Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Port Multipliers For Singapore: Impact On Income, Output, And Employment, Rex S. Toh, Sock-Yong Phang, Habibullah Khan

PHANG Sock Yong

This article examines the contribution of the activities of the Port of Singapore Authority (PSA), a government-owned statutory board which operates almost all of the port related activities in Singapore, to the prosperity of the entire country, by way of multiplier analysis. Input-output analysis is used to compute the income, output, and employment multipliers of port activities, broken down into direct, indirect, and induced effects. The policy implications on port investment and maritime policy follow.

An Evaluation Of Car-Ownership And Car-Usage Policies In Singapore, Sock-Yong Phang, Anthony Chin

PHANG Sock Yong

Report presented to Parliament 2 January 1990 as part of Select Committee on Land Transportation Policy. Covers the transportation policies of Singapore from 1960s to 1980s. Analysis of car ownership policies, including PARF. Analysis of car usage policies.

The Unctad Liner Code: A Dead Letter?, Sock-Yong Phang, Rex S. Toh

PHANG Sock Yong

The UNCTAD Code of conduct for Liner Conferences entered into force in 1983. The Code's cargo allocation scheme or '40-40-20 rule' aims to provide shipping lines of developing countries with a fair change to compete for the carriage of their seabourne trade. However, the Code has not been effective in meeting its stated objectives for a variety of reasons. Amongst the administrative difficulties are (i) the complications introduced by the EEC's Brussels Package, (ii) the definition of national lines, (iii) the unit of measurement for cargo allocation purposes, and (iv) the monitoring of cargo movements. The tremendous growth in non-conference …

Port Multipliers For Singapore: Impact On Income, Output, And Employment, Rex S. Toh, Sock-Yong Phang, Habibullah Khan

PHANG Sock Yong

This article examines the contribution of the activities of the Port of Singapore Authority (PSA), a government-owned statutory board which operates almost all of the port related activities in Singapore, to the prosperity of the entire country, by way of multiplier analysis. Input-output analysis is used to compute the income, output, and employment multipliers of port activities, broken down into direct, indirect, and induced effects. The policy implications on port investment and maritime policy follow.

Book Review Of Competition Law And Policy In Singapore, By Cavinder Bull, Lim Chong Kin, Academy Publishing, Singapore, 2009, Sock-Yong Phang

PHANG Sock Yong

No abstract provided.

Tourism Growth In Singapore: An Optimal Target, Habibullah Khan, Sock-Yong Phang, Rex S. Toh

PHANG Sock Yong

No abstract provided.

The Singapore Model Of Housing And The Welfare State, Sock Yong Phang

PHANG Sock Yong

While Singapore is not generally regarded as a welfare state, the provision of housing welfare on a large scale has been a defining feature of its welfare system. The extensive housing system has played a useful role in raising savings and homeownership rates as well as contributing to sustained economic growth in general and development of the housing sector in particular. Few would dispute the description of Singapore’s housing policies as 'phenomenally successful' (Ramesh, 2003). Singapore’s economic growth record in the past four decades has brought it from third world to first world status (Lee, 2000), with homeownership widespread at …

Strategic Development Of Airport And Rail Infrastructure: The Case Of Singapore, Sock-Yong Phang

PHANG Sock Yong

No abstract provided.

From Efficiency-Driven To Innovation-Driven Economic Growth: Perspectives From Singapore, Kim Song Tan, Sock-Yong Phang

PHANG Sock Yong

The Singapore economy is going through a period of major restructuring. Economic stagnation since the 1997 Asia financial crisis (except for a brief recovery in 1999) has called into question the continued relevance of many fundamental policies that had worked well in the past. In 2002, a high-level Economic Review Committee (ERC) was convened by the government to chart new directions for the economy. A common thread that ran through the committee’s various reports was a call to enhance the economy’s innovative capacity, with the aim of making Singapore an innovation hub in the region. The call reflects an increased …

Road Congestion Pricing In Singapore: 1975-2003, Sock-Yong Phang, Rex S. Toh

PHANG Sock Yong

Facing traffic congestion in the Central Business District and enormous demands on scarce land resources by the growing number of motor vehicles, Singapore, a small island city-state the size of Seattle, embarked on a bold decision to reduce road congestion by implementing the famous Area Licensing Scheme in 1975. This was a manual system of tolls for multiple entries into the Restricted Zone. While achieving the intended effect of cutting down on the volume of vehicular traffic in the Restricted Zone, the authors (and others) found that the problem of congestion had merely shifted in time and place. Many changes …

Welfare Implications Of Hdb Policy On The Public Housing Price Gradient, Sock Yong Phang

PHANG Sock Yong

In Singapore, extensive government intervention in the housing market has resulted in much deviation from assumptions made in the simple neoclassical urban models. The monocentric model of urban structure is extended to incorporate a subsidized public housing market in which the government-determined price gradient is flatter than the private housing price gradients. The propositionthat the utility of public housing households varies inversely with residential location distance from the CBD is empirically tested by estimating net returns to public housing using resale market data. It was found that net returns decreased with distance from the CBD.

