Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

High Yields From Course Guides At Li Ka Shing Library, Pin Pin Yeo

Research Collection Library

At the Li Ka Shing Library, the librarians started building course guides to support students working on their assignments. The reasons for creating course guides and examples of course guides with their usage statistics are explored. The research librarians got high returns from their course guides as shown by usage statistics and unsolicited feedback from faculty. It was a good way to embed the Library and its resources into the courses taught, to increase awareness of library resources and to keep the library visible.

Hard Truths About Heart Work: An Interview With Jennie Chua, Lien Centre For Social Innovation

Social Space

Just as there are calls for leadership to bridge the business and social worlds, there are also calls for new models and inspiration in the nonprofit sector. Social Space catches up with the inimitable Jennie Chua,fundraiser and chairman of the Community Chest, to hear her thoughts on these issues. True to form, Jennie delivers a few hard truths about fundraising and charity in Singapore.

Celebrity Philanthropy: Reassessing Fame For Civil Society, Oranutt Narapruet

Social Space

Oranutt Narapruet argues for the support and enabling of philanthropy efforts by stars.

Asean And The Evolving State Of Human Rights, Hilary Stauffer

Social Space

What is it about human rights in Asia that has international governments so worked up? According to Hilary Stauffer, it is not necessarily about differences in culture and geography.

The Global Ecosystem For Social Innovation, Louise Pulford

Social Space

Louise Pulford shares how the social innovation industry is applying its own medicine to accelerate social innovation globally.

Of Spatial And Mindset Change: An Interview With Tay Kheng Soon, Lien Centre For Social Innovation

Social Space

Amidst the gloom of the growing environmental crisis and unmet social needs, one man refuses to admit defeat. After 50 years advocating in civil society and the architectural space, Tay Kheng Soon has come up with yet another ground-breaking idea—Rubanisation—which re-imagines the city and countryside as a single organic whole. Social Space catches up with the social space maverick in his eco-office in the tranquil setting of a wooded area off Dairy Farm Road.

Finding The Human In Society, Lien Centre For Social Innovation

Social Space

Prior to the Singaporean General Elections in May 2011, not many had heard of Vincent Wijeysingha, executive director of TWC2. By the time he’d stood, and lost, as an opposition candidate, his profile had been firmly catapulted into the news and blogosphere. Wijeysingha recently sat down with Social Space to talk about his concern for the plight of migrant workers, social justice and how Singapore needs to change.

Social Innovation Challenge Prizes: More Than Just The Money, Laura Bunt

Social Space

Beyond the hype and happiness of winning, when it comes to finding social solutions, innovation prizes are serious business. Laura Buntexplains why.

Disruptive Logic: A New Paradigm For Social Change, Gigi Georges, Tim Glynn Burke

Social Space

Disruptive reform is a heady, alluring tool for champions of social change, and as Gigi Georges and Time Glynn Burkepoint out in a series of case studies, if done well, it can reap significant rewards.

Bottom Fifth In Singapore, Jacqueline Loh

Social Space

Jacqueline Loh paints a numerical picture of the poor and cautions that without concerted interventions, many households could remain chronically poor.

The Promise Of Social Impact Bonds, John Loder

Social Space

A financial tool from Wall Street is being adapted in the social market to nurture early interventions and incentivise capital flow. As John Loder reports, social impact bonds promise two fundamental shifts—for governments to overcome the politics of fear and for private investors to fund social causes with impact.

Tiny Ideas, Big Changes, Won Soon Park

Social Space

Won Soon Park from the Hope Institute dissects the Social Invention Programme, a model designed to change and improve social policies by actively engaging a community of citizens.

Singapore Management University Report To Stakeholders 2011 - 2012, Singapore Management University

Report to Stakeholders

“Student Life” offers exciting updates on undergraduates’ achievements; “Academic Review” shares key news about our faculty and programmes; “Global Profile” surveys how SMU is raising its international profile; and “Horizons” reviews how the University is building strong, lasting relationships with our partners. Each story is a single tile and together they form a mosaic which portrays the creativity, colour and dynamism of SMU today. Three feature articles offer in-depth analysis of the ways SMU is striding towards meeting its strategic goals. The proactive, collaborative efforts of the SMU community are explored in “SMU President’s ‘Want Something, Do Something’ Culture”. A …

Agency And Partnership Law [2010], Pearlie Koh, Stephen Bull

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

No abstract provided.

