Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

China's "Mercantilist" Government Subsidies, The Cost Of Debt And Firm Performance, Chu Yeong Lim, Jiwei Wang, Cheng (Colin) Zeng

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

China has been adopting a “mercantilist” policy by lavishing massive government subsidies on Chinese firms. Using hand-collected subsidy data on Chinese listed companies, we find that firms receiving more subsidies tend to have a lower cost of debt. However, such firms fail to have superior financial performance. Instead, firms with more subsidies tend to be overstaffed, which demonstrates higher social performance. These results are mainly driven by non-tax-based subsidies rather than tax-based subsidies. Overall, our results suggest that the Chinese government uses non-tax-based subsidies to achieve its social policy objectives at the expense of firms’ profitability.

Contextualizing Social Power Research Within Organizational Behavior, Michael Schaerer, Alice J. Lee, Adam D. Galinsky, Stefan Thau

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Although there has been tremendous scientific interest in social power, much of this recent research has relied on experiments in context-poor settings. However, organizations – a context in which power differences emerge naturally – are more complex and dynamic. The current review discusses whether and how defining organizational features at the intrapersonal level (multiple dimensions of hierarchy, dynamics over time, attentional demands), interpersonal level (interdependence, repeated interactions), and organizational level (accountability, culture, virtual work) moderate the effects of power. We also discuss ways to systematically incorporate organizational complexities into the study of social power and recommend fruitful avenues for future …

We’Re Less Likely To Collaborate In Bad Economic Times, Nina Sirola

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

In the fall of 1930, the U.S. economy was on a path to recovery following a contraction that occurred the year before. However, worries about the state of the economy, and the banking system in particular, prompted an increasing number of bank customers to attempt to withdraw their funds, an event known as a bank run. Because banks normally keep only a small proportion of deposits in cash, bank runs create a self-fulfilling prophecy such that initial concerns about banks’ possible insolvency ultimately cause insolvency. The bank run of 1930 resulted in the worst economic downturn in the modern history, …

When The Tables Are Turned: The Effects Of The 2016 Us Presidential Election On In-Group Favoritism And Out-Group Hostility, Burak Oc, Celia Moore, Michael R. Bashshur

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

The outcome of the 2016 U.S. Presidential election was a big surprise to many, as the majority of polls had predicted the opposite outcome. In this two-stage cross-sectional study, we focus on how Democrats and Republicans reacted to this electoral surprise and how these reactions might have influenced the way they allocated resources to each other in small groups. We find that, before the election, Republicans showed greater in-group favoritism than Democrats, who treated others equally, regardless of their political affiliation. We then show that Democrats experienced the election outcome as an ego shock and, in the week following the …

On The Uses Of Hume’S History, Chandran Kukathas

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Much of the conversation now coming to an end has centered on Hume's History of England and on his use of history to serve his political philosophical purposes. Dan Klein has appealed to the History by citing more and more chapters and verses to illustrate and reinforce his thesis that "mere liberty" was central to Hume's concerns. Nicholas Capaldi concurs (having originally advanced the claim that liberty was the default value for the pluralist Hume), suggesting that getting the historical narrative right was important for Hume, as it must be for all defenders of (mere) liberty. Capaldi's response to the …

Regulating Squeeze-Out Techniques By Controlling Shareholders: The Divergence Between Hong Kong And Singapore, Christopher C. H. Chen, Wei Zhang, Wai Yee Wan

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

Squeeze-out transactions are controversial as the controlling shareholders may expropriate the minorities’ shareholdings at unattractive prices. Existing scholarship has focused on the optimal approach towards regulating such transactions in the US and the UK, which have widely dispersed public shareholdings, but little attention is placed on jurisdictions with concentrated shareholdings, which may necessitate a different approach given that the prospects of expropriation are very high. This article fills the gap by examining Hong Kong and Singapore, which have concentrated shareholdings. Notwithstanding the fact that they have adapted their corporate and securities laws from the UK, Hong Kong ultimately provides greater …

Singapore, Country Study Prepared For Global Philanthropy Environment Index, Tan K. B. Eugene

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

No abstract provided.