Bank Lending And Real Estate In Asia: Market Optimism And Asset Bubbles, Winston T. H. Koh, Roberto S. Mariano, Andrey Pavlov, Sock-Yong Phang, Augustine H. H. Tan, Susan M. Wachter

PHANG Sock Yong

This paper investigates the Asian real estate price run-up and collapse in the 1990s. We identify financial intermediaries’ underpricing of the put option imbedded in non-recourse mortgage loans as a potential cause for the observed price behavior. This underpricing is due to behavioral causes (lender optimism and disaster myopia) and/or rational response of lenders to market incentives (agency conflicts, deposit insurance, or limited liability of bank shareholders). The empirical evidence suggests that underpricing occurred in Thailand, Malaysia, and Indonesia. Consequently, these countries experienced a more severe market crash than Hong Kong and Singapore, where underpricing was kept under control by …

The Multiplier Effect: Singapore's Hospitality Industry, Habibullah Khan, Sock-Yong Phang, Rex S. Toh

PHANG Sock Yong

Tourism's contribution to Singapore's economy has increased over time. Tourism contributed 11.9% to Singapore's GDP in 1992, about half of that from direct revenues. Indirect and induced sources contributed about equally to the other half. While the direct effect of tourist expenditures on the Singapore economy are predominant, the indirect and induced effects are also significant, indicating strong sectoral linkages within the local economy, especially with respect to the hospitality industry.

Free To Move: Migration, Tax Competition And Redistribution, Woojin Lee

Woojin Lee

We study a model of tax competition between two countries when both skilled and unskilled workers make their migration decisions simultaneously and wages are endogenously determined. If both factors of production are allowed to migrate freely and when the demand for skilled labor is not so elastic, the problem typically predicted in the literature of tax competition that increased mobility of production factors will pose a severe threat to redistribution possibility is less acute than it might first appear. The equilibrium tax rate can be not only positive but also increasing in the degree of mobility of unskilled workers. This …

Racism, Xenophobia, And Redistribution, Woojin Lee, John Roemer, Karine Van Der Straeten

Woojin Lee

We report here a summary of our recent research on the effect that the race issue, in the United States, and the immigration issue in European countries, is having on the degree of redistribution and the size of the public sector that is implemented through political competition. We model political competition as taking place on a two dimensional policy space, where the first issue is the tax rate, or the size of the public sector, and the second issue is the race or immigration issue. Our substantive conclusion is that the conservative economic agenda has been given new life in …

Values And Politics In The Us: An Equilibrium Analysis Of The 2004 Election, Woojin Lee, John Roemer

Woojin Lee

The CNN exit polls after the 2004 election rated ‘moral values’ the most important issue; next came ‘jobs and the economy.’ Eighty percent of the voters who rated moral values the most important issue voted for Bush while eighty percent of the voters who rated jobs and the economy the most important voted for Kerry. We study the extent to which the distribution of voter opinion on moral values influences the positions that parties take on the economic issue, which we take to be the size of the public sector, through political competition. There are at least two distinct ways …

Dominio De Las Teorías Económicas, Guillermo Arosemena

Guillermo Arosemena

No abstract provided.

Economic Size And The Changing International Political Economy Of Trade: The Development Of Western Hemispheric Ftas, Gaspare M. Genna

Gaspare M Genna

Why are some free trade agreements (FTAs) in the western hemisphere successfully negotiated and implemented while others seem to stagnate during negotiations? FTAs are more likely to develop when there is an asymmetrical power relationship and potential partners are satisfied with projected trade patterns. The European Union (EU) and United States have been successful in negotiating agreements with the Caribbean and Central American (CCA) countries. However, current bilateral and multilateral trade talks between the EU, the Common Market of the South (MERCOSUR), and United States are at a standstill. Although all four sets of trade negotiations include dissatisfactory conditions for …

The Future Of Digital Communications Research And Policy, Scott J. Wallsten

Scott J. Wallsten

No abstract provided.

