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Research Collection College of Integrative Studies

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Island Platforms And The Hyper-Terrestrialisation Of Singapore's Smart City-State, Orlando Woods, Tim Bunnell, Lily Kong Feb 2024

Island Platforms And The Hyper-Terrestrialisation Of Singapore's Smart City-State, Orlando Woods, Tim Bunnell, Lily Kong

Research Collection College of Integrative Studies

This paper foregrounds the importance of underlying territorial formations in realising a vision of the smart city. It argues that as a political technology of the state, territory should be understood as a platform upon which data works and the smart city unfolds. In this view, island territories – of which bordered city-states like Singapore provide paradigmatic examples – provide an integral, yet hitherto unexplored, component in the realisation of urban “smartness”. We illustrate these theoretical arguments through an analysis of how the territorial constraints that characterise Singapore’s island platform enable the state to accurately and effectively realise its vision …


Rethinking The Inclusionary Potential Of Religious Institutions: The Case Of Gurdwaras In Singapore, Siew Ying Shee, Orlando Woods Jan 2024

Rethinking The Inclusionary Potential Of Religious Institutions: The Case Of Gurdwaras In Singapore, Siew Ying Shee, Orlando Woods

Research Collection College of Integrative Studies

Whilst Singapore’s Sikh community is relatively small, it is also heterogeneous. Its diversity reflects differences in ancestral and socio-economic backgrounds. As spaces of worship that regularly bring together the Sikh community in space and time, Sikh temples—gurdwaras––are often conceived as important places through which a shared sense of religiously-defined community is reproduced. Yet, as much as religion can provide a bridge that integrates people of different ethnic, racial, national, and linguistic groups into a single faith community, so too can it act as a buttress through which differences and divisions are enforced within the community. We argue that whilst gurdwaras …


Trust: The Feature That Vending Machines And Atms Share, But Simplygo Lacks, Sun Sun Lim Jan 2024

Trust: The Feature That Vending Machines And Atms Share, But Simplygo Lacks, Sun Sun Lim

Research Collection College of Integrative Studies

The article discussed the intricacies of trust in the SimplyGo debacle and highlighted how the design of physical interfaces like vending machines and ATMs and digital interfaces from apps like Grab, Parking.sg and ShopBack have critical features to instil trust. People need to be reassured that their transactions have proceeded as they should, and thay have not been short-changed.


Within-Development Density And Housing Prices In Singapore, Eric Fesselmeyer, Haoming Liu, Louisa Poco Nov 2023

Within-Development Density And Housing Prices In Singapore, Eric Fesselmeyer, Haoming Liu, Louisa Poco

Research Collection College of Integrative Studies

This paper measures how much more households pay for less density in their immediate surroundings. Using transaction and administrative data and exploiting the introduction of a regulation that restricted the number of housing units for certain land lots, we find that households discount density: a 10% increase in within-development density decreases the price per square meter by 5%. Further, the mean price per square meter of the average development increased by 1%–3% after the regulation was introduced, while the amount of built-up space remained constant. The increase in total revenue suggests developers may underestimate the externality caused by density.


The Illusory Infrastructure Of Ink: Machinic Bodies And Epidermic Affects In Singapore, Orlando Woods Nov 2023

The Illusory Infrastructure Of Ink: Machinic Bodies And Epidermic Affects In Singapore, Orlando Woods

Research Collection College of Integrative Studies

This paper advances recent theorisations of the body-as-infrastructure by exploring the premise that there are multiple bodily infrastructures at play at any one time. It focusses on three infrastructural formations – the body, the skin that encases the body, and tattoos as visual inscriptions on the skin – that jostle against each other for representational primacy. The layering of infrastructure-upon-infrastructure leads to understandings of the self that exist in a state of tension with societal norms and the illusions of self-representation. Indeed, it is the intersecting gazes of society and the self that cause these infrastructures to become disaggregated, and …


After Great Pain: The Uses Of Religious Folklore In Kenji Mizoguchi’S Sansho The Bailiff (Jp 1954) And Kaneto Shindo’S Onibaba (Jp 1964), Teng-Kuan Ng Nov 2023

After Great Pain: The Uses Of Religious Folklore In Kenji Mizoguchi’S Sansho The Bailiff (Jp 1954) And Kaneto Shindo’S Onibaba (Jp 1964), Teng-Kuan Ng

