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Articles 31 - 60 of 101
Full-Text Articles in Political Economy
Politics And The Price Of Rice In Thailand: Public Choice, Institutional Change And Rural Subsidies, Jacob Ricks
Politics And The Price Of Rice In Thailand: Public Choice, Institutional Change And Rural Subsidies, Jacob Ricks
Research Collection School of Social Sciences
Despite the Thai state’s long record of rice market interventions, historically politicians failed to leverage rice subsidies in their pursuit of political support, notwithstanding the large number of farmers in the country. Since Thaksin Shinawatra’s election in 2001, though, each government has subsidised rice producers, although at varying degrees. What explains this change? This article traces the four-decade history of rice price support programmes. It is proposed that these policies be interpreted through the dual lens of institutionalism and public choice theory, demonstrating how political institutions have shaped incentives for politicians to cater to different constituencies. During the pre-1980 period, …
Between Commerce And Empire: David Hume, Colonial Slavery, And Commercial Incivility, Onur Ulas Ince
Between Commerce And Empire: David Hume, Colonial Slavery, And Commercial Incivility, Onur Ulas Ince
Research Collection School of Social Sciences
Eighteenth-century Enlightenment thought has recently been reclaimed as arobust, albeit short-lived, cosmopolitan critique of European imperialism. Thisessay complicates this interpretation through a study of David Hume’s reflectionson commerce, empire, and slavery. I argue that while Hume condemned thecolonial system of monopoly, war, and conquest, his strictures against empiredid not extend to colonial slavery in the Atlantic. This was because colonialslavery represented a manifestly uncivilinstitution when judged by enlightened metropolitan sensibilities, yet also adecisively commercial institutionpivotal to the eighteenth-century global economy. Confronted by the paradoxical“commercial incivility” of modern slavery, Hume opted for disavowing the linkbetween slavery and commerce, and confined his …
Universalism And The Value Of Political Power, Yumi Koh
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.
Asean In 2025, Singapore Management University
Asean In 2025, Singapore Management University
Perspectives@SMU
Will ASEAN ever progress beyond being a forum to discuss, and sometimes settle, differences?
Will Politics Trump Economic Growth?, Singapore Management University
Will Politics Trump Economic Growth?, Singapore Management University
Perspectives@SMU
While economic uncertainties remain, investors should not worry about the White House jeopardising the U.S. economy
Weak Law V Strong Ties: An Empirical Study Of Business Investment, Law And Political Connections In China, Wei Zhang, Ji Li
Weak Law V Strong Ties: An Empirical Study Of Business Investment, Law And Political Connections In China, Wei Zhang, Ji Li
Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law
Based on a large-scale survey of Chinese entrepreneurs, our study explores how institutions (formal and informal) influence investment decisions made by private companies. The study finds that, consistent with the conventional view, a more effective legal system is correlated with short-term general investment, and that the judiciary is important mainly because of its restraint over the state. The role of effective courts, however, diminishes when private entrepreneurs consider making long-term investment. We find a positive association between the entrepreneurs’ political backgrounds and their R&D investment, suggesting that Chinese courts, in spite of decades of reform, are not yet viewed as …
Determinants Of Urban Land Supply In China: How Do Political Factors Matter?, Wen-Tai Hsu, Xiaolu Li, Yang Tang, Jing Wu
Determinants Of Urban Land Supply In China: How Do Political Factors Matter?, Wen-Tai Hsu, Xiaolu Li, Yang Tang, Jing Wu
Research Collection School Of Economics
This paper explores two political factors for their potential effects on urban land supply in China: corruption, and competition for promotion. We find that standard urban economic predictions hold in the sense that both population and income increases are strongly significant determinants for the increase in urban land supply. Conditional on these demand-side factors, we find that the usage of two-stage auctions (as a proxy for corruption) is highly correlated with the increase in land supply. The corruption effects are strongest for commercial land, followed by residential land and then industrial land. To shed light on the competition motives among …
Jobs For Justice(S): Corruption In The Supreme Court Of India, Madhav S. Aney, Shubhankar Dam, Giovanni Ko
Jobs For Justice(S): Corruption In The Supreme Court Of India, Madhav S. Aney, Shubhankar Dam, Giovanni Ko
Research Collection School Of Economics
We investigate whether judicial decisions are affected by career concerns of judges byanalysing two questions: Do judges respond to pandering incentives by ruling in favourof the government in the hope of receiving jobs after retiring from the Court? Does thegovernment actually reward judges who ruled in its favour with prestigious jobs? To answerthese questions we construct a dataset of all Supreme Court of India cases involving thegovernment from 1999 till 2014, with an indicator for whether the decision was in its favouror not. We find that pandering incentives have a causal effect on judicial decision-making.The exposure of a judge to …
Determinants Of Urban Land Supply In People's Republic Of China: How Do Political Factors Matter?, Wen-Tai Hsu, Xiaolu Li, Yang Tang, Jing Wu
