Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Do Government Benefit Programs Reduce Child Labor?: Causal Evidence From The Midday Meal Scheme In India, Vardaan Chawla, Tomoki Fujii, Arpita Khanna, Ray Rohan

Research Collection School Of Economics

This study evaluates the impact of the midday meal program in India on the prevalence of child labor for upper primary school going children. The staggered implementation of the largest school feeding program in the world across states provides exogenous variation in exposure. Using the nationally representative National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) data, we find that exposure to the program reduced prevalence of child labor by 47 percent relative to children in never-treated states, with no significant difference in impact between boys and girls. The effects were primarily driven by a decline in household labor supply, especially performance of household …

Lessons Learned From Sandboxing, Piloting And Policy Experimentation With Ai And Other Digital Initiatives: Part 2, Ten In-Depth Interviews, Steven M. Miller

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

This report, "Lessons Learned from Sandboxing, Piloting and Policy Experimentation with AI and Other Digital Initiatives," captures insights and experiences from project experts involved in recent digital innovation initiatives with the governments of Bangladesh, Maldives, and Kazakhstan, and from project experts actively involved with the use of AI for delivering government digital services in the EU, New Zealand, Rwanda, Singapore, United States, and Uzbekistan. The ten in-depth interview write-ups produced from these nine different country settings provide a small but highly informative sample of rich descriptions of some of the important realities, approaches, nuances, issues and challenges related to testing …

Built Environment And Public Electric Vehicle Charging: An Investigation Using Poi Data And Computer Vision, Junfeng Jiao, Seung Jun Choi

Research Collection College of Integrative Studies

Public electric vehicle charging stations (EVCSs) are vital for boosting EV adoption. This study investigates Seoul’s public EV charging patterns, taking into account the surrounding urban built environment. We collected built-environment data from land-use maps, Point of Interest (POI) data, and panorama images near public EVCS. The computer-vision technique was used to extract scene features from panorama images. We conducted a spatiotemporal analysis of public EVCS usage. The built-environment factors underwent dimensionality reduction and were assessed for outliers. Descriptive analysis revealed afternoon peak charging times and variations between chargers. Additional peaks are observed in the weekday late evening for chargers …

Your Past Is My Present: Does Evoking Historical Analogies Change Public Opinion Regarding Foreign Policy?, Anil Menon, Yehonathan Abramson, Dean C. Dulay, Pauline Jones

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Historical analogies are often employed as tools of public persuasion on security and foreign policies. While existing research points to the potential power of historical analogies on domestic audiences, it has not examined the effect of historical analogies on foreign publics. Using speeches by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky after Russia’s February 2022 invasion, we investigate whether evoking salient events from the audience country’s past effectively increases popular support for aiding Ukraine. We conducted survey experiments simultaneously in four countries where Zelensky delivered speeches rich in historical analogies – United Kingdom (WWII), United States (Pearl Harbor and 9/11), Germany and Israel …

Exposure To Different Motives Of Scientists Moderates Responses To Scientific Consensus: The Case Of Cultured Meat, Kimin Eom, Bryan Kwok Cheng Choy

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

This research examines how exposure to different motives of scientists affects the impact of scientific consensus on public attitudes toward cultured meat. While scientific consensus on the safety of cultured meat generally increased positive attitudes toward it, this effect depended on information about scientists’ motives. Exposure to information about scientists’ financial motives weakened the positive effect of scientific consensus because it undermined trust in scientists. Information about scientists’ prosocial motives did not influence the scientific consensus effect. These findings suggest that perceived motives can shift trust in experts, thereby affecting the influence of experts on public attitudes.