Research Collection College of Integrative Studies

This article studies the adaptations and applications of religious folklore in two mas-terworks of Japanese cinema: Kenji Mizoguchi’s Sansho Dayu (Sansho the Bailiff, JP 1954) and Kaneto Shindo’s Onibaba (JP 1964). While academic approaches will often draw a strict line between narrative genres and discursive forms, these films, I argue, draw creatively from Japanese tradition for both critical and constructive purposes in the postwar context. Besides mounting trenchant criticisms of Japan’s erstwhile militaristic violence and imperial ambitions, both filmmakers present their respective female protagonists as models for spiritual and sociocultural transformation in the face of anomie. Embodying humanistic compassion on …


Ten Years As Boundary Object: The Search For Identity And Belonging As 'Hongkongers', John Lowe, Espena Darlene Machell, George Wong Nov 2023

Ten Years As Boundary Object: The Search For Identity And Belonging As 'Hongkongers', John Lowe, Espena Darlene Machell, George Wong

Research Collection College of Integrative Studies

This article examines the complex process of symbolic boundary-making of ‘Hongkonger’ cultural identities through the lens of the controversial 2015 film Ten Years, which is a celebrated omnibus production comprised of five short segments that picture a dystopic end to Hong Kong’s cherished way of life in the year 2025. The article is premised on an interdisciplinary approach engaging with cultural studies and film studies. On one hand, it explores how Ten Years functioned as a boundary object, a vast terrain within which cultural identities of what it means to be a Hongkonger are constructed, banished, imagined, and performed under …


The State-Led Platformisation Of Financial Services: Frictionless Ecosystems And An Expansive Logic Of "Smartness" In Singapore, Orlando Woods, Tim Bunnell, Lily Kong Nov 2023

The State-Led Platformisation Of Financial Services: Frictionless Ecosystems And An Expansive Logic Of "Smartness" In Singapore, Orlando Woods, Tim Bunnell, Lily Kong

Research Collection College of Integrative Studies

This article explores the role of the state in driving the platformisation of industry, and in doing so offers a counterpoint to scholarship that focusses on the exploitative effects of private sector-led platformisation. That scholarship views platformisation as the latest incarnation of neoliberal urbanism, with the profit-maximising tendencies of the private sector driving the proliferation of platforms throughout everyday life. Notwith- standing, there remains a need to consider alternative models of platformisation. Drawing on 31 interviews with architects of Singapore’s Smart Nation initiative, we consider the state-led platformisation of financial services. We argue that state-led platformisation can open up marketplaces …


When Planetary Cosmopolitanism Meets The Buddhist Ethic: Recycling, Karma And Popular Ecology In Singapore, Siew Ying Shee, Orlando Woods, Lily Kong Oct 2023

When Planetary Cosmopolitanism Meets The Buddhist Ethic: Recycling, Karma And Popular Ecology In Singapore, Siew Ying Shee, Orlando Woods, Lily Kong

Research Collection College of Integrative Studies

By thinking with and through Buddhist cosmology, this paper explores the emergence of an ethical sensibility—what we call planetary cosmopolitanism—that is based on not just a spatially expanded ethic of care to ecological worlds, but also a temporally extended sense of justice to the future Earth. This transtemporal sense of ethical becoming reflects how the possibility of future ‘rebirth’ and accountability for past actions can motivate new ecological consciousness in the present. We forge these ideas through an empirical focus on popular Buddhist ecological practices in Singapore, where green recovery visions have primarily been driven by a secular and technocratic …


The Irreducible Otherness Of Desi And Desire In Singapore’S Gurdwaras: Moral Boundary-Making In The Shadows Of A Multicultural Society, Orlando Woods, Lily Kong Aug 2023

The Irreducible Otherness Of Desi And Desire In Singapore’S Gurdwaras: Moral Boundary-Making In The Shadows Of A Multicultural Society, Orlando Woods, Lily Kong

Research Collection College of Integrative Studies

This article considers the emergence of new multiculturalisms taking root in Asia by exploring how value-based frameworks and moral judgements are deployed to create new lines of difference within co-ethnic communities. These frameworks and judgements cause multiculturalism to become a more subjective, and thus splintered construct that is increasingly decoupled from state discourse. Further, it considers how religious spaces are typically associated with the performance of morally “right” attitudes and behaviours, and therefore provide fertile yet underexplored sites through which multicultural subjectivities are formed and enacted. It illustrates these theoretical ideas through an empirical examination of how moral boundary-making within …


