Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

I Love Smu: Heart, Life, Passion, Soul [Advertisment], Singapore Management University

SMU Press Releases

Celebrating the unconventional, the intriguing, the undaunted. Experience the SMU spirit. Heart: Jenny Foo; Life: Tan Chee Wee; Life: Joven Lai; Soul: Jeremy Nguee; Passion: Richard Ho, Johny Tay.

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Fiducial Predictive Densities And Econometric Duration Analysis, Zhenlin Yang

Research Collection School Of Economics

In this article, we propose using fiducial predictive density (FPD) as a density estimate, which leads naturally to estimators of survivor and hazard functions and provides a simple way of constructing shortest prediction intervals. This approach is studied in detail in the context of two flexible duration models proposed in this paper, namely the trans-normal and trans-exponential families, by presenting the FPDs, their basic properties, their Bayesian correspondence and their applications in econometric duration analysis. Empirical evidences show that the FPD method provides better estimates of survivor and hazard functions, particularly the latter, than does the usual maximum likelihood method. …

The Law And The Elderly In Singapore: The Law On Income And Maintenance For The Elderly, Locknie Hsu

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

By 2030, Singapore's elderly will make up a staggering 19% of the population. With such a large proportion of people becoming old, it is timely to pay some attention to the broad spectrum of legal issues surrounding elder. Several sociological and statistical studies have been done on the elderly Singapore, yet relatively little has been written on the law relating to them. Much of the present legislation which directly or indirectly addresses problems of the elderly in Singapore relate to their financial arrangements. Examples of these are provisions relating to withdrawal of Central Provident Fund (CPF) monies and the age …

The Eu And The Non-Proliferation Of Nuclear Weapons: The Way To Thessaloniki And Beyond, Clara Portela

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

This paper discusses EU policies against the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction (WMD). The author states that at the beginning of the century, the EU began taking steps against the spread of nuclear weapons within its Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP). In June 2003, the European Council adopted its first draft strategy against the proliferation of WMDs. In order to assess the significance of the strategy, the paper presents and evaluates the Union’s record in the field, reviews the strategy and makes suggestions as to how it can be improved.

The Arms Trade In Russian-Chinese Relations: Identity, Domestic Politics, And Geopolitical Positioning, Robert H. Donaldson, John A. Donaldson

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Why would a declining power help arm a neighboring and once-hostile rising power? Current international relations literature cannot explain relationships in which one powerful country contributes directly to its long-term relative decline in order to make smaller, short-term gains. This study focuses on one example, the Treaty on Good Neighborly Friendship and Cooperation between the Russian Federation and the People's Republic of China, signed in Moscow on July 16, 2001. Presenting evidence that this alliance embodies a relationship that is based primarily on sales of arms from Russia to China, the authors argue that this association cannot be explained by …

Performance Of High And Low Book-To-Market Stocks With Strong Financial Signals: Evidence In Asia Markets 1991-2002, Choong Seok Joseph Kang, Kuan Yong David Ding

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Motivated by striking findings in recent US studies on return enhancing role in financial signals, we examine in the context of Asian stock markets if we can improve one- and two-year returns of high and low book-to-market (BTM) portfolios by retaining in the portfolios only the stocks whose current accounting/financial information indicates strong financial performance in the prior year. We find that doing so can substantially improve the future returns of such portfolios in all markets except Malaysia. We also find that a zero-investment winner-loser strategy on high BTM stocks (a strategy of longing the value stocks with strong financial …

Score Tests For Inverse Gaussian Mixture, Zhenlin Yang

Research Collection School Of Economics

The mixed inverse Gaussian given by Whitmore (Scand. J. Statist., 13, 1986, 211–220) provides a convenient way for testing the goodness-of-fit of a pure inverse Gaussian distribution. The test is a one-sided score test with the null hypothesis being the pure inverse Gaussian (i.e. the mixing parameter is zero) and the alternative a mixture. We devise a simple score test and study its finite sample properties. Monte Carlo results show that it compares favourably with the smooth test of Ducharme (Test, 10, 2001, 271-290). In practical applications, when the pure inverse Gaussian distribution is rejected, one is interested in making …

