Understanding the Economic Linkages among Small and Medium Enterprises, Economic Growth, and Employees in Malaysia

Abstract

This paper investigates the linkages among economic growth, small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and employees in Malaysia. It uses the total number of SME employees as a third variable to be associated with economic and SME growth using a panel dataset covering the period from 1998 to 2017. There are five main economic sectors in Malaysia: agriculture, construction, mining, manufacturing and services. The aim of the paper is to provide a better understanding of the relationship between SMEs, economic growth and the number of employees in the different sectors. Our findings indicate various causal relationships among the three variables in different sectors. The results of the study found that Malaysian economic growth contributed to the growth of the SME sector. In contrast, it showed that the growth of the SME sector only contributed to the growth of the manufacturing industry. The information gained will be useful for policymakers and help the government to plan for the future of the country by focusing on worthwhile activity.