Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

A Score Test For Box-Cox Functional Form, Zhenlin Yang, Tilak Abeysinghe

Research Collection School Of Economics

This paper presents two score tests to determine a value for the Box-Cox transformation parameter. The test based on expected information performs better in small samples and is computationally simpler than the one based on observed information; therefore, the former is recommended.

Confidence And The Constructive Trust, Hang Wu Tang

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

Almost every leading work on the law of confidence mentions the possibility ofa declaration of a constructive trust as a remedy for a claim involving an abuseof confidence. Apart from the Canadian Supreme Court, no other appellatecourt in the Commonwealth has seriously debated this issue. This paperinvestigates the legitimacy of the use of the constructive trust in this context.

Applicant Perceptions Of Selection Procedures: The Role Of Selection Information, Belief In Tests, And Comparative Anxiety, Filip Lievens, Wilfried De Corte, Katrien Brysse

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

This study addresses the effects of the provision of information on the reliability and validity of selection procedures and the effects of test-taker attitudes (i.e., belief in tests and comparative anxiety) on fairness perceptions. Prior to an actual selection process, applicants (N = 118) were given either information about the reliability and validity of various selection procedures or no information. Next, they evaluated the fairness of eight selection procedures. No significant effect of selection information was found. Belief in tests had significant effects, with applicants high on test belief giving higher fairness ratings than applicants low on test belief. In …

Market Structure And Performance: An Anti-Trust Story Of Endogenous Growth, Hing-Man Leung

Research Collection School Of Economics

Since Schumpeter, a major concern has been: what monopoly does to growth? Monopoly’s static, allocative inefficiency is well established. How much this is offset by its dynamic progressiveness is unclear. First, using the empirical literature, we argue that the presumed progressiveness of monopoly must be rejected. Second, we extend the endogenous growth model to obtain a full Pareto ranking of competition, monopoly, Cournot and Bertrand. Competition beats Cournot, which in turn beats monopoly. Growth rate is invariant with structures, which accords well with empirical evidence. Bertrand happens to share the ranking with competition. The findings have a strong anti-trust overtone.

Markov Switching Garch Models Of Currency Crises In Southeast Asia, Celso Brunetti, Roberto S. Mariano, Chiara Scotti, Augustine H. H. Tan

Research Collection School Of Economics

This paper develops a model which is able to forecast exchange rate turmoil. Our starting point relies on the empirical evidence that exchange rate volatility is not constant. In fact, the modeling strategy adopted refers to the vast literature of the GARCH class of models, where the variance process is explicitly modeled. Further empirical evidence shows that it is possible to distinguish between two different regimes: îordinaryî versus îturbulenceî. Low exchange rate changes are associated with low volatility (ordinary regime) and high exchange rate devaluations go together with high volatility. This calls for a regime switching approach. In our model …

Business And Global Governance: The Growing Role Of Corporate Codes Of Conduct, Ann Florini

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

These are, in many ways, halcyon days for global business. In a vast ideological shift in the late 20th century, markets rather than governments came to be seen as the road to prosperity. Governments that once nationalized foreign firms now seek out the investment, technology, and managerial expertise such companies can bring. The halls of the United Nations used to ring with calls for international regulation of those dreaded evil-doers, the multinational corporations. Now the UN instead implores business to join with it in a voluntary Global Compact to ensure respect for internationally agreed environmental, labor, and human rights standards.

Experience Sampling: Promises And Pitfalls, Strengths And Weaknesses, Christie N. Scollon, Chu Kim-Prieto, Ed Diener

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Focuses on experience sampling methodology (ESM) in psychological research. History of ESM; Types of experience sampling; Pros and cons of ESM.

Service Links And Wage Inequality, Kong Weng Ho, Hian Teck Hoon

Research Collection School Of Economics

In our general equilibrium model, the variety of specialized service links affects international production fragmentation in manufacturing. Decreases in cost of education or fixed cost of service links raise the relative supply of skilled workers, increase service specialization, and decrease the price of aggregate services. Consequently, the market for service- and skill-intensive component manufacturing enlarges, raising relative demand for skilled workers. Empirically, endogenous change in international outsourcing rather than skill-biased technological progress is the main reason for a modest decline in wage gap despite the rapid rise in relative supply of skilled workers in Singapore from 1978 to 2000.