Hawker Culture And Its Infrastructure: Experiences And Contestations In Everyday Life, Lily Kong, Aidan Marc Wong Jan 2023

Hawker Culture And Its Infrastructure: Experiences And Contestations In Everyday Life, Lily Kong, Aidan Marc Wong

Research Collection College of Integrative Studies

Hawker foods characterize urban Asia, with similarities and differences across cities that forge both cultural commonalities and distinctions. From the itinerant to the fixed location, from the temporary sites to the purposebuilt, hawker foods are served in informal settings, with varying degrees of tradition and innovation, hygiene and squalidness, local authenticity and globalized influence. In the side-streets of Beijing where local delicacies such as scorpion are served, to the abundant food cart vendors on Bangkok streets, to the warung (small, typically family-owned eateries) in Surabaya, and the carefully planned and designed hawker centres in Singapore, hawker culture is a distinctive


The Demands Of Displacement, The Micro-Aggressions Of Multiculturalism: Performing An Idea Of "Indianness" In Singapore, Orlando Woods, Lily Kong Jan 2023

The Demands Of Displacement, The Micro-Aggressions Of Multiculturalism: Performing An Idea Of "Indianness" In Singapore, Orlando Woods, Lily Kong

Research Collection College of Integrative Studies

This paper explores the ways in which state-defined discourses of multiculturalism can unintentionally create a framework through which micro-aggressions are enacted against those interpreted as "other". These definitions cascade down from the state to majority and then minority ethno-national groups, who leverage positions of relative dominance to establish the terms of acceptance and integration into society. By negotiating these terms, ethnicity becomes a performative construct through which difference is asserted and reified. We illustrate these ideas through an empirical analysis of Singapore's minority Indian community, and how Singaporean Indians perform an idea of "Indianness" in response to their Singaporean Chinese …


Heat And Colonial Weather Science In The Straits Settlements C. 1820-1900, Fiona Williamson Dec 2022

Heat And Colonial Weather Science In The Straits Settlements C. 1820-1900, Fiona Williamson

Research Collection College of Integrative Studies

Historical explorations of tropical heat in a colonial context have largely focussed on two interconnected spheres: colonial perceptions of place and body or, the implications of heat on different bodies in medical thought and practice. This paper seeks to move the discussion towards a history of colonial scientific thought about heat as component of weather and of escalating nature-induced hazards, studied in the observatory or meteorological department. A central theme is to think about heat in its relationship to nascent meso-scale atmospheric knowledge, meteorological theory and, as a by-product of urbanisation and land-use change. In so doing, it conceptualises the …


America's 'Chinese Problem' In Southeast Asia And The Emergence Of The Domino Theory [Come Tessere Del Domino: Il Pericolo Comunista E La “Questione Cinese” Nel Sud-Est Asiatico Negli Anni Cinquanta], Wen-Qing (Wei Wenqing) Ngoei, Raimondo (Translator) Neironi Dec 2022

America's 'Chinese Problem' In Southeast Asia And The Emergence Of The Domino Theory [Come Tessere Del Domino: Il Pericolo Comunista E La “Questione Cinese” Nel Sud-Est Asiatico Negli Anni Cinquanta], Wen-Qing (Wei Wenqing) Ngoei, Raimondo (Translator) Neironi

Research Collection College of Integrative Studies

This essay traces how race thinking in US foreign policy, combined with war memories of Japanese imperialism in Southeast Asia, shaped American strategy toward the region and the rise of the domino theory in US Cold War ideas.


Individual Perceptions Of Climate Anomalies And Collective Action: Evidence From An Artefactual Field Experiment In Malaysian Borneo, Terry Van Gevelt, T. Zamanb, K.N. Chanc, M.M. Bennettd Sep 2022

Individual Perceptions Of Climate Anomalies And Collective Action: Evidence From An Artefactual Field Experiment In Malaysian Borneo, Terry Van Gevelt, T. Zamanb, K.N. Chanc, M.M. Bennettd