Clearing House And Counterparty Default Risk In Derivatives Market, Poonam Mehra

Poonam Singh Mehra

No abstract provided.

Crisis And Global Imbalances: The Fragility Of The Current International Monetary System, Andrea Ricci

Andrea Ricci

Economic Writing On The Pressing Problems Of The Day: The Roles Of Moral Intuition And Methodological Confusion, Julie A. Nelson

Julie A. Nelson

Economists are often called on to help address pressing problems of the day, yet many economists are uncomfortable about disclosing the values that they bring to this work. This essay explores how an inadequate understanding of the role of methodology, as related to ethics and human emotions of concern, underlies this reluctance and compromises the quality of economic advice. The tension between caring about the problems, on the one hand, and writing within the existing culture of the discipline, on the other, are illustrated with examples from U.S. policymaking, behavioral economics, and the economics of climate change and global poverty. …

Residential And Business Broadband Prices Part 2: International Comparisons, Scott J. Wallsten, James Riso

Scott J. Wallsten

For this project, we assemble a new dataset consisting of more than 25,000 residential and business broadband plans from all OECD countries from 2007–2009. We explore three issues: the relationship between plan components—such as metering—and consumer prices, price changes over time, and how broadband prices vary across countries.

This paper, part 2 of the project, studies prices and price changes over time in the United States and other OECD countries. We find that residential prices in the U.S. remained fairly stable overall in this time period for both standalone and triple play (voice, video, and data) plans, though prices for …

Second Order Ambiguity In Very Low Probability Risks: Food Safety Valuation, P A. Kivi, J F. Shogren

Jason Shogren

Food consumption involves inherently risky decisions with uncertain probabilities. This study examines how second-order ambiguity, or uncertainty over probabilities, affects food safety decisions. We conduct a food safety survey wherein subjects face both unambiguous and ambiguous situations, each with the same expected value. Respondents show a preference for unambiguous situations and state a willingness to pay to avoid ambiguity.

Food Import Refusals: Evidence From The European Union, Kathy Baylis, Lia Nogueira, Kathryn Pace

Kathy Baylis

No abstract provided.

International Labor Rights And The Sovereignty Question: Nafta And Guatemala, Two Case Studies, Lance A. Compa

Lance A Compa

[Excerpt] Labor rights advocates in the United States and allied organizations abroad attempting to establish international fair labor standards run up against traditional notions of sovereignty in formulating national labor policies and development strategies. In the same way that entrenched sovereignty principles gradually yielded to international human rights claims after World War E, sovereignty is now being challenged by claims of international laborrights in the field of employment standards and industrial relations. This Article seeks to illuminate this challenge to sovereignty in two case studies of labor rights advocacy. Part I sets the stage with an overview of the growing …

Management-Based Regulation: Prescribing Private Management To Achieve Public Goals, Cary Coglianese, David Lazer

David Lazer

We analyze a little-studied regulatory approach that we call "management-based" regulation. Management-based regulation directs regulated organizations to engage in a planning process that aims toward the achievement of public goals, offering firms flexibility in how they achieve public goals. In this paper we develop a framework for assessing conditions for using management-based regulation as opposed to the more traditional technology-based or performance-based regulation. Drawing on case studies of management-based regulation in the areas of food safety, industrial safety, and environmental protection, we show how management-based regulation can be an effective strategy when regulated entities are heterogeneous and regulatory outputs are …

Sunday Liquor Laws And Crime, Paul Heaton

Paul Heaton

Many jurisdictions have considered relaxing Sunday alcohol sales restrictions, yet such restrictions' effects on public health remain poorly understood. This paper analyzes the effects of legalization of Sunday packaged liquor sales on crime, focusing on the phased introduction of such sales in Virginia beginning in 2004. Differences-in-differences and triple-differences estimates indicate the liberalization increased minor crime by 5% and alcoholinvolved serious crime by 10%. The law change did not affect domestic crime or induce significant geographic or inter-temporal crime displacement. The costs of this additional crime are comparable to the state's revenues from increased liquor sales.

Iii Ventures With A Finite Sequence Of Payments Of Uncertain Duration, Lester G. Telser

Lester G Telser

Part III describes a model of the valuation of ownership shares in joint ventures with limited liability such as corporations.

Ii Distribution Of Share Valuations, Lester G. Telser

Lester G Telser

A model of the market in shares of common stock enhances understanding of the empirical results in Part I