Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Government Management Capacities And The Containment Of Covid-19: A Repeated Cross-Sectional Study Across Chinese Cities, Wenchao Li, Jing Li, Junjian Yi

Research Collection School Of Economics

Objectives: Better understanding of the dynamics of the COVID-19 (2019 novel coronavirus disease) pandemic to curb its spread is now a global imperative. While travel restrictions and control measures have been shown to limit the spread of the disease, the effectiveness of the enforcement of those measures should depend on the strength of the government. Whether, and how, the government plays a role in fighting the disease, however, has not been investigated. Here, we show that government management capacities are critical to the containment of the disease. Setting: We conducted a statistical analysis based on cross-city comparisons within China. China …

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 …

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 …

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, …

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 …

Determining The Number Of Communities In Degree-Corrected Stochastic Block Models, Shujie Ma, Liangjun Su, Yichong Zhang

Research Collection School Of Economics

We propose to estimate the number of communities in degree-corrected stochastic block models based on a pseudo likelihood ratio. For estimation, we consider a spectral clustering together with binary segmentation method. This approach guarantees an upper bound for the pseudo likelihood ratio statistic when the model is over-fitted. We also derive its limiting distribution when the model is under-fitted. Based on these properties, we establish the consistency of our estimator for the true number of communities. Developing these theoretical properties require a mild condition on the average degree: growing at a rate faster than log(n), where n is the number …

On The Decomposability Of Fractional Allocations, Shurojit Chatterji, Peng Liu

Research Collection School Of Economics

A common practice in dealing with the allocation of indivisible objects is to treat them as infinitely divisible and specify a fractional allocation, which is then implemented as a lottery on integer allocations that are feasible. The question we study is whether an arbitrary fractional allocation can be decomposed as a lottery on an arbitrary set of feasible integer allocations. The main result is a characterization of decomposable fractional allocations, that is obtained by transforming the decomposability problem into a maximum flow problem. We also provide a separate necessary condition for decomposability.

Earnings Momentum Meets Short-Term Return Reversal, Zhaobo Zhu, Licheng Sun, Jun Tu, Jun Tu

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

This paper evaluates the effectiveness of a joint strategy that exploits fundamental-based momentum and return-based reversal anomalies. This joint strategy is motivated by two considerations. First, reversal can serve as a natural hedge to momentum. Second, both fundamental and price-related information can contribute to stock return predictability. Consequently, we propose a new joint strategy that synthesises both earnings momentum and short-term reversal. We find that this joint strategy generates considerable economic gains and outperforms the sum of profits from two individual anomalies. Moreover, the proposed strategy appears to be quite robust, generating stable and persistent profits across different market conditions.

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 …

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".

Are Native Plants Green? Assessing Environmental Performances Of Locally-Owned Facilities, Narae Lee, Jiao Luo

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

We study the impact of corporate ownership and community conditions on firm environmental pollution. While the existing literature often thinks of environmental pollution as a unitary construct, we emphasize the distinction between toxic emissions, which have immediate but locally bounded impact, and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions which have gradual but global impact, producing climate change. Using a facility-level panel of all manufacturing facilities in the US from 2010-2018, and leveraging within-facility changes in ownership status, we show that locally owned firms have lower levels of toxic emissions, but they are also less likely to report GHG emissions, and have higher …

Mildly Explosive Autoregression With Anti-Persistent Errors, Yiu Lim Lui, Weilin Xiao, 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.

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.

Urban Agglomeration Worsens Spatial Disparities In Climate Adaptation, Seung Kyum Kim, Mia M. Bennett, Terry Van Gevelt, Paul Joose

Research Collection College of Integrative Studies

Many countries promote urban agglomeration to enhance economic competitiveness, but the impacts of this strategy on local climate adaptation remain poorly understood. Here, we use variation in greenspaces to test the efectiveness of climate adaptation policy across climate impacts and vulnerability dimensions. Using satellite imagery and logistic regression, we analyze spatiotemporal correlation between greenspace and climate vulnerability in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Greater Bay Area, an area comprising~ 70 million people and 11 cities, making it a useful natural experiment for our study. We fnd that while greenspace increases proportionally with climate exposure and sensitivity, many cities exhibit discrepancies between greenspace …

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 …

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 …

The United States And The "Chinese Problem" Of Southeast Asia, Wen-Qing Ngoei

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

This essay examines how US Cold War policy toward all of Southeast Asia arose from American suspicions that the region's Chinese diaspora would align itself with the Chinese communists against the west. In so doing, it explores how US distrust of the Chinese diaspora fell in step with a longer imperialist tradition practised not only by the European powers for centuries, but also the Japanese Empire during its brief ascendancy during World War Two. Additionally, the essay proposes that to move beyond the bilateral studies that dominate the histories of US-Southeast Asian relations to view the region as whole, it …

Re-Thinking Region: Us-Southeast Asian Relations In The Twentieth Century, Wen-Qing Ngoei, Anne Foster

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

This essay, co-authored with historian Anne Foster, introduces a roundtable of journal articles that explore new ways to advance the study of Southeast Asia's relations with the United States in the twentieth century. It explains the importance of examining the region, how it is of world historical importance to the big powers, and merits different and innovative analyses given its significance to current affairs.