Potential And Pitfalls Of Romantic Artificial Intelligence (Ai) Companions: A Systematic Review, Qi Hui Jerlyn Ho, Meilan Hu, Tracy Xi Chen, Andree Hartanto

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

As Artificial Intelligence (AI) becomes more integrated into daily life, individuals have increasingly turned to AIdriven systems for emotional support, companionship, and even romantic relationships. These relationships can be both beneficial and detrimental. Given the need for a comprehensive understanding of this phenomenon, this systematic review uses Sternberg’s Triangular Theory of Love to provide a holistic summary of its key potentials and pitfalls. A total of 23 articles were identified from the following databases: EBSCOhost ERIC, EBSCOhost PsycInfo, PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science. Results highlighted the key potentials of being in a romantic relationship with AI companions as: the …

Neuroticism Predicts Constructive Conflict Resolution Styles In Conscientious Individuals: Evidence From Self-Reports And Observer Ratings, Frosch Yi Xuan Quek, Hwajin Yang, Andree Hartanto

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

The ability to resolve conflict is crucial for maintaining healthy relationships and psychological well-being. However, prior research has often overlooked the potential benefits of neuroticism for conflict resolution styles, due to a reliance on self-report measures and the lack of consideration of healthy neuroticism. This study examined the relationship between neuroticism and conflict resolution styles and highlights the pivotal role of conscientiousness and measurement modalities. Employing both self-reports and observer ratings of the Conflict Resolution Styles Inventory (CRSI), we analyzed data from young adults (N = 259) using structural equation modeling analysis. Self-reports indicated that neuroticism was associated with unconstructive …

Advocacy Under Authoritarianism: Civil Society's Impact On Environmental Treaty Ratification In Southeast Asia, Christianna Sirindah Parr

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Does civil society in competitive authoritarian and authoritarian countries impact environmental policy? Specifically, does civil society speed up the ratification of international environmental treaties? Treaty ratification is a crucial step for translating international commitments to domestic politics. I argue that in competitive authoritarian regimes, where civil society operates under constraints but retains some space for advocacy, more robust civil society accelerates the ratification of environmental treaties compared to states with weaker civil society. These regimes often tolerate civil society pressure on non-threatening issues, such as environmental governance, which allows for strategic concessions without undermining state authority. Focusing on Southeast Asia, …

Peak Policy Lab Or Chasing Windmills? The Overlooked Issue Of Misaligned Policy Design, Adam Wellstead, Sarah Giest, Ishani Mukherjee

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Policy innovation labs (PILs) are relatively new policy actors and are part of a larger global “labification” movement. They are touted as spaces for the novel development and testing of policy solutions. PILs have evolved into various forms–including those at different levels of government (central, sub-national, and local), sectoral (such as food, transportation, and environment), and cross-sectoral labs (social innovation and data labs). After a decade, some practitioners lament the effectiveness of their efforts and question if policy labs are indeed engines of innovation and change. We argue that the approach to policy design by PILs, in part, is an …

Emulating Empire: Washington’S Preoccupation With British Counterinsurgency In Malaya And U.S. Commitment To Vietnam, Wen-Qing Ngoei

Research Collection College of Integrative Studies

This essay examines how Washington’s deep preoccupation with the British-Malayan counterinsurgency tactics–tactics that routed the guerilla fighters of the Malayan Communist Party–shaped US commitment to Vietnam. This US preoccupation, stoked by Britain’s (and Malaya’s) promotion of their counterinsurgency knowledge to US leaders, also influenced the lessons that US analysts and thinkers absorbed from the United States’ defeat in Indochina. Most studies of British-Malayan counterinsurgency and its connection to the Vietnam War fixate upon debating the relevance of the former to the latter and how this bears on US failures in Indochina. However, this essay focuses on the understudied fervor with …

Stress Reactivity And Sociocultural Learning: More Stress-Reactive Individuals Are Quicker At Learning Sociocultural Norms From Experiential Feedback, Shilpa Madan, Krishna Savani, Pranjal H. Mehta, Desiree Y. Phua, Ying-Yi Hong, Michael W. Morris

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

When interacting with others in unfamiliar sociocultural settings, people need to learn the norms guiding appropriate behavior. The present research investigates an individual difference that helps this kind of learning: stress reactivity. Interactions in an unfamiliar sociocultural setting are stressful, particularly when the actor fails to follow its rules. Although stress is typically considered a liability, more stress-reactive individuals may be more motivated to improve, and, thus, quicker to learn these rules. Consistent with this idea, a pilot study found that people genetically inclined to stress reactivity, as computed by a genetic profile score across 59 single nucleotide polymorphisms on …

Hardiness, Optimism And Hope: Longitudinal Study Of How Individuals May Build Resilience Through Experiential Undergraduate University Courses, Paul Lim, Chin Heng Low, Kevin Koh

