Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

For Ye Have The Poor Always With You: Exploring China's Latest War On Poverty, John A. Donaldson

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

John Donaldson’s section discusses Xi Jinping’s ambitious pledge to end poverty in China by 2020, toward which the CCP has deployed a locally adaptable set of policies that have mobilized actors in the public and private sectors and tied officials’ performance to success in poverty reduction. The Party understands that poverty—a manifestation of a severe inability to provide a good life for the people—represents a concerning indictment of the regime’s legitimacy overall. This paper fills in an analytic gap among Western sources regarding these programs, which have to date seen well over fifty billion dollars of poverty alleviation funding disbursed …

Study Group Travel Behaviour Patterns From Large-Scale Smart Card Data, Xiancai Tian, Baihua Zheng

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

In this paper, we aim at studying the group travel behaviour (GTB) patterns from large-scale auto fare collection (AFC) data. GTB is defined as two or more commuters intentionally and regularly traveling together from an origin to a destination. We propose a method to identify GTB accurately and efficiently and apply our method to the Singapore AFC dataset to reveal the GTB patterns of Singapore commuters. The case study proves that our method is able to identify GTB patterns more accurately and efficiently than the state-of-the-art.

A Mathematical Programming Model For The Green Mixed Fleet Vehicle Routing Problem With Realistic Energy Consumption And Partial Recharges, Vincent F. Yu, Panca Jodiwan, Aldy Gunawan, Audrey Tedja Widjaja

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

A green mixed fleet vehicle routing with realistic energy consumption and partial recharges problem (GMFVRP-REC-PR) is addressed in this paper. This problem involves a fixed number of electric vehicles and internal combustion vehicles to serve a set of customers. The realistic energy consumption which depends on several variables is utilized to calculate the electricity consumption of an electric vehicle and fuel consumption of an internal combustion vehicle. Partial recharging policy is included into the problem to represent the real life scenario. The objective of this problem is to minimize the total travelled distance and the total emission produced by internal …

Infrastructure In Asia: The Reality, The Challenge, The Opportunity, Philip Charles Zerrillo

Asian Management Insights

While the urgency to build and improve infrastructure is always imminent, investing in it is a high stakes game for emerging countries. Investments these countries make should be well-prioritised to maximise the economic winds that fill their sails.

Inferring Accurate Bus Trajectories From Noisy Estimated Arrival Time Records, Lakmal Meegahapola, Noel Athaide, Kasthuri Jayarajah, Shili Xiang, Archan Misra

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Urban commuting data has long been a vital source of understanding population mobility behaviour and has been widely adopted for various applications such as transport infrastructure planning and urban anomaly detection. While individual-specific transaction records (such as smart card (tap-in, tap-out) data or taxi trip records) hold a wealth of information, these are often private data available only to the service provider (e.g., taxicab operator). In this work, we explore the utility in harnessing publicly available, albeit noisy, transportation datasets, such as noisy “Estimated Time of Arrival" (ETA) records (commonly available to commuters through transit Apps or electronic signages). We …

Obstacles To Accessing Pro-Poor Microcredit Programs In China: Evidence From Penggan Village, Guizhou, Deborah Shu Yi Tan, Track Tze Tuan Tan, Shao Tong Ling, John A. Donaldson

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Why do poor farmers not take up microcredit loans, even when the terms are designed to be pro-poor? Fieldwork in a village in China’s Guizhou province revealed a puzzle: although the county government had designed a loan program that was intended to be unusually pro-poor, only three of the 349 eligible households had successfully applied. This article analyzes three potential hypotheses: farmer failure (risk aversion or financial illiteracy), market failure (lack of viable or stable market opportunities), and institutional failure (structural or institutional barriers precluding taking up loans). Based on evidence from intensive interviews, we reject the first hypothesis, and …

Customer Satisfaction Index Of Singapore 2019: Q2 Results, Institute Of Service Excellence, Smu

Research Collection Institute of Service Excellence

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. This is the CSISG’s 13th year of measurement.

