Macroeconomic Variables and Economic Growth: The Malaysian Perspectives

Abstract

This manuscript examines the linkage between macroeconomic variables namely population, unemployment and export with the economic growth in Malaysia. This is owing to the conflicting findings produced by researchers in the past. Applying the multiple linear regressions (MLR) analysis for a time series quarterly data from 2006 until 2016, this study finds the presence of linear relationship between the respective variables. More specifically, population is significant and negatively related to economic growth, while export is significant in a negative manner. Contrary to our expectation, this study documented an insignificant relationship that unemployment has towards economic growth. This study is contributory to the policy maker and the academic community particularly for them to further understand the issues relating to the researched variables.