Digital Commons Network^™

Connecting Care Chains And Care Diamonds: The Elderly Care Skills Regime In Singapore, Yasmin Y. Ortiga, Kellyn Wee, Brenda S. A. Yeoh

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Research on the globalization of care work often faces the persistent challenge of building meaningful connections between the movement of care labour at a global scale and place-based frameworks of care access and delivery. In addressing this gap in this article, we propose to take a closer look at how the care-migration nexus produces 'ideal' care workers through a skills regime. Based on the case of elderly care in Singapore, in this article, we demonstrate how state institutions and private agencies attempts to fill local labour needs by producing care workers among both Singapore citizens and migrant women. This leads …

Rural China Under The Covid‐19 Pandemic: Differentiated Impacts, Rural–Urban Inequality And Agro‐Industrialization, Forrest Q. Zhang, Zhanping Hu

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

We use field data collected in a village in northern China to examine the impacts of the COVID‐19 pandemic on rural economy and livelihoods. The lockdown effectively protected the village from the pandemic, resulting in zero infection. The economic impacts were mostly negative but differentiated across economic sectors and livelihood strategies; some gained from the business opportunities arising from the pandemic. Wage loss for migrant workers was the most common negative impact but lasted less than 2 months. Overall, rural China has escaped the worst impacts of the pandemic found in other developing countries. We argue that the structure of …

Building A Long-Time Series For Weather And Extreme Weather In The Straits Settlements: A Multi-Disciplinary Approach To The Archives Of Societies, Fiona Williamson

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

In comparison to the Northern Hemisphere, especially Europe and North America, there is a scarcity of information regarding the historic weather and climate of Southeast Asia and the Southern Hemisphere in general. The reasons for this are both historic and political, yet that does not mean that such data do not exist. Much of the early instrumental weather records for Southeast Asia stem from the colonial period and, with some countries and regions changing hands between the European powers, surviving information tends to be scattered across the globe making its recovery a long and often arduous task. This paper focuses …

An Exploration Into Key Roles In Making Project-Based Learning Happen: Insights From A Case Study Of A University, Gary Pan, Poh Sun Seow, Shankararaman, Venky, Kevin Koh

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

Purpose: One of the main obstacles facing project-based learning (PBL) adoption relates to a lack of understanding by teachers and students in the roles they are required to play in the learning process. This study aims to address this obstacle, so as to better promote regular adoption of PBL pedagogy in educational institutions. Design/methodology/approach: The strategy was to undertake an in-depth case study of PBL courses taught in UNI-X’s undergraduate curriculum. The case study approach is particularly appropriate for this exploratory study because it allows to capture the organizational dynamics of the phenomenon better and also its ability to explain …

Three Essays On Empirical Asset Pricing, Xueying Bian

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

The dissertation consists of three essays on empirical asset pricing. The first chapter proposes a novel inter-firm link - similar employee satisfaction. Based on the employee satisfaction data on Glassdoor, the returns of similar employee satisfaction (SES) firms are documented to predict focal firm stock returns. A long-short portfolio sorted on the lagged returns of SES firms yields the Fama-French six-factor alpha of 135 bps per month. The observed predictability cannot be explained by risk-based arguments or subsumed by other known inter-firm momentums. According to the international tests, we observe stronger return predictability in countries with more flexible labor markets. …

Essays On Empirical Asset Pricing, Zilin Chen

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

The dissertation consists of three chapters on empirical asset pricing. The first chapter examines whether the cross-sectional variation in private subsidiaries’ information disclosure predicts the cross-sectional dispersion in future equity returns of public parent firms. Information disclosure on private subsidiaries is not mandatory for public firms in the U.S., and thus these subsidiaries could be a good choice for public firms to hide bad news. We construct a private subsidiaries’ information disclosure (PSID) measure and find that a value-weighted portfolio that longs stocks in the highest PSID quintile and shorts stocks in the lowest PSID quintile yields a Fama and …