Determinants Of Urban Land Supply In People's Republic Of China: How Do Political Factors Matter?, Wen-Tai Hsu, Xiaolu Li, Yang Tang, Jing Wu
Research Collection School Of Economics
This paper explores whether and how corruption and competition-for-promotion motives affect urban land supply in the People's Republic of China. Conditional on demand-side factors, we find that corruption is highly correlated with an increase in land supply. The corruption effects are strongest for commercial land, followed by residential land, and then industrial land. To shed light on the competition motives among prefectural leaders, we examine how the number of years in office affects land supply and distinguish among different hypotheses. Our empirical results show robust rising trends in land sales. These results are consistent with the hypothesis that among prefectural …
Inside The Black Box: Political Economy Of The Trans-Pacific Partnership's Encryption Clause, Han-Wei Liu
Inside The Black Box: Political Economy Of The Trans-Pacific Partnership's Encryption Clause, Han-Wei Liu
Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law
Among other provisions of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) Agreement, a new clause on encryption technology (‘Encryption Clause’) is particularly noteworthy. By tracing the history of decades-long encryption control, this article underscores how this clause implicates international order. Modern encryption technology was conceived and developed during World Wars. Painted by such a war-time legacy, encryption has been treated as a ‘dual-use’ technology and has been subject to export control since the end of World War II via the Coordinating Committee for the Control of Multinational Trade (COCOM) and, later, the Wassenaar Arrangement. With the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Western …
Friedrich List And The Imperial Origins Of The National Economy, Onur Ulas Ince
Friedrich List And The Imperial Origins Of The National Economy, Onur Ulas Ince
Research Collection School of Social Sciences
This essay offers a critical reexamination of the works of Friedrich List by placing them in the context of nineteenth-century imperial economies. I argue that List's theory of the national economy is characterised by a major ambivalence, as it incorporates both imperial and anti-imperial elements. On the one hand, List pitted his national principle against the British imperialism of free trade and the relations of dependency it heralded for late developers like Germany. On the other hand, his economic nationalism aimed less at dismantling imperial core-periphery relations as a whole than at reproducing these relations domestically and expanding them globally. …
Moving From Tension To Symbiosis In A Distinctive City, Tan K. B. Eugene
Moving From Tension To Symbiosis In A Distinctive City, Tan K. B. Eugene
Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law
In a commentary, SMU Associate Professor of Law Eugene Tan noted that meticulous urban planning has enabled Singapore to attain a high quality of living, delicately balancing the inherent tension between the economy and the environment. He shared his views on relevant issues such as the conflicting interests between Singapore’s immigration policy and its national identity, as well as the inherent tension between the economy and the environment. Associate Prof Tan pointed out that the quest to balance economic growth with environment concerns and social character is not a mere luxury but a growing imperative. He added that as Singapore …
Brexit Giving Shared Sovereignty A Bad Name, Tan K. B. Eugene
Brexit Giving Shared Sovereignty A Bad Name, Tan K. B. Eugene
Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law
In a commentary, SMU Associate Professor of Law Eugene Tan shared his thoughts on Britain's vote to leave the European Union (EU). He noted that if the UK’s exit, or Brexit, is poorly managed, it may presage the slow decline and growing irrelevance of the EU in the global political economy. He opined that the tragedy of Brexit is the profound misunderstanding of sovereignty, adding the concern now is the risk of populist exit contagion gaining traction in other EU member states, all in the name of sovereignty and democratic choice. Associate Prof Tan also said the entire episode holds …
Bringing The Economy Back In: Hannah Arendt, Karl Marx, And The Politics Of Capitalism, Onur Ulas Ince
Bringing The Economy Back In: Hannah Arendt, Karl Marx, And The Politics Of Capitalism, Onur Ulas Ince
Research Collection School of Social Sciences
This article engages with the question of how to construct modern economic relations as an object of political theorizing by placing Hannah Arendt's and Karl Marx's writings in critical conversation. I contend that the political aspect of capitalism comes into sharpest relief less in relations of economic exploitation than in moments of expropriation that produce and reproduce the conditions of capitalist accumulation. To develop a theoretical handle on expropriation and thereby on the politics of capitalism, I syncretically draw on Marxian and Arendtian concepts by first examining expropriation through the Marxian analytic of "primitive accumulation of capital" and second delineating …
Balancing Short-Term Concerns, Long-Term Goals, Tan K. B. Eugene
Balancing Short-Term Concerns, Long-Term Goals, Tan K. B. Eugene
Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law
To be delivered almost a month later than usual, this year’s Budget will be closely watched for Singapore’s strategy on economic growth, income redistribution, reducing societal inequality and the government’s role in seeking a national consensus on these key issues.