Escape From An Echo Chamber, Kuan-Chieh Lo, Shih-Chieh Dai, Aiping Xiong, Jing Jiang, Lun-Wei Ku

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

An echo chamber effect refers to the phenomena that online users revealed selective exposure and ideological segregation on political issues. Prior studies indicate the connection between the spread of misinformation and online echo chambers. In this paper, to help users escape from an echo chamber, we propose a novel news-analysis platform that provides a panoramic view of stances towards a particular event from different news media sources. Moreover, to help users better recognize the stances of news sources which published these news articles, we adopt a news stance classification model to categorize their stances into “agree”, “disagree”, “discuss”, or “unrelated” …

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 …

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 …

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 …

The Cost Of Taking Charge At Work, Singapore Management University

Perspectives@SMU

CUHK research finds proactive employees have a higher chance of assuming leadership roles but they are also likely to have difficult interactions with co-workers

Digital Learning And Innovative Possibilities From The Pandemic As Part Of Singapore Management University (Smu) Libraries’ Digital Transformation, Rajendra Munoo

Research Collection Library

No abstract provided.

How Can Organisations Benefit From Open Access Research Knowledge?, Aaron Tay

Research Collection Library

A talk in three parts

• Open Access where we are right now

• How to access OA articles

• Innovative tools that leverage open access and open data

Customer Satisfaction Index Of Singapore 2020: Full Year Overview, Institute Of Service Excellence, Smu

Research Collection Institute of Service Excellence (2007-2024)

The Customer Satisfaction Index of Singapore (CSISG) computes customer satisfaction scores at the national, sector, sub-sector, and company levels. The CSISG serves as a quantitative benchmark of the quality of goods and services produced by the Singapore economy over time and across countries. The fourth quarter results mark the end of measurement for CSISG 2020. Singapore’s 2020 national score was computed using the data collected during these four quarters.

Haptic Heritage And The Paradox Of Provenance Within Singapore's Cottage Food Businesses, Orlando Woods, John A. Donaldson

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

This paper offers a “more-than-representational” understanding of how heritage value is reproduced by cottage food businesses in Singapore. It advances the notion of haptic heritage to highlight the importance of touch and feel in inculcating food with a sense of heritage value. Haptic heritage is reproduced through the physical handling of ingredients in ways that contribute to more “authentic” products. However, it also foregrounds food production processes that are more tactile, time-consuming and thus unscalable than their automated counterparts. Accordingly, the reproduction of haptic heritage is becoming increasingly unviable in Singapore’s competitive economic landscape. These ideas are explored through a …

Have You Cleared Your Cache And Cookies Today? Troubleshooting Tips And Tricks, Kooi Cheng Ooi, Dino Yeo

Research Collection Library

Wish to impart basic e-resources troubleshooting skills to your front desk staff to achieve greater customer satisfaction by resolving the issues straightaway? The presenter will share their tips and tricks, and how you could implement a 2-tier escalation framework to differentiate the straightforward issues and those that requires deeper expertise.

Regional Economic Impacts Of China's High-Speed Rail Development And Its Institutional Challenges, Hankun Zhao

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

This article studies the impact of connecting to high-speed rail (HSR) network on regional development and the replication and sustainability of China’s GIUR system, aiming to summarize the experience of China’s HSR, which can provide several policy references for developing countries. This article conducts two research: (1) explore the impact of connecting to HSR network on the urban industrial structure, urban creativity and urban-rural income gap of cities in different regions and cities with heterogeneous locations along the HSR lines in the long and short term; (2) explore the advantages and disadvantages of the Government-Industry-University-Research (GIUR) system in the process …

"Doing It For The 'Gram?" The Representational Politics Of Popular Humanitarianism, Orlando Woods, Siew Ying Shee

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

This paper explores how digital photography – the practice of taking pictures and sharing them via social media – can give rise to representational politics. These politics are pronounced when disadvantaged people and places are the objects of digital representation, as they become (dis)empowered by being implicated in the affective economy of difference. Empirically, we examine the representational practices that Singaporean voluntourists, and companies that organise overseas humanitarian projects, engage in. We highlight how their motivations for engaging with these projects can be obfuscated by the opportunity to generate influence on Instagram, which can then shape the practice of popular …