Research Collection College of Integrative Studies

We explore the effect of individual perceptions of climate anomalies on collective action within a context of environmental complexity and uncertainty. To do so, we construct two competing propositions that are theoretically robust but with very different real-world implications. Our first proposition suggests that collective action to adapt to climate change is likely to be more effective when perceptions of climate anomalies converge within a community. Our second proposition suggests the opposite: that convergence is likely to hinder adaptation behaviour. We use a community co-designed measure of perceptions and an artefactual field experiment to test our propositions and explore the …


El Niño And The Human-Environment Nexus: Drought And Vulnerability In Singapore 1877-1911, Fiona Williamson Aug 2022

El Niño And The Human-Environment Nexus: Drought And Vulnerability In Singapore 1877-1911, Fiona Williamson

Research Collection College of Integrative Studies

This chapter brings a climatic perspective to the study of Singaporean history by exploring the impacts of the strong El Niño inspired droughts of 1877, 1902 and 1911. The narrative focuses on unpacking the nexus of nature-inspired versus human-induced vulnerability to drought within the contexts of colonial urbanisation and looks at the short-to medium-term impacts of the events on society. It also explores how such events inspired new questions about the climate and regional teleconnections, as a wealth of evidence became available due to the increasingly connected nature of scientific institutions, scientific literature, and communications systems across the Indian Ocean …


Transboundary Air Pollution And Cross-Border Cooperation: Insights From Marine Vessel Emissions Regulations In Hong Kong And Shenzhen, Seung Kyum Kim, Terry Van Gevelt, Paul Joosse, Mia M. Bennett May 2022

Transboundary Air Pollution And Cross-Border Cooperation: Insights From Marine Vessel Emissions Regulations In Hong Kong And Shenzhen, Seung Kyum Kim, Terry Van Gevelt, Paul Joosse, Mia M. Bennett

Research Collection College of Integrative Studies

Many coastal cities regulate shipping emissions within their jurisdictions. However, the transboundary nature of air pollution makes such efforts largely ineffective unless they are accompanied by reciprocal, legally-binding regulatory agreements with neighbouring cities. Due to various technical, economic, and institutional barriers, it has thus far been difficult to isolate the effects of legally-binding cross-border cooperation on vessel emissions at the city-level. We exploit the unique administrative characteristics of Hong Kong and its relationship with neighbouring cities in China's Pearl River Delta to isolate the effect of legally-binding cross-border cooperation. Using a regression discontinuity design, we find that Hong Kong's unilateral …


Making Universal Digital Access Universal: Lessons From Covid-19 In Singapore, Irene Y. H. Ng, Sun Sun Lim, Natalie Pang Apr 2022

Making Universal Digital Access Universal: Lessons From Covid-19 In Singapore, Irene Y. H. Ng, Sun Sun Lim, Natalie Pang

Research Collection College of Integrative Studies

Digital resources—which include devices, internet connection and digital literacy—have become basic needs. Thus with the global COVID-19 pandemic having accelerated digitalization, the urgency for universal digital inclusion has hastened. Otherwise, digital inequality will lead to social inequality and impede social mobility. Using Singapore as a case study, this article applies the insights learned from a participatory action research to recommend a policy framework for universal digital access, with practical humanistic steps towards full digital inclusion. Singapore is a digitally advanced nation with almost universal digital availability, yet when COVID-19 forced rapid digital adoption, gaps in access by vulnerable groups such …


Commentary: Coastal Cities Like Singapore Face Outsized Risks – And Opportunities – In A Warming World, Winston T. L. Chow Mar 2022

Commentary: Coastal Cities Like Singapore Face Outsized Risks – And Opportunities – In A Warming World, Winston T. L. Chow

Research Collection College of Integrative Studies

Many Southeast Asian cities are at the frontline for rapid, concerted and effective climate action, says the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report's lead author Winston Chow.


Online Patriarchal Bargains And Social Support: Struggles And Strategies Of Unwed Single Mothers In China, Xiaoman Zhao, Sun Sun Lim Nov 2021

Online Patriarchal Bargains And Social Support: Struggles And Strategies Of Unwed Single Mothers In China, Xiaoman Zhao, Sun Sun Lim

Research Collection College of Integrative Studies

Patriarchal bargains have been studied in many settings as a strategy that helps women circumvent constraints and forge spaces for individual empowerment. Despite the growing use of mediated communication, little is known about how patriarchal bargains are enacted and realized within online interactions such as in discussion forums. By analyzing how Chinese unwed single mothers renegotiate the state’s oppressive population control and gender policies through their online activity, this study proposes the concept of “online patriarchal bargain” to extend patriarchal bargain theory to women’s Internet use. It further explores linkages between social support and patriarchal bargain to elucidate how support …