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

This study explores the antecedents of students’ resilience in a management education setting, by looking at the role of state hope and dispositional optimism in cultivating their psychological hardiness. While resilience is recognized as integral to personal growth, extant research has predominantly focused on its correlations with psychological capital (PsyCap) elements such as hope and optimism; or examined the outcomes of hardiness as a proxy of resilience. Little has been done to explicate the directional causal relationships among the PsyCap elements and hardiness in view of resilience-building. Using a longitudinal mixed methods design, this study delves into how state hope, …

The Pricing Of Green Bonds And The Determinants Of The Green Bond Premium In The Asia-Pacific And European Markets, Parath Wongaree, Chiyachantana N. Chiraphol, Kuan Yong David Ding, Pattarawan Prasarnphanich, Wasin Siwasarit

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

This study examines the sources of capital for sustainable development and investigates the existence of a green bond premium in both primary and secondary bond markets across the Asia-Pacific and European regions. Utilizing the robust Coarsened Exact Matching (CEM) method in conjunction with the Synthetic Minority Oversampling Technique (SMOTE), our analysis reveals a significant disparity in yields between green bonds and conventional bonds within the Asia-Pacific markets, indicating the existence of a green bond premium. In contrast, this distinction is not observed in Europe. These findings suggest that investors in the Asia-Pacific region display a willingness to accept lower yields …

Assessing Equity In Heat Mitigation Ecosystem Services Of Urban Green Space In Singapore, Ronghua Xu, Perrine Hamel, Youu Ming, Aikeen Lim, Tingting He

Research Collection College of Integrative Studies

Urban green space provides ecosystem services such as heat mitigation, which are associated with improved resident health and welfare. While estimating the disparity in ecosystem services is essential to improve equity, little guidance is available as to which indices and indicators should be used. Here, we assess the distributional equity in heat mitigation benefits as measured by two indicators – land surface temperature reduction and wet-bulb temperature reduction – in the city-state of Singapore, and compare three inequality indices: Gini coefficient (GC), Atkinson index (AI), and Theil entropy index (TE). We include scenarios with and without migrant construction workers to …

The Experiential Value Of Gambling In F2p Gamespaces, Orlando Woods

Research Collection College of Integrative Studies

This article explores the experiential value of gambling within free-to-play (f2p) gamespaces. In doing so, it offers a more balanced understanding of the gambling/gaming interplay. Whilst existing understandings tend to focus on the assumedly predatory monetisation techniques that players are subjected to by game developers, I instead argue that a logic of gambling is integral to the f2p experience economy of Asian players. Drawing on an analysis of in-depth interviews with Singapore-based game players/developers, I show how the virtual items and worlds that players engage with through f2p gamespaces are imbued with experiential value, whilst developers leverage the volumes of …

Building Narratives And Probing Concepts: Preparing Materials For Co-Design With Autistic Livestreamers, Terrance Mok, Tyson Hartley, Anthony Tang, Adam Mccrimmon, Lora Oehlberg

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Based on ten semi-structured interviews with autistic Twitch streamers, we introduce a series of scenario-based design narratives coupled with technology design concepts as a starting point for co-design discussion about autistic streaming. This work builds on prior thematic analysis of the unique intersection between autism and livestreaming. Our user-centered scenarios highlight the needs, goals, and challenges of autistic individuals in livestreaming contexts. By using evocative narratives, the scenarios serve to facilitate empathy and deeper engagement with the needs of autistic users, and help facilitate and support co-creative dialogues and discussions about new technology designs. We contribute this starting point for …

From Data To Discovery: Empowering Research With Comprehensive Library Services At Smu Libraries, Redzuan Abdullah

Research Collection Library

Academic libraries face increasing challenges in supporting complex research data needs across multiple financial and business databases. These challenges are amplified by the diverse nature of data sources, the intricacy of data extraction processes, and the varying levels of research support required by different user groups. While data quality issues persist, commercial databases in finance, accounting, and economics remain of significant interest for academic research (Liu et al., 2024; Reiter, 2020).

