Asian Studies Commons^™

Gender Disparities In Self-Employment In Urban China's Market Transition: Income Inequality, Occupational Segregation And Mobility Processes, Qian Forrest Zhang

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

This paper presents the first quantitative analysis of gender disparities in selfemployment in urban China. It documents the extent of gender income inequality in selfemployment. By disaggregating self-employment into three occupational classes, it shows the gender segregation within self-employment—women were concentrated in the financially least rewarding segment—and identifies it as a main source of the gender income inequality. It examines a range of determinants of participation in self employment—family structure, family background, and career history—and how their gender-specific effects contributed to gender segregation. Although using data from a 1996 national survey, this study captures two key processes that shaped the …

Asean: Integration, Internal Dynamics And External Relations, Clara Portela

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Throughout its evolution, ASEAN has consistently maintained its attachment to the full respect of national sovereignty and the principle of non-interference in internal affairs, which translates into consensual decision-making, political rather than legally-binding agreements and the lack of sanctions for non-compliance. A major breakthrough in terms of institutionalisation came about with the signing of the ASEAN Charter of 2007, which has enhanced ASEAN’s standing as a rule-based organisation and approximated it somewhat to structures typical of the EU. Unfortunately, the persistence of consensual decision-making and non-confrontational habits has slowed down some of ASEAN’s integration projects and hindered the development of …

Geographic Decomposition Of Inequality In Health And Wealth: Evidence From Cambodia, Tomoki Fujii

Research Collection School Of Economics

Applying the small-area estimation methods to Cambodia data, we decompose the total inequality in wealth (consumption) and health (child undernutrition) indicators into within-location and between-location components. Because the knowledge of the pattern of spatial disparity in poverty and undernutrition is important for the geographic targeting of resources, we conduct a geographic decomposition of the variance of the Foster-Greere-Thorbecke index in addition to the standard decomposition exercise based on the generalized entropy measures. We find that a sizable proportion of wealth inequality is due to between-location inequality, whereas health inequality is mainly due to within-location inequality.

Asean's Liberalization Of Legal Services: The Singapore Case, Pasha Li-Tian Hsieh

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

This article examines the liberalization of legal services in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (“ASEAN”) within the framework of the ASEAN Economic Community and ASEAN’s free trade agreements. Although trade in legal services is important to ASEAN’s goal as a “single market and production base,” the article challenges the weaknesses of ASEAN’s legal services liberalization. It then explores Singapore’s experiment on the regulations of foreign law firms and foreign lawyers, which have become substantially liberalized in the past decade. The article argues that while Singapore may serve as a positive example, ASEAN countries should be cautious of the gap …

Contractual Interpretation In Indian Evidence Act Jurisdictions: Compatibility With Modern Contextual Approach, Yihan Goh

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

This paper examines the approaches towards contractual interpretation taken by Commonwealth jurisdictions governed by the Indian Evidence Act. While some of these jurisdictions import the modern contextual approach into their domestic approaches, it will be argued that it is largely compatible with the Indian Evidence Act. In particular, it will be shown that a limited adoption of the modern contextual approach is permissible, namely one involving the limited admissibility of extrinsic evidence to interpret contracts, subject to the requirement of ambiguity. An integrated approach may represent the best way of following the modern contextual approach, while remaining faithful to the …

The Debate Inside China, William A. Callahan

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

In his recent work Gilbert Rozman explains the growing tensions between the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and United States in terms of the symbolic politics of a widening “identity gap.” This identity gap is important, he argues, because it pushes both countries towards more fundamentalist views of themselves and each other, which in turn fosters ideas of an “inevitable” zero-sum geopolitical conflict.

Patterns Of Anti-Muslim Violence In Burma: A Call For Accountability And Prevention, Andrea Gittleman, Marissa Brodney, Holly G. Atkinson

Publications and Research

In this report, the authors documents how persecution of and violence against the Rohingya in Burma has spread to other Muslim communities throughout the country. Physicians for Human Rights conducted eight separate investigations in Burma and the surrounding region between 2004 and 2013. PHR’s most recent field research in early 2013 indicates a need for renewed attention to violence against minorities and impunity for such crimes. The findings presented in this report are based on investigations conducted in Burma over two separate visits for a combined 21-day period between March and May 2013.

Fearless: Bruce Larson And Alice Carter, Bruce A. Larson, Alice Carter

SURGE

This Monday, Professor of political science and public policy, Bruce Larson, Assistant Director of Development, Alumni, and Parent Relations, and Technology, Alice Carter, and daughter Lily Larson will be leaving for a semester in Beijing, China. Professor Larson will be joining the ranks of Gettysburg College’s Fulbright recipients, teaching two courses at the China Foreign Affairs University while conducting his research.