Study On The Ideas For Developing M&A Funds In China In The Context Of Economic Transformation, Xiaoming Song

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

M & A fund is one category of private equity investment fund. In the past 25 years, private equity fund has grown into a considerable asset section. Since 2008, China's economy has experienced the pounding pain of structural transformation multiplied with other challenges, e.g. international economy’s lack of growth momentum, increased trade friction, aging population and so on. The trade friction between China and the United States has further exacerbated. Against this backdrop, from September 2018, there was a significant shift in the domestic central government’s economic policy, particularly the capital market policy, has undergone major changes with the repressed …

The Role Of Comparison Sites And Image Features In Consumer Search, Peng Yam Koh

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

Comparison sites are widely used by consumers. Theory assumes that consumers visit these sites to discover new alternatives, raising questions about the role of the initial consideration set (alternatives considered at the start of search) when comparison sites are available. Will consumers ignore their initial consideration set and directly explore new alternatives? Will consumers with large initial consideration sets avoid comparison sites? Utilizing search and incomplete knowledge theories, the authors intuit that consumers first search their initial consideration set, and visit a comparison site to reduce the search costs of doing so. If a suitable alternative is absent, consumers subsequently …

Asset Classes, Nicolas L. Jacquet

Research Collection School Of Economics

This paper proposes a theory of endogenous differences in liquidity of assets based on the interaction between differences in the risk of assets and differences in liquidity needs of investors. An equilibrium of the model, which always exists and is unique, displays a class structure, where investors’ types sort themselves across different types of assets. I also provide a detailed analysis of the possible types of sorting and of the consequences for the cross-sectional properties of asset prices and their velocity. The framework can also be useful to think about what constitute a ""light-to-liquidity" and a "safe asset".

A Hybrid Equity Release Plan For Retirement Financing, Koon Shing Kwong, Yiu Kuen Tse, Junxing Chay

Research Collection School Of Economics

There are two main equity release plans for retirement financing: reverse mortgage plan and home reversion plan. Both plans entitle the homeowners not only to release cash from their properties but also to allow them living there for life. In the lease buyback scheme (LBS) recently introduced in Singapore, the home owner sells the tail-end of the property lease to the government in exchange for a cash payment upfront. Unlike the two main equity release plans, the LBS only allows the owner to stay in the property for the front part of the lease but not for life.

In this …

Teaching In The Right Context: Textbook Supply Program, Language, And Vocabulary Ability In Vietnam, Tomoki Fujii, Maki Nakajima, Sijia Xu

Research Collection School Of Economics

While past two decades have witnessed a remarkable educational progress in Vietnam, ethnic minority children consistently lagged behind ethnic majority children in academic performance. The government of Vietnam has stepped up efforts to assist ethnic minority students in their learning by lowering the linguistic and cultural barriers they face. Among such efforts is the textbook supply program, and we examine its impact on the learning of children proxied by vocabulary test. We apply difference-in-differences estimation to four rounds of the Young Lives data between 2006 and 2015 in order to investigate how the textbook supply program narrowed the gap between …

Mildly Explosive Autoregression With Anti-Persistent Errors, Yui Lim Lui, Jun Yu, Jun Yu

Research Collection School Of Economics

An asymptotic distribution is derived for the least squares (LS) estimate of a first-order autoregression with a mildly explosive root and anti-persistent errors. While the sample moments depend on the Hurst parameter asymptotically, the Cauchy limiting distribution theory remains valid for the LS estimates in the model without intercept and a model with an asymptotically negligible intercept. Monte Carlo studies are designed to check the precision of the Cauchy distribution in finite samples. An empirical study based on the monthly NASDAQ index highlights the usefulness of the model and the new limiting distribution.