The Impacts Of Hong Kong's Currency Board Reforms On Its Interbank Market, Yiu Kuen Tse, Paul S. L. Yip

Research Collection School Of Economics

Among the economies with a Currency Board System (CBS), Hong Kong (HK) is probably the one with the largest and most developed financial sector, as well as the highest capital mobility. Hence, studying HK’s CBS is not only crucial to HK, but also important for the understanding of the modern CBS. This paper outlines the major monetary reforms in HK since the late 1980s. The impacts of these reforms and the 1997–1998 Asian Financial Crisis are then examined empirically. We focus on the differentials between the US and HK interbank interest rates. We assume the conditional-mean equation follows an autoregressive …

Information Recovery In A Study With Surrogate Endpoints, Song Xi Chen, Denis H. Y. Leung, Jing Qin

Research Collection School Of Economics

Recently, there has been a lot of interest in statistical methods for analyzing data with surrogate endpoints. In this article, we consider parameter estimation from a model that relates a variable Y to a set of covariates, X, in the presence of a surrogate, S. We assume that the data are made up of two random samples from the population, a validation set where (Y, X, S) are observed on every subject and a nonvalidation set where only (X, S) are measured. We show how information from the nonvalidation set can be incorporated to improve upon estimation of a parameter …

Optimum Currency Area In Europe: An Alternative Evaluation, Yoonbai Kim, Hwee Kwan Chow

Research Collection School Of Economics

In this paper we explore an alternative scheme to assess the suitability of adopting a common currency by Western European countries. It is based on the role of common regional shocks in the determination of output. The results show that the OCA theory well explains and predicts participation decisions in EMU. We also find that our OCA index is highly consistent with two popular schemes that have been introduced by Bayoumi and Eichengreen.

How Are Social Identities Linked To Self-Conception And Intergroup Orientation? The Moderating Effect Of Implicit Theories, Ying-Yi Hong, Gloria Chan, Chi-Yue Chiu, Rosanna Y. M. Wong, Ian G. Hansen, Sau-Lai Lee, Jennifer Yuk-Yue Tong, Ho-Ying Fu

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Social identity approaches assume that social identification affects both self-conception and intergroup orientation. The authors contend that such social identification effects are accentuated when people hold a fixed view of human character and attribute immutable dispositions to social groups. To these individuals, social identities are immutable, concrete entities capable of guiding self-conception and intergroup orientation. Social identification effects are attenuated when people hold a malleable view of human character and thus do not view social identities as fixed, concrete entities. The authors tested and found support for this contention in three studies that were conducted in the context of the …

Larger Issues At Stake In Unnatural Sex Debate, Seow Hon Tan

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

The recent debate about the criminal prohibition of oral sex provides an occasion for considering larger, related issues. However prevalent the practice of oral sex and however archaic Section 377 of the Penal Code seems to those pushing for its repeal, the arguments offered have tended to take a piecemeal approach and display an ignorance of or disregard for the larger interests at stake.

Issue Definition And The Opinion-Policy Link: Public Preferences And Health Care Spending In The Us And Uk, Stuart N. Soroka, Elvin T. Lim

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

This article explores the extent to which yearly changes in health spending reflect yearly changes in public preferences. Time series modelling suggests that health care spending is remarkably more responsive to yearly changes in public opinion in the US than in the UK.A content analysis of party manifestos suggests the significant role of ‘issue definition’ in accounting for this difference. Health care issues in the US have more often been viewed as problems of expenditure, while UK policy-makers have tended to focus on efficiency. Results suggest that the responsiveness of health care expenditures to public preferences in the US and …

A Survey On Physical Delivery Versus Cash Settlement In Futures Contracts, Donald Lien, Yiu Kuen Tse

Research Collection School Of Economics

A futures contract may adopt physical delivery or cash settlement to liquidate open positions after the maturity day. While traditionally physical delivery specification is favored, exchanges have recently turned to examine cash settlement possibilities. This paper summarizes current literature on settlement specifications with emphases on market manipulation, cash index construction, and hedging effectiveness comparisons