This presentation presents SMU Libraries’ comprehensive research & data services, particularly our specialized Data Discovery support, which emphasizes three distinctive offerings: expert guidance on data navigation and retrieval across …

Government Guidance Funds And Corporate Innovation: An Empirical Examination Based On Hangzhou, Huaping Wang

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

Since the establishment of China's first market-oriented government guidance fund in 2002, these funds have actively played a supportive role in addressing market failures and promoting the innovative development of technology enterprises by reducing information asymmetry in the primary equity market, releasing positive signals, and alleviating financing constraints. With the establishment and development of China's multi-tiered government guidance fund system, related research has gradually emerged. However, current studies primarily explore whether government guidance funds have fulfilled their role in fostering innovation from a macro perspective, with limited in-depth discussion from a micro-level on how these funds should conduct their investment …

Threads Of Time: A Lifespan Perspective On Temporal Simulations, Self-Continuity And Meaning In Life, Jonathan Louis Jie Sheng Chia

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

This research investigates how temporal simulations—prospection and retrospection — influence meaning in life (MIL) through the mediating role of self-continuity, and whether these relationships vary with age. Across two studies, self-continuity mediated these associations, but the specific pathways appeared to be nuanced. In Study 1, using a correlational design, frequency of prospection and retrospection positively and negatively predicted MIL via self-continuity respectively. These indirect effects, however, became nonsignificant when accounting for personality and dispositional affect, suggesting the effects of temporal simulation frequency to be primarily driven by these individual differences. Study 2 experimentally manipulated temporal simulations. Prospection enhanced MIL through …

Generative Artificial Intelligence Dependency: Scale Development, Validation, And Its Motivational, Behavioral, And Psychological Correlates, Adalia Yin Hui Goh

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

The growing integration of generative artificial intelligence (AI) into everyday life has raised questions about its potential psychological and behavioral consequences. The present research develops and validates the Generative AI Dependency Scale, a multidimensional tool developed to assess individual differences in dependency on generative AI systems. Across six studies involving 1,223 participants from the United States and Singapore, the Generative AI Dependency Scale demonstrated strong psychometric properties, including a stable three-factor structure (cognitive preoccupation, negative consequences, withdrawal) and good test-retest reliability (ICC = .85). Confirmatory factor analysis supported a higher-order dependency construct, and scalar measurement invariance was established across sex …

To Mitigate Or Adapt? A Construal Level Perspective On Agenda Setting For Climate Action, Shu Tian Ng

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

Climate change is no longer a distant threat, but a present crisis—making the question of how we act timelier than whether we act. This research investigates how people evaluate different approaches to climate action—specifically, mitigation (reducing emissions) and adaptation (coping with impacts)—through the lens of the Construal Level Theory (Liberman & Trope, 1998; Trope & Liberman, 2010). Across three studies, I examined how perceptions of desirability and feasibility influence preferences for different climate action strategies. Study 1 found that, to laypeople, mitigation was perceived as more desirable while adaptation was perceived as more feasible. Study 2 attempted to manipulate individuals’ …

Asia Pacific Business School Librarians Group Highlights, Sumita Govindan

Research Collection Library

Summary of new initiatives that have been undertaken, challenges faced and emerging opportunities from the APBSLG Member Institutions. This presentation is part of updates from the Chairs of the respective groups.

To Lead Or Not To Lead? How Smu Libraries’ Ellssa Program Can Help Develop Leaders For The Future, Rajendra Munoo, Sumita Govindan

Research Collection Library

Digital libraries exist symbiotically with traditional physical libraries creating an ecosystem of hybrid services built around innovation and creativity. Leading the digital library requires the ambidexterity to keep up to date with trends and developments and be a catalyst to lead change management. With the pandemic, academic libraries learnt to become champions of agility in transforming their services to meet the new demands and needs of the community they serve. Libraries are now facing new challenges; the disbanding of the Institute of Museum and Library Services in the United States, the rising threats of censorship, and the gradual erosion of …

Strategic Thinking Skills: A Key To Collective Economic Success, Syngjoo Choi, Seonghoon Kim, Wooyoung Lim

ROSA Journal Articles and Publications

We conduct a large-scale experiment to measure elementary aspects of strategic thinking skills and their linkage to labor market outcomes. Two incentivized measures of higher-order rationality and backward induction are developed. Males' (females') strategic thinking skills are positively (negatively) associated with individual labor income. However, among married individuals, strategic thinking skills are significantly and positively associated with their household labor income regardless of gender, highlighting the importance of strategic thinking skills for collective economic success. We argue that the intrahousehold channels encompassing collective labor supply with home-to-workplace spillover and marriage assortative matching offer the most plausible explanation for our findings.