Spatial Dynamic Panel Data Models With Correlated Random Effects, Liyao Li, Zhenlin Yang

Research Collection School Of Economics

In this paper, M-estimation and inference methods are developed for spatial dynamic panel data models with correlated random effects, based on short panels. The unobserved individual-specific effects are assumed to be correlated with the observed time-varying regressors linearly or in a linearizable way, giving the so-called correlated random effects model, which allows the estimation of effects of time-invariant regressors. The unbiased estimating functions are obtained by adjusting the conditional quasi-scores given the initial observations, leading to M-estimators that are consistent, asymptotically normal, and free from the initial conditions except the process starting time. By decomposing the estimating functions …

Robust And Universal Seamless Handover Authentication In 5g Hetnets, Yinghui Zhang, Robert H. Deng, Elisa Bertino, Dong Zheng

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

The evolving fifth generation (5G) cellular networks will be a collection of heterogeneous and backward-compatible networks. With the increased heterogeneity and densification of 5G heterogeneous networks (HetNets), it is important to ensure security and efficiency of frequent handovers in 5G wireless roaming environments. However, existing handover authentication mechanisms still have challenging issues, such as anonymity, robust traceability and universality. In this paper, we address these issues by introducing RUSH, a Robust and Universal Seamless Handover authentication protocol for 5G HetNets. In RUSH, anonymous mutual authentication with key agreement is enabled for handovers by exploiting the trapdoor collision property of chameleon …

Cross-Topic Rumor Detection Using Topic-Mixtures, Weijieying Ren, Jing Jiang, Ling Min Serena Khoo, Hai Leong Chieu

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

There has been much interest in rumor detection using deep learning models in recent years. A well-known limitation of deep learning models is that they tend to learn superficial patterns, which restricts their generalization ability. We find that this is also true for cross-topic rumor detection. In this paper, we propose a method inspired by the “mixture of experts” paradigm. We assume that the prediction of the rumor class label given an instance is dependent on the topic distribution of the instance. After deriving a vector representation for each topic, given an instance, we derive a “topic mixture” vector for …

Iotbox: Sandbox Mining To Prevent Interaction Threats In Iot Systems, Hong Jin Kang, Sheng Qin Sim, David Lo

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Internet of Things (IoT) apps provide great convenience but exposes us to new safety threats. Unlike traditional software systems, threats may emerge from the joint behavior of multiple apps. While prior studies use handcrafted safety and security policies to detect these threats, these policies may not anticipate all usages of the devices and apps in a smart home, causing false alarms. In this study, we propose to use the technique of mining sandboxes for securing an IoT environment. After a set of behaviors are analyzed from a bundle of apps and devices, a sandbox is deployed, which enforces that previously …

Sentiment-Oriented Metric Learning For Text-To-Image Retrieval, Quoc Tuan Truong, Hady W. Lauw

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

In this era of multimedia Web, text-to-image retrieval is a critical function of search engines and visually-oriented online platforms. Traditionally, the task primarily deals with matching a text query with the most relevant images available in the corpus. To an increasing extent, the Web also features visual expressions of preferences, imbuing images with sentiments that express those preferences. Cases in point include photos in online reviews as well as social media. In this work, we study the effects of sentiment information on text-to-image retrieval. Particularly, we present two approaches for incorporating sentiment orientation into metric learning for cross-modal retrieval. Each …

Newslink: Empowering Intuitive News Search With Knowledge Graphs, Yueji Yang, Yuchen Li, Anthony Tung

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

News search tools help end users to identify relevant news stories. However, existing search approaches often carry out in a "black-box" process. There is little intuition that helps users understand how the results are related to the query. In this paper, we propose a novel news search framework, called NEWSLINK, to empower intuitive news search by using relationship paths discovered from open Knowledge Graphs (KGs). Specifically, NEWSLINK embeds both a query and news documents to subgraphs, called subgraph embeddings, in the KG. Their embeddings' overlap induces relationship paths between the involving entities. Two major advantages are obtained by incorporating subgraph …

Impact Of Moral Ethics On Consumers’ Boycott Intentions: A Cross-Cultural Study Of Crisis Perceptions And Responses In The United States, South Korea, And Singapore, Kyujin Shim, Hichang Cho, Soojin Kim, Su Lin Yeo