Antifibrinolytic Therapy And Perioperative Blood Loss In Cancer Patients Undergoing Major Orthopedic Surgery, David Amar, Florence M. Grant, Hao Zhang, Patrick J. Boland, Denis H. Y. Leung, John A. Healey

Research Collection School Of Economics

Background: Aprotinin has been reported to reduce blood loss and transfusion requirements in patients having major orthopedic operations. Data on whether epsilon amino-caproic acid (EACA) is effective in this population are sparse.

Methods: Sixty-nine adults with malignancy scheduled for either pelvic, extremity or spine surgery during general anesthesia entered this randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial, and received either intravenous aprotinin (n = 23), bolus of 2 x 10(6) kallikrein inactivator units (KIU), followed by an infusion of 5 x 10(5) KIU/h, or EACA (n = 22), bolus of 150 mg/kg, followed by a 15 mg/kg/h infusion or saline placebo (n = …

The Lion And The Lamb: Demythologizing Franklin Roosevelt's Fireside Chats, Elvin T. Lim

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

We are accustomed to a characterization of Franklin Roosevelt’s legendary Fireside Chats as intimate exchanges between the president and the people. This essay argues that the Fireside Chats were a harsher, more castigatory rhetorical genre than such a characterization would allow. A content analysis of the 27 Fireside Chats recorded in FDR’s Public Papers suggests that the Fireside Chats were, on a number of indices, far less intimate than have traditionally been supposed, and in fact among the more vitriolic and declamatory utterances of the 32nd president. The essay proceeds with a discussion of how this illusion of intimacy was …

Optimal Sequential Decision Architectures And The Robustness Of Hierarchies And Polyarchies, Winston T. H. Koh

Research Collection School Of Economics

This paper studies collective decision making in the context of a project selection model. We derive the optimal decision architecture when marginal decision costs are present, and investigate the circumstances under which the hierarchy and polyarchy exist as optimal sequential architectures. Our analysis extends previous results on optimal committee decision-making to a sequential setting, and further demonstrates the fragility of the hierarchy and polyarchy as optimal architectures.

Singapore Management University Report To Stakeholders 2003 - 2004, Singapore Management University

Report to Stakeholders

From what started as an idea and then became a blueprint only a few short years ago, SMU has already developed into a university highly regarded for its quality programmes, faculty and students – not only in Singapore, but in the region and beyond.

The so-called ‘SMU experiment’ in Singapore tertiary education has been looked upon with much curiosity and generated great expectations during this time. And this year the University celebrated one of its most significant and anticipated milestones: the graduation of our first batch of students. More than just graduates, these students – now SMU alumni – are …

Low-Wage Employment Subsidies In A Labor-Turnover Model Of The `Natural Rate, Hian Teck Hoon, Edmund S. Phelps

Research Collection School Of Economics

No abstract provided.

Singapore: Of Dreams, 'Tough Minds And Warm Hearts', Eugene K. B. Tan

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

No abstract provided.

Exclusion Bias In Sample-Selection Model Estimators, Myoung-Jae Lee

Research Collection School Of Economics

Exclusion restrictions are routinely used in sample-selection models with selection and outcome equations. A false restriction, however, can cause an exclusion bias for the outcome equation estimator. In this paper, the specific form of the exclusion bias is derived for various sample-selection model estimators. Furthermore, it is shown that the outcome equation parameters for regressors with zero coefficients in the selection equation are immune to exclusion bias if only one regressor is excluded. Exclusion bias, or a lack thereof, is verified through a simulation study with the regressors taken from Mroz (1987). JEL Classification Numbers: C24, C34. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Singapore: The Feel Good Factor - A Vital Element In The Meticulous Preparations For Leadership Change, Eugene Kheng Boon Tan

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

No abstract provided.