The Emergence Of Global Regulatory Coherence: A Thorny Embrace For China?, Han-Wei Liu, Ching-Fu Lin

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

The last two decades have witnessed various governance initiatives across institutions, domestic and international, in response to mushrooming regulatory trade barriers. Among the efforts to balance regulatory autonomy and international cooperation, “regulatory coherence” or “good regulatory practices” seems a promising solution that centers upon bottom-up domestic regulatory rationalization. While existing literature has documented how recent mega-regional trade blocs seek to harness regulatory barriers through mechanisms of international cooperation, it has arguably overlooked certain crucial issues. In particular, how has regulatory coherence emerged as a new global norm vis-à-vis the default international economic and legal order? What are the limits to …

Extremal Quantile Treatment Effects, Yichong Zhang

Research Collection School Of Economics

This paper establishes an asymptotic theory and inference method for quantile treatment effect estimators when the quantile index is close to or equal to zero. Such quantile treatment effects are of interest in many applications, such as the effect of maternal smoking on an infant’s adverse birth outcomes. When the quantile index is close to zero, the sparsity of data jeopardizes conventional asymptotic theory and bootstrap inference. When the quantile index is zero, there are no existing inference methods directly applicable in the treatment effect context. This paper addresses both of these issues by proposing new inference methods that are …

Informing Medicare's Two-Midnight Rule Policy With An Analysis Of Hospital-Based Long Observation Stays, Brad Wright, Xuan Zhang, Momotazur Rahman, Keith Kocher

Research Collection School Of Economics

Outpatient observation stays are increasingly substituting for standard inpatient hospitalizations. In 2013, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services adopted the controversial Two-Midnight Rule policy to curb long observation stays and better define the use of hospital-based observation services versus inpatient hospitalizations. We seek to determine the extent to which Medicare beneficiaries exposed to long observation stays (>48 hours) are clinically similar to those with short observation stays (≤48 hours) because this has relevance to the Two-Midnight Rule.\nUsing 100% Medicare claims data from 2008 to 2010, we identified all patients with long observation stays (>48 hours) who were …

Pythagorean Generalization Of Testing The Equality Of Two Symmetric Positive Definite Matrices, Jin Seo Cho, Peter C. B. Phillips

Research Collection School Of Economics

We provide a new test for equality of two symmetric positive-definite matrices that leads to a convenient mechanism for testing specification using the information matrix equality or the sandwich asymptotic covariance matrix of the GMM estimator. The test relies on a new characterization of equality between two k dimensional symmetric positive-definite matrices A and B: the traces of AB−1 and BA−1 are equal to k if and only if A=B. Using this simple criterion, we introduce a class of omnibus test statistics for equality and examine their null and local alternative approximations under some mild regularity conditions. A preferred test …

Employer Branding: A Brand Equity-Based Literature Review And Research Agenda, Christian P. Theurer, Andranik Tumasjan, Isabell M. Welpe, Filip Lievens

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Over the past two decades, scholarly interest in employer branding has strongly increased. Simultaneously, however, employer branding research has developed into a fragmented field with heterogeneous interpretations of the employer branding concept and its scope, which has impeded further theoretical and empirical advancement. To strengthen the foundation for future work, this paper takes a brand equity perspective to review the extant literature and create an integrative model of employer branding. Using an analytical approach, the authors identify 187 articles, which they integrate along different employer brand dimensions and branding strategies: (i) conceptual; (ii) employer knowledge dimensions; (iii) employer branding activities …