Designing Policies In Uncertain Contexts: Entrepreneurial Capacity And The European Emission Trading Scheme, Ishani Mukherjee, Sarah Giest

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

The paper focuses on enterprising agents in policy formulation and design by looking at their capacity of dealing with different levels of uncertainty. In climate policy specifically, different degrees and types of uncertainties pose a challenge to policymakers. Policy entrepreneurs and the combination of their analytical, operational and political competences are a relevant component in reducing ambiguity in policy design and translating broad policy goals to operational programmes and specific policy instruments. Using the case of the European Emission Trading Scheme, we suggest that the success of policy entrepreneurs in catalysing policy change is determined by their capacity to work …

Indigenous Perceptions Of Climate Anomalies In Malaysian Borneo, Terry Van Gevelt, H. Abok, M. M. Bennett, S. D. Fam, F. George, N. Kulathuramaiyer, C. T. Low, T. Zamane

Research Collection College of Integrative Studies

Local perceptions of climate anomalies influence adaptation behaviour. Specifically, perceptions that are more accurate and homogenous at the community-level are more likely to facilitate the collective action required to adapt to the local effects of climate anomalies experienced by many indigenous communities. We combine primary data on perceptions of climate anomalies from 200 individuals in six Penan villages in Sarawak, Malaysia with instrumental climate data. We find that perceptions of climate anomalies vary substantially in terms of occurrence and magnitude, and do not generally correlate with instrumental climate data. We operationalise the Penan forest sign language (Oroo’) as a measure …

The Story Of Colours In Traffic Accidents, Singapore Management University

Perspectives@SMU

Research reveals yellow taxis cause fewer accidents than blue taxis in Singapore

Amid Uncertainties, An Uplifting Reminder On Importance Of Resilience And Resolve For Singapore, Tan K. B. Eugene

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

In a commentary, SMU Associate Professor of Law Eugene Tan opined that Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong's National Day Rally (NDR) speech is an uplifting reminder on the importance of having resilience and resolve for Singapore, amid uncertainties such as the slowing economy and Sino-American rivalry. He pointed out that the one common thread across the three speeches is the forging of a unique Singapore identity and ethos and the centrality of staying united even as external forces are buffeting Singapore relentlessly. Assoc Prof Tan believed that the themes from the NDR will continue to resonate from now to next …

The Role Of The Arts In Placemaking Singapore, Su Fern Hoe

Social Space

Singapore is no exception. This is palpably evident in the recent disappearance of cherished spaces such as Rochor Centre, Sungei Road Flea Market and Pearl Bank Apartments. As Janadas Devan once aptly stated, “forgetting is the condition of Singapore.”

This leads one to wonder: in a cityscape where the only constant is change, how can we foster a sense of place and belonging? How and where do we develop social relations beyond our own homes? Are we still able to form meaningful experiences with others as well as our surroundings?

Zac: A Zone Path Construction Approach For Effective Real-Time Ridesharing, Meghna Lowalekar, Pradeep Varakantham, Patrick Jaillet

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Real-time ridesharing systems such as UberPool, Lyft Line, GrabShare have become hugely popular as they reduce the costs for customers, improve per trip revenue for drivers and reduce traffic on the roads by grouping customers with similar itineraries. The key challenge in these systems is to group the right requests to travel in available vehicles in real-time, so that the objective (e.g., requests served, revenue or delay) is optimized. The most relevant existing work has focussed on generating as many relevant feasible (with respect to available delay for customers) combinations of requests (referred to as trips) as possible in real-time. …

Volumetric Optimization Of Freight Cargo Loading: Case Study Of A Smu Forwarder, Tristan Lim, Michael Ser Chong Ping, Mark Goh, Shi Ying Jacelyn Tan

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Purpose: Freight forwarders faces a challenging environment of high market volatility and margin compression risks. Hence, strategic consideration is given to undertaking capacity management and transport asset ownership to achieve longer term cost leadership. Doing so will also help to address management issues, such as better control of potential transport disruptions, improve scheduling flexibility and efficiency, and provide service level enhancement.Design/methodology/approach: The case company currently hastruck resource which is unprofitable, and the firm’s schedulers are having difficulty optimizing the loading capacity. We apply Genetic Algorithm (GA) to undertake volumetric optimization of truckcapacity and to build an easy-to-use platform to help …

Model And Analysis Of Labor Supply For Ride-Sharing Platforms In The Presence Of Sample Self-Selection And Endogeneity, Hao Sun, Hai Wang, Zhixi Wan

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

With the popularization of ride-sharing services, drivers working as freelancers on ride-sharing platforms can design their schedules flexibly. They make daily decisions regard- ing whether to participate in work, and if so, how many hours to work. Factors such as hourly income rate affect both the participation decision and working-hour decision, and evaluation of the impacts of hourly income rate on labor supply becomes important. In this paper, we propose an econometric framework with closed-form measures to estimate both the participation elasticity (i.e., extensive margin elasticity) and working-hour elasticity (i.e., intensive margin elasticity) of labor supply. We model the sample …