Tba Trading And Security Issuance In The Agency Mbs Market, Yu An, Wei Li, Zhaogang Song

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

In addition to the standard individual-security-based specified pool (SP) contract, agency mortgage-backed securities (MBS) are actively traded via the to-be-announced (TBA) contract that sets a uniform price for a cohort of heterogeneous securities. We provide empirical support for the economic impact of TBA trading on MBS issuers' security design: issuers pick low-quality loans and pool them together into few TBA MBS. We then conduct a quantitative analysis and show that TBA-trading-induced strategic MBS design increases issuers' selling revenue by about 55% of the SP transaction costs. Finally, we show that smaller issuers are less able to package low-quality loans separately …

Is Subjective Well-Being Insured Against Income Shocks? Evidence From 20-Year Panel Data In South Korea, Jiyeon An, Taehyun Ahn, Kim

Research Collection School Of Economics

Using 20 years of nationally representative panel data in South Korea, we estimate how life satisfaction responds to income shocks. We document that unexpected income changes significantly impact an individual's life satisfaction, and the magnitudes depend on the persistence of income shocks. We find that permanent income shocks substantially penetrate life satisfaction, while transitory income shocks have minimal impact. We also find that life satisfaction regarding external factors such as family income and leisure activities is more sensitive to income shocks than life satisfaction related to social relationships. Our findings imply that it is critical for the government to address …

The Impact Of Nafta On Prices And Competition: Evidence From Mexican Manufacturing Plants, Felipe Brugués, Ayumu Ken Kikkawa, Yuan Mei, Pablo Robles

Research Collection School Of Economics

This paper assesses the impact of the North American Free Trade Agreement on Mexican manufacturing plants’ output prices and markups. We distinguish between Mexican goods that are exported and those sold domestically, and decompose their prices separately into markups and marginal costs. We then analyze how these components were affected by the reductions in Mexican output tariffs, intermediate input tariffs, and U.S. tariffs on Mexican exports. We find that domestically sold products saw a decline in prices as Mexican plants faced more competition and gained access to cheaper inputs. Prices of exported goods fell only slightly as plants increased their …

Three Essays On Robust Mechanism Design, Kexin Wang

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

This dissertation consists of three chapters that study the mechanism design problems when the designer does not completely know the economic environments. In the first chapter, we study the design of contracts when the principal has limited statistical information about the output distributions induced by the agent’s actions. In the baseline model, we consider a principal who only knows the mean of the output distribution for each action. The mean restrictions allow for a large set of profiles of output distributions, including some extreme output distributions that can be used to establish the robust optimality of increasing affine contracts. Motivated …

Essays On Institutions And Human Capital, Xiaofan Zhu

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

This dissertation investigates the critical role of political and culturally embedded institutions in shaping human capital investment and firm behavior, focusing on three distinct but related areas. Chapter 1 investigates how institutional quality influences educational choices in China, with a focus on behavioral responses to the anti-corruption campaign. The study finds that politically connected students from regions more a!ected by the campaign are significantly more likely to pursue further education – especially those with non-STEM majors, weaker academic performance, and stronger political ties. The analysis of underlying mechanisms suggests that as the employment environment became more equitable, connected individuals responded …

The Effects Of Income On Infant Health: Evidence From The Coal Boom And Bust, Chu Gek Chew

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

An individual’s health at birth is an important component in human capital accumulation, posing significant implications both in the short- and long-run. I investigate how infant health outcomes were impacted during a period of successive positive and negative economic shocks led by the coal industry between the 1970s to 1990s. Using exogenous variation within counties’ pre-existing coal reserves, I instrument for the changes in economic opportunities during the coal boom and bust. I find some limited evidence that an increase in income improves infant health outcomes. The incidence of low birthweight is decreasing in earnings growth, and effects are stronger …