Legal Issues Under Wto Rules On The Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement (Cepa) Between Mainland China And Hong Kong, Henry S. Gao

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

On 29 June 2003, the Central Government of the People's Republic of China (the Mainland) and the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) signed the Mainland and Hong Kong Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement (CEPA). As the first Regional Trade Agreement (RTA) for both sides, the CEPA provides a model for China to use the arrangements allowed under the rules of the World Trade Organization (WTO) to further trade liberalisation and promote economic development. This is a commendable endeavour. However, due to the complexity of the relevant rules of the WTO, caution must be exercised in the formulation and implementation of …

Smu: We Mean Business: We Are Different, Singapore Management University

SMU Press Releases

We believe it takes a different type of person to excel in the new economy. Which is why SMU is a different kind of university. One with a progressive curriculum, unique teaching methods and a world-class faculty.

SMU advertisments, Ng Peng Fong, Marina Rumi Ibrahim, Elsie Lin, featured students doing hand stand, jumping and back bend.

The Role Of The Eu In The Non-Proliferation Of Nuclear Weapons: The Way To Thessaloniki And Beyond, Clara Portela

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Over the past few years the EU has begun taking some steps against the spread of nuclear weapons within its Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP). At the Thessaloniki Summit June 2003, the European Council adopted its first draft Strategy against the proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD). In order to assess the significance of the Strategy, this paper will first present and evaluate the Union’s record in the field, then review the newly released Strategy, and finally make suggestions as to how it can be improved.

The EU is not an unitary actor in the nuclear non-proliferation domain, …

Islam, Democracy And Civil Society, Chandran Kukathas

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

What is the relationship between Islam, democracy, and civil society? This is thequestion which supplies the topic of this essay, Its purpose, more particularly, is to explore theplace of Islam in the modern world-a world which contemporary writers increasingly try tounderstand by invoking the notions of democracy and civil society. But the occasion for thisexploitation has a more precise origin still. The issue of the place of Islam in the modernworld is raised, more often than not, by writers and commentators for whom Islam is, aboveall, a danger, in geo-political terms, it is a danger to the West; in world-historical …

The Cultural Contradictions Of Socialism, Chandran Kukathas

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

While no one has yet announced the death of capitalism, reports of its imminent demise have been as numerous as they have been exaggerated. Such reports have usually been bolstered by thoughtful analyses of the fundamental contradictions of capitalism, which was expected to come sliding—if not crashing—down under the weight of its own inconsistencies. Leaving aside Karl Marx's own predictions, twentieth-century analysts as diverse as Joseph Schumpeter, Daniel Bell, and Jurgen Habermas have asserted that the contradictions of capitalism could only mean that its days were numbered. Alas, all that has been established by these analyses is that predictive failure …

The Concept Of A Middle Power In International Relations: Distinguishing Between Emerging And Traditional Middle Powers, Eduard Jordaan

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

This article seeks to develop a distinction between emerging and traditional middle powers as a means to giving the concept of a middle power greater analytical clarity. All middle powers display foreign policy behaviour that stabilises and legitimises the global order, typically through multilateral and cooperative initiatives. However, emerging and traditional middle powers can be distinguished in terms of their mutually-influencing constitutive and behavioural differences. Constitutively, traditional middle powers are wealthy, stable, egalitarian, social democratic and not regionally influential. Behaviourally, they exhibit a weak and ambivalent regional orientation, constructing identities distinct from powerful states in their regions and offer appeasing …

Dynamical Evolutionary Psychology: Individual Decision Rules And Emergent Social Norms, Douglas T. Kenrick, Norman P. Li, Jonathan Butner

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

A new theory integrating evolutionary and dynamical approaches is proposed. Following evolutionary models, psychological mechanisms are conceived as conditional decision rules designed to address fundamental problems confronted by human ancestors, with qualitatively different decision rules serving different problem domains and individual differences in decision rules as a function of adaptive and random variation. Following dynamical models, decision mechanisms within individuals are assumed to unfold in dynamic interplay with decision mechanisms of others in social networks. Decision mechanisms in different domains have different dynamic outcomes and lead to different sociospatial geometries. Three series of simulations examining trade-offs in cooperation and mating …

External Debt And Worsening Business Cycles In Less Developed Countries, Hing-Man Leung

Research Collection School Of Economics

Less developed countries (LDCs) have seen considerable business cycles in recent decades. At the same time they have significantly increased their external-debt-to-GDP ratios. It seems natural to suspect that increased indebtedness and the amplified cycles are linked. The paper presents a simple macroeconomic model to formalize this connection. External debt is the novelty of this model. The paper's main contribution is to calibrate the dynamic parameter using the World Development Indicator. It is found that the LDC dynamic behavior is generally non-oscillatory. Alarmingly though, the dynamic convergent system in the 1970s has been replaced by one of divergence.