Expropriation Risk And Competition Within The Military, Madhav S. Aney, Giovanni Ko
Expropriation Risk And Competition Within The Military, Madhav S. Aney, Giovanni Ko
Research Collection School Of Economics
How can agents in the military, who control the means of coercion, commit not to expropriate from producers? In this paper we propose competition within the military as one of the mechanisms that can deter predation and consequently create commitment. In our model, even if agents within the military could expropriate all output costlessly, it is attractive to protect producers from predating military units. This marginal defensive advantage and consequently defence is an effective way to potentially eliminate is because there is a other military units, reducing competition and leading to higher future payoffs. Our model predicts that greater internal …
Asean: Growth In The Fast Lane, Edward Lee
Asean: Growth In The Fast Lane, Edward Lee
Asian Management Insights
ASEAN’s political, economic and demographic factors suggest a giant is awakening.
Executive Overreach By Minority Governments, Madhav S. Aney, Shubhankar Dam
Executive Overreach By Minority Governments, Madhav S. Aney, Shubhankar Dam
Research Collection School Of Economics
A provision in the Indian constitution allows the executive to make laws in the event oneof the two houses of parliament is not in session. This provision was intended to allow theexecutive to act in case there’s an immediate legislative necessity and the parliament cannotbe convened. Using a bargaining model with asymmetric information we show how partieswithin the parliament may reach an agreement on legislations when the ruling party does notcommand a majority (minority government). The model makes predictions about lawmakingpatterns by the legislature when the parliament is in session, and ordinances by the executivewhen the parliament is not in …
Wage A Measured Battle Against The Bottle, Tan K. B. Eugene
Wage A Measured Battle Against The Bottle, Tan K. B. Eugene
Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law
In a commentary, SMU Associate Professor of Law and Nominated Member of Parliament Eugene Tan believed that there are legitimate and pressing concerns to justify the close scrutiny of the existing regime on alcohol sale and consumption. He felt that the authorities could leverage market research data to understand the drinking culture and norms here and generate nuanced regulatory responses to alcohol sale and consumption. The insights gleaned from such research could aid our understanding of the dynamics of the drinking culture here. Associate Prof Tan added that the key policy challenge in the review process is to tackle the …
Relevance Of The Regulatory State In North/South Intersections, Mark Findlay, Si Wei Lim
Relevance Of The Regulatory State In North/South Intersections, Mark Findlay, Si Wei Lim
Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law
Purpose – What seems like a new social anthropology of global regulation is an endeavour much too grand for this paper, even though it has much merit. To contain the analysis which follows, the discussion of social embeddedness will be restricted to a comparison of markets which retain some local or regional integrity from those which have become largely removed from cultural or communal social bonds. An example is between markets trading in goods and services with a consumer base which is local and subsistence, and markets in derivative products that are inextricably dependent on supranational location. The paper aims …
Budget 2014 Is About Doing The Right Thing, Tan K. B. Eugene
Budget 2014 Is About Doing The Right Thing, Tan K. B. Eugene
Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law
In a commentary, SMU Associate Professor of Law and NMP Eugene Tan opined that the Budget’s move for the Pioneer Generation Package (PGP) was important and the right thing to do, as it mattered politically, and provided benefits and assurance to the pioneers. He said it was wise to set aside the $8b cost of the package, so future generations would not bear the cost of financing it. The Budget had acknowledged its role in caring for the elderly as well as preparing for the future and promoting social mobility through education assistance schemes for the children of lower earners, …
The Makings Of A Social Investment State, Tan K. B. Eugene
The Makings Of A Social Investment State, Tan K. B. Eugene
Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law
In a commentary, SMU Associate Professor of Law and NMP Eugene Tan opined that the Budget was an economic, political and social instrument, and not just a fiscal policy instrument. He said that key economic themes persisted in Budget 2014: productivity, restructuring, reducing reliance on foreign labour and long-term planning. He highlighted that the Budget was dominated by social themes, as it exuded inclusiveness, equity and gratitude. The Government’s expansion of schemes to reduce the income gap and improve social mobility was actually a move to make up for its lack of investments in the social sector in past years, …
From Coercion To Politics To Law: The Evolution Of Property Rights Protection, Fali Huang
From Coercion To Politics To Law: The Evolution Of Property Rights Protection, Fali Huang
Research Collection School Of Economics
This paper shows how property rights security improves over time as a result of increasing legal quality and political democratization in a political economy context, where political and legal institutions adapt to evolving factor composition of land and capital in the dynamic economic development process. There seems to exist a clear sequence of di⁄erent forms of protection in that it is unlikely to have a strong rule of law with an exploitative political regime, or to have a democratic political system when the distribution of potential coercive power is too skewed. The routine form of protection thus shifts from coercion …
