Dr. Jarita Duasa is an accomplished economist, academic, researcher, and author with extensive experience in economics, Islamic finance, international trade, environmental economics, and development studies. She has served in academia and has been actively involved in teaching economics at undergraduate, postgraduate, and professional levels. Dr. Duasa is a life member of the Malaysian Finance Association and Malaysian Economic Association and is also associated with the Centre of Islamic Economics at the International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM). Her research interests include Malaysian export competitiveness, Islamic finance, food security, climate change, environmental economics, international trade, and socio-economic development. She has authored and edited several books, including Competitiveness of Malaysian Exports, Readings on Applied Economics, and Selected Readings on Environmental Economics. Her scholarly work also includes research on climate change and rice production, Islamic financing, halal products, food security, and the economic impacts of COVID-19. Through her teaching, research, publications, and professional engagement, Dr. Duasa has contributed significantly to the development of economics and Islamic economic scholarship in Malaysia and the wider region.

Title: Microfinance and Women's Economic Empowerment in Malaysia: A Quantile Regression Analysis of Amanah Ikhtiar Malaysia Participants  Abstract  Women's economic empowerment has become a central pillar of sustainable development, with microfinance increasingly recognized as an important instrument for enhancing women's financial independence, entrepreneurial capacity, and household welfare. In Malaysia, Amanah Ikhtiar Malaysia (AIM) has played a significant role in providing financial services to low income women, yet limited evidence exists on whether the determinants of women's economic outcomes differ across income groups. This study investigates the factors influencing the per capita income of women participating in AIM's microfinance programme by employing a quantile regression approach, which enables the analysis of heterogeneous effects across different levels of the income distribution. The study utilises survey data collected from 857 AIM participants in Perak and Kelantan. The empirical findings reveal that the value of productive assets, loan size, household size, expenditure-to-income ratio, and geographical location consistently influence women's per capita income across lower, middle, and upper income quantiles. However, age exhibits heterogeneous effects, negatively affecting income among women in the lower and middle income groups while becoming insignificant among higher-income participants. These findings demonstrate that the pathways to women's economic empowerment are not uniform and that the effectiveness of microfinance varies according to beneficiaries' socioeconomic positions. The study contributes to the microfinance and women empowerment literature by showing that quantile regression provides richer policy insights than conventional mean-based estimation, allowing policymakers to identify the specific needs of different groups of women entrepreneurs. The findings suggest that strengthening access to productive assets, providing appropriately sized financing, and designing age- and income-sensitive support programmes, including entrepreneurial training and financial capability development, can substantially enhance women's economic resilience and empowerment. Overall, the study reinforces the role of microfinance not merely as a poverty alleviation instrument but as a catalyst for promoting inclusive women's economic empowerment and sustainable livelihood development in Malaysia.  Keywords: Microfinance; Women Empowerment; Amanah Ikhtiar Malaysia; Quantile Regression.