Declining Discount Rates In Singapore's Market For Privately Developed Apartments, Eric Fesselmeyer, Haoming Liu, Alberto Salvo Sep 2021

Declining Discount Rates In Singapore's Market For Privately Developed Apartments, Eric Fesselmeyer, Haoming Liu, Alberto Salvo

Research Collection College of Integrative Studies

Singapore's market for new privately developed apartments exhibits wide quasi-experimental variation in ownership tenure. We develop an empirical model in which prices are decomposed into the utility of housing services and a factor that shifts with asset tenure and the discount rate schedule, which we discipline to vary smoothly over time. We estimate discount rates that decline over time and, to accommodate the observed price differences, fall to 0.5-1.5% p.a. by year 400. The finding that households making sizable transactions do not entirely discount benefits accruing centuries from today is relevant, with the appropriate risk adjustment, for evaluating climate-change investments.


Declining Discount Rates In Singapore's Market For Privately Developed Apartments, Eric Fesselmeyer, Haoming Liu, Alberto Salvo Sep 2021

Declining Discount Rates In Singapore's Market For Privately Developed Apartments, Eric Fesselmeyer, Haoming Liu, Alberto Salvo

Research Collection College of Integrative Studies

Singapore's market for new privately developed apartments exhibits wide quasi-experimental variation in ownership tenure. We develop an empirical model in which prices are decomposed into the utility of housing services and a factor that shifts with asset tenure and the discount rate schedule, which we discipline to vary smoothly over time. We estimate discount rates that decline over time and, to accommodate the observed price differences, fall to 0.5-1.5% p.a. by year 400. The finding that households making sizable transactions do not entirely discount benefits accruing centuries from today is relevant, with the appropriate risk adjustment, for evaluating climate-change investments.


Nomadic Life Archiving Across Platforms: Hyperlinked Storage And Compartmentalized Sharing, Yang Wang, Sun Sun Lim Apr 2021

Nomadic Life Archiving Across Platforms: Hyperlinked Storage And Compartmentalized Sharing, Yang Wang, Sun Sun Lim

Research Collection College of Integrative Studies

People are today located in media ecosystems in which a variety of ICT devices and platforms coexist and complement each other to fulfil users’ heterogeneous requirements. These multi-media affordances promote a highly hyperlinked and nomadic habit of digital data management which blurs the long-standing boundaries between information storage, sharing and exchange. Specifically, during the pervasive sharing and browsing of fragmentary digital information (e.g. photos, videos, online diaries, news articles) across various platforms, life experiences and knowledge involved are meanwhile classified and stored for future retrieval and collective memory construction. For international migrants who straddle different geographical and cultural contexts, management …


Lessons From Our Living Rooms: Illuminating Lockdowns With Technology Domestication Insights, Sun Sun Lim, Yang Wang Jan 2021

Lessons From Our Living Rooms: Illuminating Lockdowns With Technology Domestication Insights, Sun Sun Lim, Yang Wang

Research Collection College of Integrative Studies

With at least half of humanity under lockdown to arrest the spread of COVID-19 (Sandford, 2020), adults have been working from home and children engaging in home schooling for months on end. Competing for scarce resources such as digital devices, bandwidth, as well as physical and personal space, families have had to contend with rising tensions around the quality of digital engagement, children’s learning abilities, parent-child relationships and overall familial wellbeing. This fraught situation shone the spotlight on the household context of technology use but also enabled us to marshal academic insights to advance advocacy and public education. The pandemic …


Central Inspection Teams And The Enforcement Of Environmental Regulations In China, C. Xiang, Terry Van Gevelt Oct 2020

Central Inspection Teams And The Enforcement Of Environmental Regulations In China, C. Xiang, Terry Van Gevelt

Research Collection College of Integrative Studies

Despite the existence of a comprehensive set of environmental regulations, China’s environmental issues continue largely unabated and are increasingly leading to discontent among its citizens. Mirroring recent governance trends in China, the central government has increasingly taken a more hands-on-role to ensure the enforcement of environmental regulations by local government officials. One manifestation of this effort to re-centralize environmental institutions has been the establishment and deployment of Central Environmental Inspection Teams (CEITs). CEITs report directly to the central government and are dispatched to carry out crackdowns where the central government has reason to believe that environmental regulations are not being …


