The poverty rate in Malaysia has dropped tremendously, whereas income inequality has followed an upward and downward trend. Beginning 1957/58 until 1990, Malaysia has completed one cycle of Kuznets Inverted‐U Hypothesis. However, since the 1990s income inequality is beginning to move upward...

Amanah Ikhtiar Malaysia (AIM) was established in 1987. The main objective of its establishment was to uplift households out of poverty through providing small loan to the rural poor. Most studies of AIM have concentrated only on the impact of this scheme on its members. They do not compare the...