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Life Satisfaction Changes And Adaptation In The Covid-19 Pandemic: Evidence From Singapore, Terence C. Cheng, Kim, Kanghyock Koh Dec 2022

Life Satisfaction Changes And Adaptation In The Covid-19 Pandemic: Evidence From Singapore, Terence C. Cheng, Kim, Kanghyock Koh

Research Collection School Of Economics

We provide novel evidence on how COVID-19 affected overall life satisfaction using a monthly longitudinal survey of middle-aged and older Singaporeans. We study how the subjective well-being of individuals evolves over the course of 18 months including the outbreak of the pandemic, the implementation of the lockdown and the spike of cases due to the delta variant in a country where COVID-19 is controlled in a sustained manner. Using an event-study design framework, we find large declines in overall life satisfaction in the lead-up to and following the lockdown. Fifteen months after the outbreak of the pandemic, and 13 months …


Associations Of The Covid-19 Pandemic With Older Individuals' Healthcare Utilization And Self-Reported Health Status: A Longitudinal Analysis From Singapore, Sangnam Ahn, Seonghoon Kim, Kanghyock Koh Dec 2022

Associations Of The Covid-19 Pandemic With Older Individuals' Healthcare Utilization And Self-Reported Health Status: A Longitudinal Analysis From Singapore, Sangnam Ahn, Seonghoon Kim, Kanghyock Koh

Research Collection School Of Economics

Background: The COVID–19 pandemic has challenged the capacity of healthcare systems around the world and can potentially compromise healthcare utilization and health outcomes among non-COVID–19 patients. Objectives: To examine the associations of the COVID-19 pandemic with healthcare utilization, out-of-pocket medical costs, and perceived health among middle-aged and older individuals in Singapore. Method: Utilizing data collected from a monthly panel survey, a difference-in-differences approach was used to characterize monthly changes of healthcare use and spending and estimate the probability of being diagnosed with a chronic condition and self-reported health status before and during the COVID-19 outbreak in 2020. Subjects: Data were …


Short-Term Impact Of Covid-19 On Consumption Spending And Its Underlying Mechanisms: Evidence From Singapore, Seonghoon Kim, Kanghyock Koh, Xuan Zhang Feb 2022

Short-Term Impact Of Covid-19 On Consumption Spending And Its Underlying Mechanisms: Evidence From Singapore, Seonghoon Kim, Kanghyock Koh, Xuan Zhang

Research Collection School Of Economics

We examine the short-term impact of COVID-19 on consumption spending and labor market outcomes. Using monthly panel data of individuals mainly aged 50–70 in Singapore, we find that COVID-19 reduced consumption spending and labor market outcomes immediately after its outbreak, and its negative impact quickly evolved. At its peak, the pandemic reduced total household consumption spending by 22.8% and labor income by 5.9% in April. Probability of full-time work also went down by 1.2 pp and 6.0 pp in April and May, respectively, but employment and self-employment were only mildly affected. Our heterogeneity analysis indicates that the reduction in consumption …


Economic Impact Of Targeted Government Responses To Covid-19: Evidence From The Large-Scale Cluster In Seoul, Kim, Kanghyock Koh, Jinwook Shin Dec 2021

Economic Impact Of Targeted Government Responses To Covid-19: Evidence From The Large-Scale Cluster In Seoul, Kim, Kanghyock Koh, Jinwook Shin

Research Collection School Of Economics

We estimate the economic impact of South Korea's targeted responses to the first large-scale COVID-19 cluster in Seoul. We find that foot traffic and retail sales decreased only within a 300 meter radius of the cluster and recovered to its pre-outbreak level after four weeks. The reductions appear to be driven by temporary business closures rather than the risk avoidance behavior of the citizens. Our results imply that less intense, but more targeted COVID-19 interventions, such as pin-pointed, temporary closures of businesses, can be a low-cost alternative after lifting strict social distancing measures.


Does Precise Case Disclosure Limit Precautionary Behavior? Evidence From Covid-19 In Singapore, Aljoscha Janssen, Matthew H. Shapiro Dec 2021

Does Precise Case Disclosure Limit Precautionary Behavior? Evidence From Covid-19 In Singapore, Aljoscha Janssen, Matthew H. Shapiro

Research Collection School Of Economics

Limiting the spread of contagious diseases can involve both government-managed and voluntary efforts. Governments have a number of policy options beyond direct intervention that can shape individuals’ responses to a pandemic and its associated costs. During its first wave of COVID-19 cases, Singapore was among a few countries that attempted to adjust behavior through the announcement of detailed case information. Singapore's Ministry of Health maintained and shared precise, daily information detailing local travel behavior and residences of COVID-19 cases. We use this policy along with device-level cellphone data to quantify how local and national COVID-19 case announcements trigger differential behavioral …


Leveraging Reward-Based Crowdfunding During Covid-19, Hannah H. Chang, Erin Jasmine Guillermo, Colin Chai Dec 2021

Leveraging Reward-Based Crowdfunding During Covid-19, Hannah H. Chang, Erin Jasmine Guillermo, Colin Chai

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Over the last year, Singapore firms have faced unforeseen market disruptions created by the Covid-19 pandemic. Worldwide country lockdowns, supply chain disruptions, and restrictions on business operations due to public health and safety measures posed non-trivial challenges. Many companies scampered to find alternative sources of revenue and ramp up their efforts at digitalisation - or risk the possibility of business closure.