Incentive Compatibility In Multi-Unit Auctions, Sushil Bikhchandani, Shurojit Chatterji, Arunava Sen

Research Collection School Of Economics

We characterize incentive compatibility in multi-unit auctions with multi-dimensional types. An allocation mechanism is incentive compatible if and only if it is nondecreasing in marginal utilities (NDMU). The notion of incentive compatibility we adopt is dominant strategy in private value models and ex post incentive compatibility in models with interdependent values. NDMU is the following requirement: if changing one buyer’s type, while keeping everyone else’s types the same, changes this buyer’s allocation then the new allocation must be relatively more attractive (or relatively less unattractive) to this buyer. We also establish a price characterization of incentive compatible mechanisms.

Strategic Development Of Airport And Rail Infrastructure: The Case Of Singapore, Sock-Yong Phang

Research Collection School Of Economics

This article recounts how a number of strategic infrastructure investment decisions in airport and rail development taken by the Singapore government were at variance with recommendations emerging from cost-benefit analysis, but were considered necessary to support external competitiveness. This link between infrastructure provision and economic development may require decision makers to assess the trade-off between prudent macro-economic planning and efficient micro-economic management for major projects. In the case of airport hubs, the most difficult assessment might be the game consideration of how much, and how far ahead, excess capacity is needed to ensure the dominance of the hub.

Education, Technological Progress And Economic Growth, Winston T. H. Koh, Hing-Man Leung

Research Collection School Of Economics

An important role of education – and the resultant accumulation of human capital – for a less-developed economy is to facilitate technology diffusion in order for it to catch up with developed economies. This paper presents a model linking education, the accumulation of physical capital and technological progress. In the model, investment in education and the accumulation of physical capital are complementary, and intertwine with the technology progress through related effects on technology diffusion and the expansion of the technology frontier. The allocation of effort to education, the optimal savings rate and the technology gap are endogenously determined in the …

Competitiveness And Price Convergence On The Internet: Evidence From The Online Dvd Market, Xiaolin Xing, Fang Fang Tang, Zhenlin Yang

Research Collection School Of Economics

We compare the pricing behavior between online branches of traditional retailers (MCR) and pure Internet retailers (Dotcom) in the DVD market. Based on a set of panel data from July 5, 2000 to June 11, 2001, we find that the average price of the MCRs is about 11.2% higher than that of the Dotcoms. Further statistical analyses on the market dynamics of price trends show that the prices of the Dotcoms went up with time much faster than the prices of the MCRs, which points to a possibility that eventually both types of retailers may charge similar prices on average. …

The Elasticity Of Substitution And Endogenous Growth, Hing-Man Leung

Research Collection School Of Economics

The endogenous growth literature focuses exclusively on Cobb-Douglas. Elasticities other than unity are ignored. A recent paper by Klump and Grandville (2000) examined other elasticities but assumed an exogenous saving rate. By contrast, this paper studies elasticity and endogenous growth. Endogeneity is important since elasticity preserves capital’s productivity and encourages saving. Two models are presented. The first assumes exogenous technological change. We find elasticity to have a positive level effect on income. No rate of growth effect is found. The second model allows learning by doing from capital accumulation. In addition to the level effect, rate of growth effects are …

Effects Of Electronic Trading On The Hang Seng Index Futures Market, Joseph Fung, Donald Lien, Yiuman Tse, Yiu Kuen Tse

Research Collection School Of Economics

This paper investigates the effects of the migration of the Hang Seng Index futures from open-outcry trading to electronic trading. Using trade data over a window of six months we find evidence that, after the migration, the bid-ask spread of the futures contract decreases and the contribution of the futures price in information transmission increases. Furthermore, the asymmetry in volatility spillover reduces and the open interests of the futures market become smaller. These results suggest that the anonymity in trading and the higher speed of order execution in the electronic trading system attract informed traders to the futures market and …