Selected publications

Highlights

Technical reports, policy briefs, working papers

• “Understanding Malaysia’s decline in PISA scores: causes and consequences”, S. Azahar and C. Cheng, Institute of Strategic and International Studies, ISIS Malaysia Policy Paper, July 2024.
• “Building a cradle-to-grave care economy for Malaysia”, M.H. Lee, C. Cheng, S. Agha and A. Farid, Institute of Strategic and International Studies, ISIS Malaysia Policy Paper, June 2024.
• “Malaysia’s progressive wage policy: a guide to policy design considerations for effective implementation”, C. Cheng, Institute of Strategic and International Studies, ISIS Malaysia Policy Brief, March 2024.
• Working paper: Life after work: the causal effect of retirement on wellbeing in Malaysia, C. Cheng, 2023.
• Working paper: Gentrification and landlords: how market failures fuel displacement, C. Cheng, 2023.
• Policy memo: Targeting social benefit programmes: badly targeted or targeting badly?, C. Cheng, 2023.
• “Strengthening digital trade and digitalisation in Malaysia: Challenges and pathways towards a resilient digital economy post-Covid-19”, C. Cheng and J. Mohamad, Technical report in collaboration with Google LLC, 2022.
• “Pushed to the margins: The unequal impacts of the COVID-19 crisis on marginalised Malaysian workers”, C. Cheng, Institute of Strategic and International Studies, ISIS Malaysia Policy Brief 7-20, 2020.
• “Unpacking Budget 2024: Navigating Fiscal Realities and Policy Priorities”, C. Cheng, et al., 2023.
• “Fiscal Size Matters Pt 2: PERMERKASA Plus and Malaysia’s Economic Stimulus Packages”, C. Cheng, 2021.
• “Fiscal Size Matters: The PERMAI Assistance Package and Malaysia’s Economic Response to COVID-19”, C. Cheng, 2021.
• “COVID-19 in Malaysia: Economic Impacts & Fiscal Responses”, C. Cheng, Institute of Strategic and International Studies, ISIS Malaysia Policy Brief 1-20, 2020.
• “The US-China Trade War: Is Malaysia benefiting from ‘diversions’ in US import demand?”, C. Cheng, F. Rosli, and D. M. Kartika, Institute of Strategic and International Studies, Malaysia, ISIS Malaysia Policy Brief 2-19, 2019.

Books and chapters

• C. Cheng, “Post-Covid-19 recovery and quest for ‘good jobs’” in Where Do We Go Work-wise: Malaysia’s Labour Landscape. Petaling Jaya, Malaysia: TalentCorp, 2023, pp. 31–51.
• C. Cheng, “Socio-economic and Development Consequences of the Covid-19 Pandemic for Malaysia,” in Crisis and Community, B. Welsh, Ed. Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia: Strategic Information and Research Development Centre, 2024, In press.
• C. Cheng, “Crisis of inequality: Covid-19’s long-lasting impacts” in Pandemic Papers: Lessons from Covid-19. Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia: Institute of Strategic and International Studies, Malaysia, 2022, pp. 6–17.

Journal articles and papers

• C. Cheng, “The socioeconomic impacts of Covid-19 in Malaysia,” Asia Policy, vol. 17, pp. 35–44, Jan 2022, National Bureau of Asian Research. doi: 10.1353/asp.2022.0002.
• C. Cheng and H. Zainul, “Trends in Malaysia’s future of work,” Journal of China-ASEAN Studies, vol. 2, pp. 99–117, 18 2021, China Social Sciences Press. PDF.
• C. Cheng and J. Mohamad, “Youth unemployment in Malaysia and the region,” Japan SPOTLIGHT, vol. 1, pp. 49–53, 229 2020, Japan Economic Foundation. PDF.

Selected newspaper articles, opinion pieces

• Why we should welcome back GST, Edge Markets, November 2023.
• Making FDI work for Malaysia;s development, Edge Markets, September 2022.
• When does a recession look like a recession?, News Straits Times.
• Malaysia’s youth in peril, C. Cheng & B. Welsh, MalaysiaKini, May 2021.
• Making the invisible visible: Faces of poverty in Malaysia, C. Cheng & B. Welsh. MalaysiaKini, April 2020.

Selected conference proceedings, presentations, talks, misc

• “Strengthening digital trade and digitalisation in Malaysia” ISIS-Google report launch, February 2022. PDF
• “Pandemic economics: the Malaysian economy and economic responses to Covid-19.” Mar 2021. URL
• “Policies for the future of Malaysia’s youth.” Jun 2021. PDF
• “Bantuan Sara Hidup: Programme design considerations for cash transfer programming in Malaysia.” Aug 2019. PDF