Sains Malaysiana 47(9)(2018): 2187–2194

http://dx.doi.org/10.17576/jsm-2018-4709-29

 

Malaysian Household Income Distribution: A Fractal Point of View

(Taburan Pendapatan Isi Rumah Malaysia: Suatu Sudut Pandang Fraktal)

 

FATIMAH ABDUL RAZAK^* & FARIDATULAZNA AHMAD SHAHABUDDIN

 

Pusat Pengajian Sains Matematik, Fakulti Sains dan Teknologi, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, 43600 UKM Bangi, Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia

 

Received: 21 September 2017/Accepted: 30 April 2018

 

ABSTRACT

 

Malaysian Household Income Survey data provided by the Malaysian Department of Statistics is used to provide evidence that the upper tails of the household income distribution follows a fractal based distribution known as power-law. Inequality measures are then applied to ascertain the levels of inequality based on this distribution. In addition to that, we analyzed the data in terms of different classes of occupation, obtained power-law exponents for each class and then highlighted the inequality between these classes.

 

Keywords: Fractals; household income distribution; inverted Pareto coefficient; Pareto inequality; power-laws

 

ABSTRAK

 

Data daripada Tinjauan Pendapatan Isi Rumah Malaysia yang diperoleh daripada Jabatan Perangkaan Malaysia digunakan untuk menentusahkan bahagian hujung atas taburan pendapatan isi rumah mengikuti taburan berasaskan fraktal yang dikenali sebagai ‘power-law’. Kemudian, beberapa ukuran ketaksamaan digunakan untuk memberikan gambaran tahap ketaksamaan pendapatan rakyat Malaysia. Seterusnya, analisis ini juga dijalankan ke atas kelas pekerjaan yang berbeza.

 

Kata kunci: Fraktal; ketaksamaan Pareto; pekali Pareto songsang; power-law; taburan pendapatan isi rumah

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*Corresponding author; email: fatima84@ukm.edu.my