Tests Of Functional Form And Heteroscedasticity, Zhenlin Yang, Yiu Kuen Tse

Research Collection School Of Economics

This paper considers tests of misspecification in a heteroscedastic transformation model. We derive Lagrange multiplier (LM) statistics for (i) testing functional form and heteroscedasticity jointly, (ii) testing functional form in the presence of heteroscedasticity, and (iii) testing heteroscedasticity in the presence of data transformation. We present LM statistics based on the expected information matrix. For cases (i) and (ii), this is done assuming the Box-Cox transformation. For case (iii), the test does not depend on whether the functional form is estimated or pre-specified. Small-sample properties of the tests are assessed by Monte Carlo simulation, and comparisons are made with the …

Larger Issues At Stake In Unnatural Sex Debate, Seow Hon Tan

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

The recent debate about the criminal prohibition of oral sex provides an occasion for considering larger, related issues. However prevalent the practice of oral sex and however archaic Section 377 of the Penal Code seems to those pushing for its repeal, the arguments offered have tended to take a piecemeal approach and display an ignorance of or disregard for the larger interests at stake.

Entrepreneurship And Social Endeavours In Singapore, Wee Liang Tan

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Many people would confine entrepreneurship to the business arena and entrepreneurs to profit enterprises. In truth, entrepreneurship can extend to all aspects of human activity as defined by Raymond Kao as “the process of doing something new and/or different to create wealth for oneself and to add value to the society” (Kao, 1993). Apart from entrepreneurship that is solely “for profit” and in the business sphere, there is social entrepreneurship. Social entrepreneurship spans a continuum of community-based enterprises and entrepreneurial activities by volunteers for the good of their communities. It also includes philanthropic acts by successful individuals. While many may …

Micro-Level Estimation Of The Prevalence Of Stunting And Underweight Among Children In Cambodia, Tomoki Fujii, Livia Montana

Research Collection School Of Economics

We are pleased to share this copy of the preliminary report on "Micro-Level Estimation of the Prevalence of Stunting and Underweight Among Children in Cambodia." This study is the result of a collaboration between the Ministry of Planning, the United Nations World Food Programme and the MEASURE DHS+ project, with in-kind assistance from The World Bank. We also would like to express our acknowledgement to Italian Cooperation and International Fund for Agricultural Development for supporting in publication and distribution.

A Formal Test Of Density Forecast Evaluation, Anil K. Bera, Aurobindo Ghosh

Research Collection School Of Economics

Recent econometricians have shifted their attention from point and interval forecasts of the probability density functions (PDF) of various market variables. One of the main problems in this area has been evaluation of the density forecasts. In this papers, we propose a formal test for density forecast evaluation using Neyman (1937) smooth test procedure. Apart from giving indications of acceptance or rejection of the tested model, this approach provides specific sources (such as the mean, variance, skewness and kurtosis or the location, scale and shape of the distribution) or rejections, thereby helping in deciding possible modifications of the assumed model. …

Singapore Management University Introduces Singapore’S First Multi-Disciplinarysocial Sciences Degree Programme With A Focus On Business And Economicsapplications, Singapore Management University

SMU Press Releases

No abstract provided.

An Empirical Examination Of Ipo Underpricing In The Chinese A-Share Market, Ting Yu, Yiu Kuen Tse

Research Collection School Of Economics

Research in the literature shows that initial public offerings (IPOs) of common stocks are systematically priced at a discount to their subsequent initial trading price. The large underpricing magnitude in the Chinese IPO market has attracted much attention. We consider three hypotheses that may explain the IPO underpricing in China. These are the winner's curse hypothesis, the ex ante uncertainty hypothesis and the signaling hypothesis. Among these hypotheses, the winner's curse hypothesis has not been tested in the Chinese market. Using IPO data for online fixed-price offerings from November 1995 to December 1998, our results show that the winner's curse …

An Issue Of Absolution: Section 391 Of The Companies Act, Pearlie Koh

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

There is an obvious tension in the imposition of directors’ duties. Whilst directors being the management, and therefore the eyes, ears and brain of the corporate person, must be given sufficient discretion to take on entrepreneurial (and hence risky) ventures with a view to profit maximisation, there is also the need to curb excesses, as the potential or opportunity for mismanagement, negligence and fraud is omnipresent. [T]his short article considers section 391 of the Companies Act (Cap 50), arguably the statutory nemesis of directors’ duties. Section 391 gives jurisdiction to the court hearing the case to relieve an officer from …

Acceptance Of Golden Rice In The Philippine Rice Bowl, Mark Chong

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Few science issues in recent years have elicited such polarized public reactions as modern biotechnology and its agricultural applications. Although a new study conducted by the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications (Ithaca, NY, USA) indicates that Southeast Asian stakeholders generally hold positive views about agricultural biotechnology.