Singapore Approach To Develop And Regulate Fintech, Sai Fan Pei

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

This paper starts with a brief introduction of the recent organizational support established by The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) to promote the fast developing FinTech (financial technology) sector. Basing on its existing “balanced” approach in promoting financial development and ensuring a safe and sound financial sector, and in sync with its objective to harness technology to improve the efficiency of the financial markets, the paper elaborates on the insights of MAS' policy intent in regulating the FinTech sector. The paper then focuses on MAS' proposed “Regulatory Sandbox” – an innovative regulatory framework which helps to strike a good balance …

Crisis Communication And Ethics: The Role Of Public Relations, Yan Jin, Augustine Pang, Joshua Smith

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore the veracity of the contingency model of ethical crisis communication by examining the factors of influence in a time of crisis including what constitutes ethics in a time of crisis; the role of public relations (PR) practitioners as the “moral conscience” of an organization and perceptions of the PR’ role within top management. Design/methodology/approach: In-depth interviews were conducted among ten senior PR managers with crisis communication experience in North America. Findings: This research identifies and investigates six ethical variables – the nature of the crisis, the role of top management, the …

Imaginary Alternatives: The Impact Of Mental Simulation On Powerless Negotiators, Michael Schaerer, Martin Schweinsberg, Roderick I. Swaab

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

The present research demonstrates that negotiators can act powerfully without having power.Researchers and practitioners advise people to obtain strong alternatives prior to negotiating toenhance their power. However, alternatives are not always readily available, often forcingnegotiators to negotiate without much, or any, power. Building on research suggesting thatsubjective feelings of power and objective outcomes are disconnected and that mental simulationcan increase individuals’ aspirations, we hypothesized that the mental imagery of a strongalternative could provide similar psychological benefits to having an actual alternative. Ourstudies demonstrate that imagining strong alternatives causes individuals to negotiate moreambitiously and provides them with a distributive advantage: negotiators …

The Macroeconomic Environment And The Psychology Of Work Evaluation, Nina Sirola, Marko Pitesa

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

This research tested the idea that the perception of the state of the macroeconomic environment impacts the psychology underlying an essential organizational function: The evaluation of employees’ work and the associated promotion and demotion decisions. We predicted that when the macroeconomic environment is perceived to be more (less) prosperous, people’s generalized sense of the extent to which individuals have control over outcomes increases (decreases), leading them to attribute more (less) responsibility for work outcomes to individuals rather than contextual influences. In Study 1, we tested this theory using data from 124,400 respondents surveyed across 57 countries and 19 years and …

The Impact Of The Cost Of Car Ownership On House Price Gradient In Singapore, Naqun Huang, Jing Li, Amanda Ross

Research Collection School Of Economics

This paper examines the extent to which a change in the cost of car ownership affects the house price gradient with respect to distance from the central business district (CBD). Theory suggests that if the cost of car ownership increases, then people will shift towards other modes of transportation, thus reducing house prices farther away from the CBD. However, the cost of car ownership is likely to be endogenous and correlated with various unobserved factors that also contribute to a change in the house price gradient. To obtain causal effects, we exploit a unique feature of Singapore’s car registration process. …

Universalism And The Value Of Political Power, Yumi Koh

Research Collection School Of Economics

While legislatures typically use majority rule to allocate a budget in distributive legislation, near-unanimous consent over the broad allocation of benefits is pervasive. I develop a game-theoretic model where players strategically interact in a universal coalition to determine allocations, with non-cooperative bargaining as a threat point for the breakdown of cooperation. To quantify the effects of political power and actual needs on the agreed-upon allocation, I structurally estimate the model using the "Bridge Bill Capital Budget" in 1992. I find that 9.58% of the budget would be allocated differently if allocations were determined only based on actual needs.