Navigating The Pandemic As It Enters Its Second Year, Havovi Joshi Nov 2021

Navigating The Pandemic As It Enters Its Second Year, Havovi Joshi

Asian Management Insights

Many countries, enabled by the rapid vaccine rollout, experienced some moments of relief from the Covid-19 pandemic as they embarked on their long and winding transition toward normalcy. However, despite the Herculean effort expended, achieving herd immunity remains a distant goal for many due to the emergence of the highly transmissible and lethal Delta variant and the persistence of vaccine hesitancy. As such, the coronavirus continues to upend lives, businesses, and society, and the playbook for survival will still be a work-in-progress


Cashing In On Disruptions From Covid-19, Dennis Ng Nov 2021

Cashing In On Disruptions From Covid-19, Dennis Ng

Asian Management Insights

Promoting cashless payments at Singapore’s hawker centres


Doubling Down On Asia, Olivier Lim, Arif P. Rachmat, David Su Aug 2021

Doubling Down On Asia, Olivier Lim, Arif P. Rachmat, David Su

Perspectives@SMU

COVID-19 has inflicted major pain on Asian economies but the effects on countries and sectors are not uniform. The tech sector in China could yet present investment opportunities


Tokyo 2020: A Tale Of Two Cities, Tan K. B. Eugene Aug 2021

Tokyo 2020: A Tale Of Two Cities, Tan K. B. Eugene

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

In a commentary, SMU Associate Professor of Law Eugene Tan, who was a team manager at the 2002 Busan Asian Games and 2004 Athens Olympics, discussed the Olympics Tokyo 2020 and how it showed indomitable human spirit amid the pandemic. Assoc Prof Tan also discussed and explored how Singapore can develop sustainable pathways that would enable our athletes to continue having competitive sporting careers into their late 20s and 30s.


Learning From The Bats: Cooperation A Fundamental Sustainability Principle, Juan Humberto Young May 2021

Learning From The Bats: Cooperation A Fundamental Sustainability Principle, Juan Humberto Young

Perspectives@SMU

Most scientists agree that COVID-19 was transmitted to humans from bats. In an ironic twist, their social behaviour could help us solve many of our collective problems


Covid-19 And The Catalyst To Digital: Implications On Collection Development Strategy, Nazimah Ram Nath May 2021

Covid-19 And The Catalyst To Digital: Implications On Collection Development Strategy, Nazimah Ram Nath

Research Collection Library

The Covid 19 pandemic and subsequent lockdowns in various countries had a huge impact on academic institutions and how classes were being conducted and delivered. Online lessons became the new norm. Research needs and undergraduate learning activities also served up new challenges, when libraries shut due to nationwide lockdowns and travel restrictions. Academic libraries have found the need to shift their collection development practices and philosophies to ensure they can support teachers, students and researchers adequately in the short-term and long-term, regardless of geographical boundaries. One of the biggest change for the Singapore Management University library during the pandemic was …


Technology And Sustainability: The New Business Playing Field, Havovi Joshi May 2021

Technology And Sustainability: The New Business Playing Field, Havovi Joshi

Asian Management Insights

Two topics that have consistently cropped up in conversations among business leaders during the pandemic are technology, in the context of the pervasiveness and quickening pace of digital transformation, and sustainability, especially how we should be doing business without harming the environment and society. The collective belief is that both topics will continue to rise on the world’s agenda, reshaping entire industries while creating new ones. They have changed the way of doing business. So what does the new playbook look like?