In Praise Of The Strange Virtue Of People-Smuggling, Chandran Kukathas

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Almost everyone is against people-smuggling. The refugee advocate excoriating the government for its mistreatment of asylum seekers, no less than the departmental official bemoaning the numbers of boat people landing on Australian shores, feels well-justified in insisting that, somehow, something must be done to put an end to this 'evil trade'. On the scale of virtue, the people smuggler appears barely a notch above (and for many, several notches below) the drug dealer, the child molester, or the gangster.

What To Do On Spring Break? The Role Of Predicted, On-Line, And Remembered Experience In Future Choice, Derrick Wirtz, Justin Kruger, Christie N. Scollon, Ed Diener

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

When individuals choose future activities on the basis of their past experiences, what guides those choices? The present study compared students' predicted, on-line, and remembered spring-break experiences, as well as the influence of these factors on students' desire to take a similar vacation in the future. Predicted and remembered experiences were both more positive—and, paradoxically, more negative—than on-line experiences. Of key importance, path analyses revealed that remembered experience, but neither on-line nor anticipated experience, directly predicted the desire to repeat the experience. These results suggest that although on-line measures may be superior to retrospective measures for approximating objective experience, retrospective …

Does Underwriter Reputation Affect The Performance Of Ipo Stocks?, Chunchi Wu, Sheen Liu, Junbo Wang

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

In this paper we examine the relationship between performance of the Chinese IPO firms and the reputation of investment bankers underwriting their stocks. Similar to previous studies on well-developed stock markets, we find that the initial return on the first day of trading is strongly positive for Chinese IPO stocks due to underpricing. This initial return is negatively related to the underwriter's reputation, suggesting that the better the reputation of the underwriter, the less underpricing and hence, the lower the initial return of the IPO stock. Extending the analysis to a ten-day window after the first trading day, we find …

Re-Engaging Chineseness: Political, Economic And Cultural Imperatives Of Nation-Building In Singapore, Eugene K. B. Tan

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

This article examines the management of Chinese identity and culture since Singapore attained independence in 1965. Due to the delicate regional environment, ethnic Chinese identity has been closely managed by the ruling elites, which have been dominated by the English-educated Chinese. There is the evolution from a deliberate policy of maintaining a low-key ethnic Chinese profile to the recent effort to re-sinicize--in form--the majority ethnic group. The article examines the policy impulses and implications for such a landmark change in reconceptualizing the Chinese-Singapore identity, which can be attributed to the needs of regime maintenance buttressed by Confucian ethos as well …

Singapore's Regionalization Gambit: Insights Form The Suzhou-Wuxi Experiment, Caroline Yeoh, Jerel Chye Hock Lee, Clare Yenping Lee

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

No abstract provided.

The Role Of United Charities In Fundraising: The Case Of Singapore, Vincent Chua, Chung Ming Wong

Research Collection School Of Economics

Theory suggests that a united charity helps to economize on fundraising costs by reducing competition for donations among member charities. However, donors often cannot control the allocation of their donations, and charities may dislike the monitoring of their activities. This paper examines these and other issues relating to the Community Chest of Singapore. The results, based on analysis of financial positions and fundraising costs of a large number of charities, suggest that the Community Chest does possess important fundraising advantages. Thus charities in financial difficulties or in need of funds for additional programs tend to seek membership. However, organizations that …

Role Of Government In Attracting And Inviting Investment From The Private Sector: Extrapolations From The Singapore Experience, Caroline Yeoh, Siang Yeung Wong, Adeline Li Feng Kwan

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

No abstract provided.