Contributors Of Singaporean Youths' Wellbeing: Life Goals, Family-Community-Nation Capitals, Opportunity And Social Mobility, Kong Weng Ho

Research Collection School Of Economics

Life goals induce one’s current investment and set one’s expectations of future outcomes, affecting one’s current state of subjective wellbeing. Using National Youth Survey (NYS) 2016, which has a representative sample of Singaporean youths, we find that non-zero-sum life goals such as family-oriented life goals and altruism-oriented life goals enhance happiness and life satisfaction of Singaporean youths while career-oriented life goals, zero-sum in nature, reduce subjective wellbeing. Apart from personal motivations or life aspirations, perceived social mobility (in terms of career opportunity and meritocracy) matters positively in the subjective wellbeing of both youths in school and in the workforce. Family …

We’Re Less Likely To Collaborate In Bad Economic Times, Nina Sirola

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

In the fall of 1930, the U.S. economy was on a path to recovery following a contraction that occurred the year before. However, worries about the state of the economy, and the banking system in particular, prompted an increasing number of bank customers to attempt to withdraw their funds, an event known as a bank run. Because banks normally keep only a small proportion of deposits in cash, bank runs create a self-fulfilling prophecy such that initial concerns about banks’ possible insolvency ultimately cause insolvency. The bank run of 1930 resulted in the worst economic downturn in the modern history, …

The Indigenization Of Crisis Response Strategies In The Context Of China, Augustine Pang, Yang Hu

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Crisis communication, which has been dominated by a practical perspective, has become a nexus where theory meets application. Despite mounting interest in theoretical studies, crisis communication lacks cultural contextualization. Asian communication researchers have advocated for the need to indigenize communication, drawing relevance to cultural influences. In this study, the authors explored indigenous corporate crisis response strategies in the context of China through nine cases. Three Chinese indigenous strategies were identified through qualitative content analysis of corporate crisis responses. These strategies are “barnacle,” “third-party endorsement,” and “setting up new topics.” The differences with Western frameworks were also discussed.

Sequential Auctions With Decreasing Reserve Prices., Massimiliano Landi, Domenico Menicucci

Research Collection School Of Economics

We study sequential sealed bid auctions with decreasing reserve prices when there are two identical objects for sale and unit-demand bidders (existing literature has dealt with the case of weakly increasing reserve prices). Under decreasing reserve prices bidders may have an incentive not to bid in the first auction, and no equilibrium exists with a strictly increasing stage one bidding function. However, we find that an equilibrium always exists, and its shape depends on the distance between the two reserve prices. The equilibrium exhibits some pooling at the stage one auction, which disappears in the limit as the number of …

The Effect Of Localized Density On Housing Prices In Singapore, Eric Fesselmeyer, Kiat Ying Sky Seah, Jonathan Ci Yi Kwok

Research Collection College of Integrative Studies

This paper measures how localized residential density impacts housing prices in Singapore. Using exogenous variation in residential density, we find that an increase in density causes non-trivial decreases in property values: a 10% increase in density decreases price per square foot by between 1.3% and 2%. To the best of our knowledge, ours is the first paper to measure this effect.Further, we find that the negative effect of density is biggest in magnitude for low density apartment projects and the magnitude is decreasing in the density of the project, and that the negative effect of density is increasing in magnitude …

Evidence Of Racial And Geographic Disparities In The Use Of Medicare Observation Stays And Subsequent Patient Outcomes Relative To Short-Stay Hospitalizations, Brad Wright, Xuan Zhang, Momotazur Rahman, Mahshid Abir, Padmaja Ayyagari, Keith E. Kocher

Research Collection School Of Economics

To examine racial and geographic disparities in the use of-and outcomes associated with-Medicare observation stays versus short-stay hospitalizations.\nWe used 2007-2010 fee-for-service Medicare claims, including 3,555,994 observation and short-stay hospitalizations for individuals over age 65. We estimated linear probability models with hospital fixed effects to identify within-facility disparities in observation stay use, and estimated in-hospital mortality, and 30- and 90-day post-discharge mortality, return ED visits, and hospital readmissions as a function of placement in observation using linear probability models, propensity-score matching, and interaction terms.\nWe identified racial and geographic disparities in the likelihood of observation stay use within hospitals (blacks 3.9 percentage …