Understanding Risk Governance: Introducing Sociological Neoinstitutionalism And Foucauldian Governmentality For Further Theorizing, Wee-Kiat Lim

CCX Research

This article traces the career of risk across prominent theoretical approaches by highlighting their key assumptions and premises, specifically the technical approach found in the physical sciences, and economics, psychology, and sociology in the social sciences. In each discipline, the strengths and limitations of each theoretical approach are pointed out. The discussion focuses on sociology in particular because other approaches—in treating risks as dominantly technical, psychological, or economic phenomena—tend to downplay the broader historical and socio-political context that impinges on risk construction and production, and its differential impact across society. This exploration points out that institutions play an important role …

A Sufficient Condition For The Tops-Only Property Of Strategy-Proof Social Choice Functions In The Case Of Two Voters, Huaxia Zeng

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

In this thesis, we consider the standard voting model with a finite set of alternatives A and 2 voters, and address the following question: besides Domains D satisfying the

Property T (Chatterji & Sen (2011) ), what are other characteristics of domains that induce every strategy-proof and unanimous social choice function f : Dn → A to satisfy the tops-only property? We impose a minimal richness condition which ensures that for every alternative a ∈ A, there exists a preference ordering where a is maximal. We identify a more general condition on domains that is sufficient for strategy-proofness …

Effects Of Free Trade Areas In Trade Promotion: Gravity Model Approach, Mona Jit Mui Lim

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

Since the early 1990s, the world has seen a proliferation of Free Trade Agreements (FTAs). One of the key objectives of FTAs is to expand trade between or amongst its signatories. This study explores the intra-FTA and extra-FTA trade expansion capability of 3 types of FTA: North-North FTA (European Union (EU)-15 as a representative), North-South FTA (North America Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) as a representative) and South-South FTA (Association of Southeast Asia Nations (ASEAN ) Free Trade Agreement (AFTA) as a representative). The study made an attempt to address the spread of such FTA-led trade expansion amongst the members and …

Testing Heterogeneity In Panel Data Models With Interactive Fixed Effects, Qihui Chen

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

This paper proposes a test for the slope homogeneity in large dimensional panel data models with interactive fixed effects based on a measure of goodness-of-fit (R²). We first obtain, for each cross-sectional unit, the R² from the time series regression of residuals on the constant and observable regressors and then construct the test statistic R² as an equally weighted average of the cross-sectional R²'s. R̄² is close to 0 under the null hypothesis of homogenous slopes and deviates away from 0 otherwise. We show that after being appropriately centered and scaled, R^{2 …}

Analysis Of Singapore's Foreign Exchange Market Microstructure, Chee Wai Wan

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

This paper analyses the Singapore foreign exchange market from a microstructure approach. Specifically, by applying and modifying the empirical methodology designed by Bollerslev and Melvin (1994), we examine the relationship between bid-ask spreads and the underlying volatility of the USD/SGD. Our data set comprises high-frequency USD/SGD tick data of three separate years (April-June 1989, April-May 2006, April-May 2009). We found that for the USD/SGD: i) the size of bid-ask spreads are positively related to the underlying exchange rate volatility; ii) the magnitude of the dependence on underlying volatility increases as tick volume increases; and iii) the size of the bid-ask …

Double-Edged Transparency In Teams, Parimal Bag, Nona Pepito

Research Collection School Of Economics

In a team project with significant complementarities between various players' individual tasks, news of early success by some encourages others to push ahead with their own tasks while lack of success has the opposite effect. This ex-post disparity in incentives created gives rise to two differing implications, ex ante, for an ideal team transparency. Sometimes it is better to commit to complete secrecy within the team of the various participants' interim progress as it mitigates the negative effect of failures. In some other situations, commitment to full disclosure is better as players are then encouraged to be proactive by exerting …

Contractual Interpretation In Singapore After Zurich Insurance: Continued Refinement, Yihan Goh

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

Ever since Lord Hoffmann’s authoritative restatement of the principles relating to the interpretation of contracts in Investors Compensation Scheme v West Bromwich Building Society, various common law courts and academics have weighed in with their views on two main issues: whether the contextual approach articulated in Investors in fact represents a step forward from the traditional literal approach; and, accepting the operation of the contextual approach, whether there remains room for the exclusion of certain extrinsic evidence in interpreting contracts. But the foremost consideration underpinning these issues is that of the perceived uncertainty which the contextual approach brings. The Singapore …

Making And Unmaking Of Transnational Environmental Cooperation, Yooil Bae, Dong-Ae Shin, Yong-Wook Lee

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

There has been an ongoing debate about how (or through what mechanisms) global environmental norms have influenced domestic political debates that give rise to green policy choices. In particular, effective international environmental cooperation between transnational and domestic NGOs has been recognized as a key to successful environmental movements. In this regard, the central question guiding research on the politics of environmental norms is, under what condition(s) transnational cooperation among NGOs would be more likely to be sustained so as to achieve its goals. This article proposes that one of the mechanisms missing from the debate is a bottom-up approach through …