Studying Successful Ageing: A Showcase Of The Singapore Life Panel, Jee Yuen Yew, Jia Wei Gwee, Anirudh Srivathsan May 2021

Studying Successful Ageing: A Showcase Of The Singapore Life Panel, Jee Yuen Yew, Jia Wei Gwee, Anirudh Srivathsan

ROSA Research Briefs

In this special issue of the ROSA Research Brief Series, we showcase two aspects of the work being done at the Centre for Research on Successful Ageing (ROSA). Firstly, we showcase the capabilities of the Singapore Life Panel (SLP) and the data that the SLP is able to obtain and measure on a monthly basis. Secondly, we showcase the amazing work of the SGUnited Traineeship Programme’s Research Assistants at ROSA who have proven themselves to be incredible assets in helping further ROSA’s aims of enabling successful ageing in Singapore. ROSA aims to measure well-being among older adults holistically in order …


The Changing Travel Habits Of Chinese Tourists, Singapore Management University Apr 2021

The Changing Travel Habits Of Chinese Tourists, Singapore Management University

Perspectives@SMU

The pandemic has forced an evolution in the travelling habits of Chinese tourists and businesses must adapt and innovate or be left behind, says CUHK expert


War Against Covid-19: How Is National Identification Linked With The Adoption Of Disease-Preventive Behaviors In China And The United States?, Hoi-Wing Chan, Xue Wang, Shi-Jiang Zuo, Connie Pui-Yee Chiu, Li Liu, Daphne W. Yiu, Ying-Yi Hong Apr 2021

War Against Covid-19: How Is National Identification Linked With The Adoption Of Disease-Preventive Behaviors In China And The United States?, Hoi-Wing Chan, Xue Wang, Shi-Jiang Zuo, Connie Pui-Yee Chiu, Li Liu, Daphne W. Yiu, Ying-Yi Hong

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Fighting the COVID‐19 pandemic requires large numbers of citizens to adopt disease‐preventive practices. We contend that national identification can mobilize and motivate people to engage in preventive behaviors to protect the collective, which in return would heighten national identification further. To test these reciprocal links, we conducted studies in two countries with diverse national tactics toward curbing the pandemic: (1) a two‐wave longitudinal survey in China (Study 1, N = 1200), where a national goal to fight COVID‐19 was clearly set, and (2) a five‐wave longitudinal survey in the United States (Study 2, N = 1001), where the national leader, …


Covid-19 Pandemic And Opportunities For Digitalisation Of Smes, Yuanto Kusnadi, Gary Pan Mar 2021

Covid-19 Pandemic And Opportunities For Digitalisation Of Smes, Yuanto Kusnadi, Gary Pan

Perspectives@SMU

The Covid-19 pandemic has brought about disruptions in all sectors of economy. With lockdown being implemented in most of the countries around the world, it has necessitated changes in the business models of SMEs. A glaring area of business opportunity focuses on online business. For instance, retailers who do not yet have an online presence or have not been paying much attention to conducting sales online were caught off-guard during the circuit breaker period which has resulted in decreased footfall and plummeting sales in most physical stores. Therefore, having an online retail presence has become critical for businesses, as they …


Tackling Covid-19 In Thailand, Singapore Management University Feb 2021

Tackling Covid-19 In Thailand, Singapore Management University

Perspectives@SMU

How can the country balance the need to restart the economy and keeping another wave of infections at bay?


The Global Economy In 2021, Simon Baptist Jan 2021

The Global Economy In 2021, Simon Baptist

Perspectives@SMU

The Economist Intelligence Unit is keeping an eye on inflation despite expecting interest rates to stay near zero. But don’t expect COVID-19 to be gone anytime soon


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 …


Rapid Transition Of A Technical Course From Face-To-Face To Online, Swapna Gottipatti, Venky Shankaraman Jan 2021

Rapid Transition Of A Technical Course From Face-To-Face To Online, Swapna Gottipatti, Venky Shankaraman

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Just like most universities around the world, the senior management at Singapore Management University decided to move all courses to a virtual, online, synchronous mode, giving instructors a very short notice period—one week—to make this transition. In this paper, we describe the challenges, practical solutions adopted, and the lessons learnt in rapidly transitioning a face-to-face Master’s degree course in Text Analytics and Applications into a virtual, online, course format that could deliver a quality learning experience.


Students Can Still Assimilate Different Cultures Via Virtual Learning, Yuanto Kusnadi, Gary Pan Dec 2020

Students Can Still Assimilate Different Cultures Via Virtual Learning, Yuanto Kusnadi, Gary Pan

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

The year 2020 has been unique and exceptional. The Covid-19 pandemic has posed significant challenges to economies and societies across the world. Universities too had to pivot and adapt, with lessons and examinations moved online, for example. One of the challenges faced by universities is how to equip their students with the relevant skillset of gaining exposure to different cultures through internships and exchanges when international borders are largely closed. To overcome the constraint posed by the Covid-19 pandemic, a recent initiative by the Singapore Management University (SMU), called SMU-X Overseas (virtual), has allowed students to work on real-world projects …


Staying Connected: The Importance Of Social Integration On The Well-Being Of Older Adults, Paulin T. Straughan, Vincent Chua, Stephen Hoskins, Frosch Quek Dec 2020

Staying Connected: The Importance Of Social Integration On The Well-Being Of Older Adults, Paulin T. Straughan, Vincent Chua, Stephen Hoskins, Frosch Quek

