 Vol.15 No.2/3/4, pp.139 - 152

Received: 24 Feb 2020
Accepted: 09 Jul 2020
Published online: 07 Mar 2022 *

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