Not Yet Married: The Implications Of Meanings Of Marriage On Youths In Singapore, Paulin T. Straughan

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Marriage is a social construct that takes on different meanings as societies develop and mature. To understand why people get married, it is important that we understand what marriage means. This paper will discuss the social transformation of marriage in Asia using Singapore as a case study. To examine two demographic trends- delayed marriage, and the increasing proportion of people who remain single - this discourse also explores the constraints imposed by contradictions between traditional norms and modern expectations. In the midst of these ideological challenges, there are important implications for the practice of marriage among younger Singaporeans. We see …

Book Reviews: Advancing Global Education: Patterns Of Potential Human Progress, Devin K. Joshi

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Education is one of the most fundamental prerequisites to economic growth and social stability in the world. It is also one of the most inadequately realised goals of development, with the average education of global adults remaining essentially at primary levels. Advancing Global Education is the second in a series of volumes that explores prospects for human development-how development appears to be unfolding globally and locally, how we would like it to evolve, and how better to assure that we move it in desired directions. The first volume addressed the reduction of global poverty. The third will turn to the …

The Fundamental Question When Applying The Welfare Principle: "Who Will Be The Better Parent Or Guardian"?, Siyuan Chen

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

The welfare principle – that is, when making a custody-related decision, the best interests of the child form the first and paramount consideration – is probably one of the cardinal principles of family law in many common law jurisdictions. While the welfare principle is generally considered a wide concept with no exhaustive definition or list of factors, it is submitted that there is an important question – sometimes neglected or misunderstood – that should actually feature most prominently when applying the welfare principle, particularly when joint or no order custody orders seem impossible. The question is simply that of “who …

Towards A Cleaner Singapore: Sociological Study On Littering In Singapore, Paulin Tay Straughan, Narayanan Ganapathy, Daniel Goh, Everold Hosein

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Keeping Singapore clean has always been the priority of the National Environment Agency (NEA). We have made much progress over the years, but as Singapore's population grows amid changing demographics, littering remains a concern.

Evolving With The Times: The Changing Landscape Of Work Life Integration In Singapore, Paulin Tay Straughan

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

This year, we celebrate 10 years of our journey and look toward a new chapter in our history as we communicate the relevance and increasing importance of Work-Life strategies for developing human capital today. We consolidated research studies on Work-Life Integration to date so as to understand what has been accomplished in this field and set directions and trends for future research. We commissioned A/P Paulin Tay Straughan, Vice-Dean of the Faculty of Arts & Social Sciences and Deputy Head of the Department of Sociology at the National University of Singapore, to conduct this research. The study unearthed several interesting …

E Pluribus Plurum, Or, How To Fail To Back Into A State In Spite Of Really Trying, Chandran Kukathas

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

“The framework for utopia,” Robert Nozick tells us at the beginning of the fi nal section of Part iiiof Anarchy, State, and Utopia( ASU), “is equivalent to the minimal state” (p. 333). The rich andcomplex body of argumentation of Parts iand iihad produced theconclusion that the minimal, and no more than a minimal, statewas legitimate or morally justifi ed. What Part iiireveals is that theminimal state “is the one that best realizes the utopian aspirationsof untold dreamers and visionaries” (p. 333). Although this happyconvergence is surely no accident, neither, Nozick insists, is it contrived, for it is the conclusion reached …

Mad Enough To See The Other Side: Anger And The Search For Disconfirming Information, Maia J. Young, Larissa Z. Tiedens, Heajung Jung, Ming-Hong Tsai

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

The current research explored the effect of anger on hypothesis confirmation the propensity to seek information that confirms rather than disconfirms one's opinion. We argued that the moving against action tendency associated with anger leads angry individuals to seek out more disconfirming information than sad individuals, attenuating the confirmation bias. We tested this hypothesis in two studies of experimentally primed anger and sadness on the selective exposure to hypothesis confirming and disconfirming information. In Study 1, participants in the angry condition were more likely to choose disconfirming information than those in the sad or neutral condition when given the opportunity …

Real-Time Traffic Estimation Using Data Expansion, Roger Lederman, Laura Wynter

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

This paper presents a method for estimating missing real-time traffic volumes on a road network using both historical and real-time traffic data. The method was developed to address urban transportation networks where a non-negligible subset of the network links do not have real-time link volumes, and where that data is needed to populate other real-time traffic analytics. Computation is split between an offline calibration and a real-time estimation phase. The offline phase determines link-to-link splitting probabilities for traffic flow propagation that are subsequently used in real-time estimation. The real-time procedure uses current traffic data and is efficient enough to scale …