Policy Effectiveness And Capacity: Two Sides Of The Design Coin, Ishani Mukherjee, Azad S. Bali

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Policy capacity and effectiveness are two themes that have opened new pathways for academic and empirical enquiry throughout the policy sciences. In the contemporary discourse of policy design, effectiveness has taken on a more foundational meaning that goes beyond what is understood as only the attainment of specific policy goals. Rather, it has come to occupy a central position in the study of policy design, signifying the broader logic of deliberate policy action used to articulate policy problems and present alternative ways of addressing them. Effectiveness thus signals both effectual processes as well as successful policy outcomes. However, what constitutes …

Reappraisal And Savoring As Mediators Of The Effect Of Informal Mindfulness Practice On Well-Being, Yan Qiang Tan

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

Although extensive research has been conducted on the effects of mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs), the processes through which MBIs affects well-being are still unclear. Furthermore, most of the current mindfulness research has focused on formal mindfulness practice. I aim to contribute to the field by studying the effects of informal mindfulness practice delivered through a mobile application in a two-week experience sampling study. Well-being was examined at three levels: immediately after completing an informal mindfulness exercise, at the end-of-the-day, and retrospective assessments of the two-week intervention period. I examined two possible mediators of the effect of the MBI on well-being: reappraisal …

Homage: Building An App For Elderly Home Care, Singapore Management University

Perspectives@SMU

A Singapore startup banks on data and technology to win the market for on-demand home care for senior citizens

Understanding The Operating Landscape Of The Global Airline Industry: A Dea Integrated Alternating Conditional Expectation Approach, Joyce M. W. Low, Kum Khiong Yang

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Purpose: This study investigates the relationships between service efficiency in 5 major cost centres (namely, business orientation, network coverage, physical resources, maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO), and human resources) and profitability in the global airline industry. Design/methodology: The study integrates the Slack-based Model (SBM) of Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) with the Alternating Conditional Expectation (ACE) regression to understand the relationships between an airline’s profitability and its efficiencies in 5 identified operations areas. Findings: Based on the observational data obtained from 75 international airlines, the relationships between operational performances and profitability are found to be curvilinear and contingent on an airline’s …

Entrans: Leveraging Kinetic Energy Harvesting Signal For Transportation Mode Detection, Guohao Lan, Weitao Xu, Dong Ma, Sara Khalifa, Mahbub Hassan, Wen Hu

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Monitoring the daily transportation modes of an individual provides useful information in many application domains, such as urban design, real-time journey recommendation, as well as providing location-based services. In existing systems, accelerometer and GPS are the dominantly used signal sources for transportation context monitoring which drain out the limited battery life of the wearable devices very quickly. To resolve the high energy consumption issue, in this paper, we present EnTrans, which enables transportation mode detection by using only the kinetic energy harvester as an energy-efficient signal source. The proposed idea is based on the intuition that the vibrations experienced by …

Ai Gets Real At Singapore's Changi Airport (Part 1), Steve Lee, Steven M. Miller

Asian Management Insights

Ranked as the best airport for seven consecutive years, Singapore’s Changi Airport is lauded the world over for the efficient, safe, pleasurable and seamless service it offers the millions of passengers that pass through its facilities annually. Much of Changi Airport’s success can be attributed to the organisation’s customer-oriented business focus and deeply embedded culture of service excellence, combined with a host of advanced technologies operating invisibly in the background. The framework for this technology enablement is Changi Airport Group’s (CAG’s) SMART Airport Vision—an enterprise-wide approach to connective technologies that leverages sensors, data fusion, data analytics, and artificial intelligence (AI), …

Perspectives On The 21st Century Urban University From Singapore: A Viewpoint Forum, Jean-Paul D. Addie, Michele Acuto, K. C. Ho, Stephan Cairns, Hwee-Pink Tan

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

In this Cities viewpoint forum, we argue that there is a need to rethink U.S./U.K.-centric approaches to the urban university in policy and practice. Gathering three critical commentaries by practitioners from within the Singaporean higher education system, the forum responds to the challenges of: (1) broadened expectation placed on higher education institutions; (2) the pressures and possibilities of global urbanization; and (3) the provocation to theorize the urban, and thus the urban university, from beyond the 'Global North'. Following an introduction detailing the history and relevance of the Singaporean case, the three viewpoints seek to illustrate the various dimensions of …

Distilling Managerial Insights And Lessons From Ai Projects At Singapore's Changi Airport (Part 2), Steve Lee, Steven M. Miller

Asian Management Insights

Since 2017, Changi Airport group (CAG) has initiated a host of pilot projects that use connective and intelligent technologies to enable its move towards digital transformation and SMART Airport Vision. This has resulted in a first wave of deployment of AI and Machine Learning-enabled applications across various functions that can better sense, analyse, predict, and interact with people.

