The impact of financial crisis on living standard: an empirical investigation

This paper reports on a survey of Malaysian low-income households carried out in December 1998. To attain its objectives, the study employed a multiplicity of econometric and statistical techniques. This study showed that the financial crisis has had a negative impact on the living standard of low-income households in Malaysia but it varies across the region, location, size of household, gender status of head of the household, education level of head of the household, etc. The paper also describes some of the strategies that low-income households have adopted in response to the financial crisis.