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

This study investigates the effects of individuals’ ethics on perceptions and responses to a company’s crisis. Drawing on Moral Foundations Theory, it empirically tests a theoretical model of crisis attribution and emotional reaction with two antecedents (i.e., individualizing moral and binding moral) on three outcomes (i.e., crisis attribution, emotions, and boycott intentions), using more than 3000 samples from three culturally-diverse countries - the U.S., South Korea, and Singapore. The study finds that individualizing and binding moral foundations have significant effects on attribution, emotional reaction, and behavioral intentions related to corporate irresponsibility, but that their effects are distinct and vary across …

A Self-Regulation Model Of Leader Authenticity Based On Mindful Self-Regulated Attention And Political Skill, Erik Dietl, Jochen Reb

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Despite much research on leader authenticity, its antecedents remain poorly understood. We develop a self-regulatory model of leader authenticity. The model explains how both mindful self-regulated attention and political skill, as well as their interaction, are important for leaders to be authentic, and ultimately effective. Mindful self-regulated attention – a core dimension of mindfulness defined as sustained attention centered on the present moment – helps leaders stay connected to their core self amid the busyness of their (work) lives, allowing leaders to feel authentic. And, particularly in combination with political skill – a social effectiveness construct –, it helps leaders …

How Do Users Answer Matlab Questions On Q&A Sites? A Case Study On Stack Overflow And Mathworks, Mahshid Naghashzadeh, Amir Hagshenas, Ashkan Sami, David Lo

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

MATLAB is an engineering programming language with various toolboxes that has a dedicated Question and Answer (Q&A) platform on the MathWorks website, which is similar to Stack Overflow (SO). Moreover, some MATLAB users ask their questions on SO. This paper aims to compare these two Q&A platforms to see what kind of questions are asked and how developers answer these questions in each platform. The result of our analysis on 80,382 MATLAB questions on SO and 266,367 questions on MathWorks show that MATLAB questions on topics ranging from the MATLAB software installation to questions related to programming received high votes …

Explainable Recommendation With Comparative Constraints On Product Aspects, Trung-Hoang Le, Hady W. Lauw

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

To aid users in choice-making, explainable recommendation models seek to provide not only accurate recommendations but also accompanying explanations that help to make sense of those recommendations. Most of the previous approaches rely on evaluative explanations, assessing the quality of an individual item along some aspects of interest to the user. In this work, we are interested in comparative explanations, the less studied problem of assessing a recommended item in comparison to another reference item.

In particular, we propose to anchor reference items on the previously adopted items in a user's history. Not only do we aim at providing comparative …

Populist Supporters On Reddit: A Comparison Of Content And Behavioral Patterns Within Publics Of Supporters Of Donald Trump And Hillary Clinton, Andreas Jungherr, Oliver Posegga, Jisun An

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

The international rise of populism has been attributed, in part, to digital media. These media allow the backers of populists to share and distribute information independent of traditional media organizations or elites and offer communication spaces in which they can support each other and strengthen communal ties irrespective of their societal standing. Can we identify these functions in distinct usage patterns of digital media by supporters of populists? This could find expression through posting content that comports with the central tenets of populist ideology, higher activity levels, use of distinct vocabularies, and heightened levels of community building. We investigate differences …

Combining Query Reduction And Expansion For Text-Retrieval-Based Bug Localization, Juan Manuel Florez, Oscar Chaparro, Christoph Treude, Andrian Marcus

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Automated text-retrieval-based bug localization (TRBL) techniques normally use the full text of a bug report to formulate a query and retrieve parts of the code that are buggy. Previous research has shown that reducing the size of the query increases the effectiveness of TRBL. On the other hand, researchers also found improvements when expanding the query (i.e., adding more terms). In this paper, we bring these two views together to reformulate queries for TRBL. Specifically, we improve discourse-based query reduction strategies, by adopting a combinatorial approach and using task phrases from bug reports, and combine them with a state-of-the-art query …