Overcoming Fear Of The ‘Other’, Tan K. B. Eugene
Overcoming Fear Of The ‘Other’, Tan K. B. Eugene
Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law
In a commentary about the political and economic changes in Myanmar, SMU Associate Professor of Law and NMP Eugene Tan opined that deep-seated sectarian conflict could prove to be the Achilles heel of Myanmar’s reforms. He noted that the mere introduction of democracy anywhere will not miraculously transform voters into fair-minded citizens and that democracy requires the rule of law, a minimal level of education and political maturity, or it would degenerate into the tyranny of majority rule where might is right. Associate Prof Tan said that Myanmar must guard against this tendency and embrace the rich diversity in its …
Contract Enforcement: A Political Economy Model Of Legal Development, Fali Huang
Contract Enforcement: A Political Economy Model Of Legal Development, Fali Huang
Research Collection School Of Economics
In an effort to understand why the relative usage of relational and legal contracts differs across societies, this article builds a political economy model of legal development where legal quality of contract enforcement is a costly public good. It finds that legal investment tends to be too small under elite rule but too large under majority rule in comparison with the socially optimal level. Furthermore, elite rule, low legal quality, and high-income inequality may form a self-perpetuating circle that hinders economic development. In contrast to the conventional view, this article suggests that the often-observed association between heavy reliance on relational …
Why It’S A High-Speed Game Changer, Tan K. B. Eugene
Why It’S A High-Speed Game Changer, Tan K. B. Eugene
Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law
SMU Assistant Professor of Law Eugene Tan said that the agreement to build a high-speed rail (HSR) link between Kuala Lumpur and Singapore marks a milestone in bilateral relations. He noted that the HSR project is a manifestation of the imperative for Singapore and Malaysia to collaborate closely, leveraging on each other’s complementarities and strengths. Ideally, the HSR link would have a knock-on effect in engendering confidence and momentum in bilateral ties. In the meantime, with the HSR in the making, both governments should work resolutely on other existing plans, such as the Rapid Transit System (RTS) link between Singapore …
Demography, Development And The Origin Of Democracy: A Model With Case Studies Of Arachic Athens And Maritime England, Brishti Guha
Demography, Development And The Origin Of Democracy: A Model With Case Studies Of Arachic Athens And Maritime England, Brishti Guha
Research Collection School Of Economics
No abstract provided.
The Coevolution Of Economic And Political Development From Monarchy To Democracy, Fali Huang
The Coevolution Of Economic And Political Development From Monarchy To Democracy, Fali Huang
Research Collection School Of Economics
This paper establishes a simple model of long run economic and political development, which is driven by the inherent technical features of different factors in production, and political conflicts among factor owners on how to divide the outputs. The main capital form in economy evolves from land to physical capital and then to human capital, which enables the respective factor owners (landlords, capitalists, and workers) to gain political powers in the same sequence, shaping the political development path from monarchy to elite ruling and finally to full suffrage. When it is too costly for any group of factor owners to …
Not A Partnership In Pepper, Coffee, Callico, Or Tobacco: Edmund Burke And The Vicissitudes Of Colonial Capitalism, Onur Ulas Ince
Not A Partnership In Pepper, Coffee, Callico, Or Tobacco: Edmund Burke And The Vicissitudes Of Colonial Capitalism, Onur Ulas Ince
Research Collection School of Social Sciences
This essay examines the tensions between liberalism and capitalism through an analysis of Edmund Burke's works on eighteenth-century liberal political economy and, specifically the challenges posed by colonial capitalism. When criticizing the East India Company Burke attempted to fortify "commercial" principles, on which British self-image rested, against the "rapacious" policies of British imperialism in India, which threatened this liberal self-image. His denunciation of the Company thus can be construed as an index to broader contradictions between the liberal self-image of capitalism and the coercive processes of colonial displacement and extraction that were an integral part of capitalism's emergence. The article, …
Isolated Capital Cities, Accountability And Corruption: Evidence From Us States, Filipe R. Campante, Quoc-Anh Do
Isolated Capital Cities, Accountability And Corruption: Evidence From Us States, Filipe R. Campante, Quoc-Anh Do
Research Collection School Of Economics
We show that isolated capital cities are robustly associated with greater levels of corruption across US states. In particular, this is the case when we use the variation induced by the exogenous location of a state’s centroid to instrument for the concentration of population around the capital city. We then show that different mechanisms for holding state politicians accountable are also affected by the spatial distribution of population: newspapers provide greater coverage of state politics when their audiences are more concentrated around the capital, and voter turnout in state elections is greater in places that are closer to the capital. …