Indigenous Perceptions Of Climate Anomalies In Malaysian Borneo, Terry Van Gevelt, H. Abok, M. M. Bennett, S. D. Fam, F. George, N. Kulathuramaiyer, C. T. Low, T. Zamane Sep 2019

Indigenous Perceptions Of Climate Anomalies In Malaysian Borneo, Terry Van Gevelt, H. Abok, M. M. Bennett, S. D. Fam, F. George, N. Kulathuramaiyer, C. T. Low, T. Zamane

Research Collection College of Integrative Studies

Local perceptions of climate anomalies influence adaptation behaviour. Specifically, perceptions that are more accurate and homogenous at the community-level are more likely to facilitate the collective action required to adapt to the local effects of climate anomalies experienced by many indigenous communities. We combine primary data on perceptions of climate anomalies from 200 individuals in six Penan villages in Sarawak, Malaysia with instrumental climate data. We find that perceptions of climate anomalies vary substantially in terms of occurrence and magnitude, and do not generally correlate with instrumental climate data. We operationalise the Penan forest sign language (Oroo’) as a measure …


Catching Up With The ‘Core’: The Nature Of The Agricultural Machinery Sector And Challenges For Chinese Manufacturers, M. T. Safdar, Terry Van Gevelt Jul 2019

Catching Up With The ‘Core’: The Nature Of The Agricultural Machinery Sector And Challenges For Chinese Manufacturers, M. T. Safdar, Terry Van Gevelt

Research Collection College of Integrative Studies

The current era of globalisation has been accompanied by China’s rise as a major economic actor. Chinese firms are expanding their presence globally and are seeking to ‘catch-up’ with firms in developed countries across different sectors. This paper uses China’s agricultural machinery sector as a vehicle to examine the challenges faced by firms from developing countries in their effort to catch-up with ‘core firms’. Chinese firms operating in the sector struggle to compete with a small number of dominant core firms based in developed countries. These core firms are sectoral leaders with a global presence. They are continuously strengthening their …


Vietnamese Pre-Schoolers’ Tablet Use And Early Childhood Learning: An Ecological Investigation, Becky Pham, Sun Sun Lim Jul 2019

Vietnamese Pre-Schoolers’ Tablet Use And Early Childhood Learning: An Ecological Investigation, Becky Pham, Sun Sun Lim

Research Collection College of Integrative Studies

As Vietnam’s economic growth and consumer demands continue to accelerate, more Vietnamese families are now able to acquire portable touchscreen devices such as iPads. Previous research has shown that the use of touchscreen devices can benefit preschoolers’ learning, especially within school and home settings. However, little is known about the broader sociocultural environment within which such technology adoption by families with preschoolers takes place, especially in the Global South. Guided by Bronfenbrenner’s ecology of human development, this research investigates the ecology of tablet use and early childhood learning by pre-schoolers in Vietnam through an ethnographic investigation of 42 mother-child dyads. …


The Value Of Green Certification In The Singapore Housing Market, Eric Fesselmeyer Feb 2018

The Value Of Green Certification In The Singapore Housing Market, Eric Fesselmeyer

Research Collection College of Integrative Studies

In Singapore, a real estate developer sells new apartments in the same high-rise development before and after obtaining green certification. This allows the use of within-development variation in prices over time to measure the effect of green certification on housing prices, controlling for differences across developments. I find that green certification increases prices by around 3%, suggesting that buyers value certification, possibly because it signals the presence of less-salient green features. Moreover, the effect of certification is biggest for developments that receive the lowest green rating, which likely have fewer green features and are thus less obviously green.


The Value Of Green Certification In The Singapore Housing Market, Eric Fesselmeyer Feb 2018

The Value Of Green Certification In The Singapore Housing Market, Eric Fesselmeyer

Research Collection College of Integrative Studies

In Singapore, a real estate developer sells new apartments in the same high-rise development before and after obtaining green certification. This allows the use of within-development variation in prices over time to measure the effect of green certification on housing prices, controlling for differences across developments. I find that green certification increases prices by around 3%, suggesting that buyers value certification, possibly because it signals the presence of less-salient green features. Moreover, the effect of certification is biggest for developments that receive the lowest green rating, which likely have fewer green features and are thus less obviously green.