Tax Avoidance By Professionals: Where Are We With Wee Teng Yau?, Vincent Ooi

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

Wee Teng Yau represents the first case on tax avoidance by professionals to come before the Supreme Court. This note attempts to reconcile the judgments of the High Court and the Income Tax Board of Review, which both made findings that the taxpayer had engaged in tax avoidance, but which approached the case rather differently on some points. Apart from a clear rejection of the “personal exertion” principle as having no legal basis under Singapore law, it appears that the common conclusion is that professionals incorporating a company would not constitute tax avoidance in itself, but if this was coupled …

Creative Placemaking In Singapore: A Critical Reflection, Su Fern Hoe

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

All across the globe, there has been increasing recognition of the transformative power of creative placemaking to revive the economic and cultural life of cities. Singapore is no exception. Since 2008, the Singapore government has been engaged in a concerted effort to placemake Singapore into a culturally-vibrant cityscape with “heart and soul”. However, despite its increasing global popularity, what constitutes creative placemaking and its processes remain vague and tenuous. Notably, scant critical attention has also been paid on how Singapore has tried to adopt this global buzzword, and its impact on the localised dynamics of urban spaces and arts practices.

Affective Cosmopolitanisms In Singapore: Dancehall And The Decolonisation Of The Self, Orlando Woods

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

This paper advances a new understanding of cosmopolitanism; one that is rooted in the affective potential of the body. It argues that whilst the self is often projected onto the body, so too can the body play an important role in (re)imagining the self. As such, the body can decolonise the self from the mind, from the expectations of society and culture, and from the normative epistemological underpinnings of academic knowledge production. I validate these theoretical arguments through an empirical focus on the practice of dancehall in Singapore. Dancehall is an emancipatory cultural movement that emerged in Jamaica in the …

Farmers In Singapore? Collective Action Under Adverse Circumstances, Yu Fong Ho, John A. Donaldson

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

How can individuals with contrasting interests in a declining industry, at odds with the country’s identity, and facing an illiberal and sceptical government, band together to promote collective goals? This article addresses this question by examining Singapore’s Kranji Countryside Association, one of Singapore’s few civil society organisations to focus on community organising. To Association members, the material and time costs of organising were high, the odds of success were low and the material rewards of success were modest. The article evaluates two views that purport to explain collective action: the rational choice approach that focuses on selective incentives and the …

From Women’S Learning (Fuxue) To Gender Studies: Feminist Challenges To Modern Confucianism, Sor-Hoon Tan

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

The promotion of Confucianism to offer solutions to contemporary problems, better alternatives to the patently unsatisfactory status quo of our world and the tired ideals that have dominated academic and global discourses, should not be mistaken for naïve traditionalism advocating the revival of Confucianism as it was understood and practiced in its historical milieu. This is especially pertinent in the area of gender relations. Chenyang Li pointed out nearly two decades ago: as “the philosophical-religious tradition that originated in Confucius and was further developed by scholars and supporters of later times … there is little doubt that the answer to …

Is There Evidence For Cross-Domain Congruency Sequence Effect? A Replication Of Kan Et Al. (2013), Balazs Aczel, Marton Kovacs, Miklos Bognar, Bence Palfi, Andree Hartanto, Sandersan Onie, Lucas E. Tiong, Thomas Rhys Evans

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Exploring the mechanisms of cognitive control is central to understanding how we control our behaviour. These mechanisms can be studied in conflict paradigms, which require the inhibition of irrelevant responses to perform the task. It has been suggested that in these tasks, the detection of conflict enhances cognitive control resulting in improved conflict resolution of subsequent trials. If this is the case, then this so-called congruency sequence effect can be expected to occur in cross-domain tasks. Previous research on the domaingenerality of the effect presented inconsistent results. In this study, we provide a multi-site replication of three previous experiments of …