Re-Org: An Online Repositioning Guidance Agent, Muralidhar Konda, Pradeep Varakantham, Aayush Saxena, Meghna Lowalekar

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

No abstract provided.

Making Ethnic Tourism Good For The Poor, Jean Junying Lor, Shelly Kwa, John A. Donaldson

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

How can ethnic tourism alleviate rural poverty? Due to the difficulty of simultaneously expanding tourism while promoting pro-poor tourism, most villages traverse one of two developmental pathways: 1) ensuring an inclusive structure before expanding, or 2) expanding before building an inclusive structure. This study compares four comparable cases in Southwestern China to understand the politics behind the decision to choose different pathways, and the impact each pathways has on local residents. While the first pathway requires a careful balance to maintain a pro-poor structure as tourism volume expands, the second pathway presents apparently insurmountable barriers to poverty reduction due to …

Route Planning For A Fleet Of Electric Vehicles With Waiting Times At Charging Stations, Baoxiang Li, Shashi Shekhar Jha, Hoong Chuin Lau

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Electric Vehicles (EVs) are the next wave of technology in the transportation industry. EVs are increasingly becoming common for personal transport and pushing the boundaries to become the mainstream mode of transportation. Use of such EVs in logistic fleets for delivering customer goods is not far from becoming reality. However, managing such fleet of EVs bring new challenges in terms of battery capacities and charging infrastructure for efficient route planning. Researchers have addressed such issues considering different aspects of the EVs such as linear battery charging/discharging rate, fixed travel times, etc. In this paper, we address the issue of waiting …

The Uk Summer Heatwave Of 2018 And Public Concern Over Energy Security, Shaun Larcom, Po-Wen She, Terry Van Gevelt

Research Collection College of Integrative Studies

The UK summer heatwave of 2018 led to changes in consumer behaviour, including large increases in electricity demand due to increased use and intensity of refrigeration and air-conditioning devices1,2. Although the United Kingdom experienced its equal hottest summer on record, the extreme temperatures were concentrated in the south and east of England3. Here we exploit the regional variation to test for the effect of experiencing extreme temperatures on perceptions of resource security and on related pro-environmental behaviour. We analyse data from 2,189 individuals across the UK over a 7 day period and use a difference-in-differences estimation to compare responses of …

Imagining An Old City In Nineteenth-Century France: Urban Renovation, Civil Society, And The Making Of Vieux Lyon, Patrick Luiz Sullivan De Oliveira

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Urban histories of nineteenth-century France have tended to focus on Paris and emphasize state actions. This has obscured movements that were crucial in shaping modern cities, particularly segments of civil society that worked on preserving old neighborhoods. This article focuses on Lyon—a “second city”—and analyzes how state-driven urban renovations under the Second Empire fostered a fin-de-siècle localist reaction that sought to preserve what was seen as Lyonnais urban forms (in particular neighborhoods defined by their narrow and crooked streets). Through an antiquarian discourse, cultural elites argued that these urban forms were an essential part of Lyonnais identity—which they feared was …

Implementation Of A Multi-Agent Environmental Regulation Strategy Under Chinese Fiscal Decentralization: An Evolutionary Game Theoretical Approach, Ke Jiang, Daming You, Ryan Knowles Merrill, Zhendong Li

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Evolutionary game theory (EGT) provides a powerful tool with which to unpack the interactive strategies of polluting enterprises (PEs), local government regulators (LG), and central government planners (CG) in China. Here, the prevailing institutional system of fiscal decentralization sees regulatory mandates set by the CG and enforced at the LG level. This delegation shapes managers' incentives when deciding the degree to which firms will incur costs to reduce pollution and comply with state directives. Manager's choice sets draw shape from decisions at the LG level, where regulators balance the pursuit of environmental quality with the economic payoffs of tacit collusion …

The ‘Seven S’ Approach To Subject-Based Banding In Schools, David Chan

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

In an invited commentary, SMU Behavioural Sciences Institute Director Professor David Chan discussed the issues surrounding the replacement of streaming at secondary school with the subject-based banding system. He explained how we can approach issues by reflecting on what he called the "Seven S" elements of education.