Audience Prototypes And Asymmetric Efficacy Beliefs, Sonny Rosenthal

Research Collection College of Integrative Studies

Prior research suggests that the third-person effect is related to media schemas, for example, that general audiences are vulnerable to influence. The current study evaluates whether the effect of media schemas depends on more specific audience schemas. Participants read vignettes of four “actors” in a 2 (gullible vs. critical-minded) x 2 (heavy vs. light Internet users) repeated measures experiment and rated how much the actors can resist the influence of media and how much they benefit from censorship. For comparison, participants rated themselves on the same dependent variables. Results show that gullible heavy Internet users are perceived to have the …

A Review Of Unsupervised Statistical Learning And Visual Analytics Techniques Applied To Performance Analysis Of Non-Residential Buildings, Clayton Miller, Zoltán Nagy, Arno Schlueter

Research Collection College of Integrative Studies

Measured and simulated data sources from the built environment are increasing rapidly. It is becoming normal to analyze data from hundreds, or even thousands of buildings at once. Mechanistic, manual analysis of such data sets is time-consuming and not realistic using conventional techniques. Thus, a significant body of literature has been generated using unsupervised statistical learning techniques designed to uncover structure and information quickly with fewer input parameters or metadata about the buildings collected. Further, visual analytics techniques are developed as aids in this process for a human analyst to utilize and interpret the results. This paper reviews publications that …

Anatomy Of Online Hate: Developing A Taxonomy And Machine Learning Models For Identifying And Classifying Hate In Online News Media, Joni Salminen, Hind Almerekhi, Milica Milenkovic, Soon-Gyu Jung, Haewoon Kwak, Haewoon Kwak, Bernard J. Jansen

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Online social media platforms generally attempt to mitigate hateful expressions, as these comments can be detrimental to the health of the community. However, automatically identifying hateful comments can be challenging. We manually label 5,143 hateful expressions posted to YouTube and Facebook videos among a dataset of 137,098 comments from an online news media. We then create a granular taxonomy of different types and targets of online hate and train machine learning models to automatically detect and classify the hateful comments in the full dataset. Our contribution is twofold: 1) creating a granular taxonomy for hateful online comments that includes both …

Innovations In Asia: Selected Case Studies, Institute Of Innovation And Entrepreneurship, Singapore Management University

Research Collection Institute of Innovation and Entrepreneurship

This book is a compilation of seven case studies written by faculty and staff of Singapore Management University (SMU) and has been edited in conjunction with the inaugural Asia Pacific Innovation Forum organised by the International Society for Professional Innovation Management (ISPIM) and hosted by SMU in December 2014. These cases have been carefully selected to illustrate the various challenges inherent in creating entrepreneurial and business innovations.

The first five cases are related to start-ups by experienced professionals and students. Jayashree is an excellent case that shows how an individual with very little education was able to design and implement …

Multinationals In Emerging Markets: A Test Case Of The Banking Industry In India, Havovi Joshi

Dissertations and Theses Collection

Multinational firms play a significant role in the world economy, accounting for over 30% of the world stock market value. In the past decade or two, these firms have demonstrated a renewed wave of interest in the Emerging Asian markets. This is not surprising, given the attractive demographics, growing middle class and leapfrogging technology of these markets. But the optimism of these western firms heading eastward often gets quickly subdued by the realisation that these emerging Asian markets are far more complex—or at the very least, different—than western ones. They are more volatile, there is frequently a lack of institutional …

Smu Establishes Fruitful Collaborations With Six Leading Chinese Partner Universities, Singapore Management University

SMU Press Releases and News

Leading a senior delegation from 18-23 November 2017, SMU President Prof Arnoud De Meyer visited six partner universities in Shanghai and Beijing. The trip culminated in productive meetings with the leaders of these reputable Chinese universities and the signing of a number of partnership agreements that would strengthen the links of SMU and its schools with their Chinese counterparts. The universities are: Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Peking University, Tsinghua University, Renmin University, China University of Political Science and Law.