ROSA Research Briefs

It has been about a year since COVID-19 first emerged and reshaped the daily lives of people around the globe, including Singaporeans. Since moving past the circuit breaker in June, Singapore has gradually re-opened and relaxed its restrictions in different phases. As Singapore prepares for Phase 3- the final and least restrictive phase, it is important to examine how Singaporeans have coped and responded with the circuit breaker (7 April 2020) and its gradual easing of restriction in Phase 1 (2nd June 2020) and Phase 2 (19 June 2020), and identify the groups which have fallen through the gaps in …


Learning Before And During The Covid-19 Outbreak: A Comparative Analysis Of Crisis Learning In South Korea And The Us, Seulki Lee, Jungwon Yeo, Chongmin Na Dec 2020

Learning Before And During The Covid-19 Outbreak: A Comparative Analysis Of Crisis Learning In South Korea And The Us, Seulki Lee, Jungwon Yeo, Chongmin Na

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Learning is imperative in government responses to crises like the COVID-19 pandemic. This study examines the South Korean and United States governments’ responses to COVID-19 from a comparative perspective. The analysis focuses on crisis learning conducted before and during the COVID-19 outbreak, using the conceptual categories of intercrisis/intracrisis learning and single-/double-loop learning. The findings suggest that double-loop, intercrisis learning allows for more effective crisis management by (re)developing a common operating framework. The efficacy of learning is enhanced when double-loop learning is followed by single-loop learning that embeds new structures and operational procedures. The findings also suggest that intercrisis learning facilitates …


How Shall We ‘Hammer’ And ‘Dance’?, Wee Kiat Lim Nov 2020

How Shall We ‘Hammer’ And ‘Dance’?, Wee Kiat Lim

Asian Management Insights

On the promises and perils of domestic tourism during the Covid-19 pandemic.


Solving The Work-From-Home Conundrum, Snehal Shah, Vineeta Dwivedi Nov 2020

Solving The Work-From-Home Conundrum, Snehal Shah, Vineeta Dwivedi

Asian Management Insights

Organisations can implement long-term policies that would make working from home a win-win situation for both employers and employees. The prolonged lockdown across countries due to the Covid-19..


The Impact Of Covid-19 On Asian Businesses And The Economy, Havovi Joshi Nov 2020

The Impact Of Covid-19 On Asian Businesses And The Economy, Havovi Joshi

Asian Management Insights

The Covid-19 pandemic will likely end when a vaccine can be made available to everyone, or when we have achieved some measure of herd immunity. Unfortunately, both are as yet nowhere in sight.


Dealing With Covid-19 And Emerging Stronger From It, David Chan Nov 2020

Dealing With Covid-19 And Emerging Stronger From It, David Chan

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Whether it is reacting to news on COVID-19 cases, following safe management rules, adapting to changes at work, assessing leadership and public responses to the coronavirus crisis, or navigating post-pandemic realities, it is all part of understanding how humans think, feel, and behave, says SMU Professor David Chan.


Between Lives And Economy: Optimal Covid-19 Containment Policy In Open Economies, Wen-Tai Hsu, Hsuan-Chih Luke Lin, Yang Han Oct 2020

Between Lives And Economy: Optimal Covid-19 Containment Policy In Open Economies, Wen-Tai Hsu, Hsuan-Chih Luke Lin, Yang Han

Research Collection School Of Economics

This paper studies optimal containment policy for combating a pandemic in an open-economy context. It does so via quantitative analyses using a model that incorporates a standard epidemiological compartmental model in a multi-country, multi-sector Ricardian model of international trade with full-fledged input-output linkages. We devise a novel approach in computing optimal national policies in the long run, and contrast these policies with a baseline in which countries maintain their current policies until vaccine availability. The welfare gains under optimal policies are asymmetric as the gains for the set of countries which should tighten up the containment measures are much larger …


Covid-19, Lockdown, And The Dynamics Of Subjective Well-Being, Terence C. Cheng, Kim, Kanghyock Koh Sep 2020

Covid-19, Lockdown, And The Dynamics Of Subjective Well-Being, Terence C. Cheng, Kim, Kanghyock Koh

Research Collection School Of Economics

We provide novel evidence on how the COVID-19 global health and economic crisis is affecting overall life satisfaction and domain-specific satisfaction using data from a monthly longitudinal survey of middle-aged and older Singaporeans. Using a difference-in-differences framework, we document large declines in overall life satisfaction and domain-specific satisfaction during the COVID-19 outbreak, except satisfaction with health. These declines coincide with the introduction of a nationwide lockdown, with life satisfaction remaining below its pre-pandemic levels even after the lockdown is lifted. We also find that individuals who report a drop in household income during the COVID-19 outbreak experience a decline in …