Hougang By-Election Case: What Court Decision On By-Election Reveals, Jack Tsen-Ta Lee

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

The Singapore Court of Appeal’s judgment in Vellama d/o Marie Muthu v Attorney-General [2013] SGCA 39 – popularly known as the Hougang by-election case – shows that the Court sees its role as policing the margins rather than involving itself in the heart of politics. The Court held that the Government was incorrect in asserting the Constitution confers on it the discretion not to hold a by-election at all after a parliamentary seat falls vacant. The judgment came as a surprise to those used to a judicial stance fairly deferential towards the Government, but on balance the Court did accord …

Floating Hope, Singapore Management University

Perspectives@SMU

It was 1994 when aristocrat Runa Khan and her soon-to-be husband Yves Marre sailed a decommissioned oil barge from the waters off France to her home country of Bangladesh. They had intended to propose to charitable organisations of a revolutionary plan they had: to turn the shipping vessel into a mobile medical station.

The ship would bring medical help to the unreachable islands, or chars, that make up much of Bangladesh. It was a brilliant plan, and would have solved the problem of reaching isolated char communities, most of whom had been neglected by the government and NGOs (non-governmental …

India Starts To Open Up, Singapore Management University

Perspectives@SMU

Investors have often shied away from India, citing the difficulties inherent in its notoriously difficult businesss landscape. Yet there is a lot of money to be made in India, Dr S Narayan, Senior Research Fellow of the Institute of South Asian Studies at the National University of Singapore, told Perspectives@SMU. Many companies seem reluctant to carry out sufficient market entry analysis, he says, despite the policy changes now taking place in the world's tenth largest economy.

A Subcontinent's Sunni Schism: The Deobandi-Barelvi Rivalry And The Creation Of Modern South Asia, William Kesler Jackson

History - Dissertations

This work presents the first-ever history of the 150-year religio-political rivalry between the Deobandis and the Barelvis--arguably the most important schism in the "Muslim world," and certainly the most significant within Sunni Islam. More recently, that rivalry has often been expressed by means of bullets and bombs, especially in Pakistan. But beyond the headline-grabbing violence of the Deobandi-Barelvi schism lies the story of a century-and-a-half-long religious antagonism: at first over converts, later for competing visions of the political future, then for a place within a new "Islamic" polity--for dominance within its political structure. For Deobandis, the rivalry was defined by …

Political Connection And Firm Value, James S. Ang, David K. Ding, Tiong Yang Thong

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

We study the effect of political connection (PC) on company value in an environment where low PC is due to better institutions and not confounded by favorable social/cultural factors. We find that in Singapore, the only country that fits this description, PC in general adds little to the value of a company. However, in industries that are subject to more stringent government regulations, PC appears to be somewhat important. Robustness checks show that alternative PC variables give rise to similar results, and the addition of control variables do not drastically change the findings. Politically connected firms have higher managerial ownership …

Housing Policies In Singapore: Evaluation Of Recent Proposals And Recommendations For Reform, Sock Yong Phang, David Kuo Chuen Lee, Alan Cheong, Kok Fai Phoon, Karol Wee

Research Collection School Of Economics

The Singapore housing market is unusual in its high homeownership rate, the dominance of HDB housing, and the extensive intervention of the government in regulating housing supply and demand in both the HDB and private housing sectors. Recent rapid population increases in a low interest rate and high global liquidity environment has resulted in accelerated house prices increases in Singapore. Earlier this year, the government launched “Our Singapore Conversation” of which discussion on housing policies constitutes one major component. This “conversation” comes in the wake of several consecutive rounds of measures to stabilize housing prices using various instruments. This paper …

Academic Paper Supports Housing Curbs For Prs, Foreigners, Mindy Tan, David Kuo Chuen Lee

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

No abstract provided.

Evaluating The Effectiveness Of Cooling Measures On Property Prices: An Exploration Of Alternative Econometric Techniques, Kuo Chuen Lee, Sock Yong Phang, Kok Fai Phoon, Karol Wee

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

No abstract provided.

Liquidity And Crises In Asian Equity Markets, Charlie Charoenwong, David K. Ding, Yung Chiang Yang

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

This article presents a discussion of stock market liquidity and its relation to financial crises. It begins by defining liquidity and explaining possible measures of liquidity and then explores factors influencing liquidity. It also analyzes the liquidity among 11 Asian countries. The empirical findings based on the time-series analysis show a sharp decline in stock liquidity during both the 1997-1998 Asian and the recent 2007-2008 global financial crisis. The multivariate regression results show that both stock liquidity and trading activity decrease after large market declines. Stock liquidity responds significantly to large market declines in South Korea and Taiwan whereas it …

Reit To Deal With Hdb Demand-Supply Challenges, Chor Hao Ong, David Kuo Chuen Lee

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

A group of academics from the Singapore Management University (SMU) and a noted property consultant are making the case for a REIT comprising Housing and Development Board (HDB) residential and commercial units.

Improving Housing Status Quo, Sock Yong Phang, David K. C. Lee

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

On home ownership and upgrading, PM Lee Hsien Loong has reaffirmed the Government's objective to make home ownership more affordable for all first-time buyers, especially low-income earners, through increasing the amounts of targeted housing grant subsidies. He spelt out the desired outcomes of housing affordability policy through his detailed matching of Housing Board flat type with household incomes.

Derailed: Communicating Singapore’S Mass Transit Crises [Case Study], Pang, A.

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

The case: In December 2011, one of Singapore’s main mass transit rail lines came to a standstill for several hours on two separate days. While occasional public transport breakdowns are unavoidable, the rail operator came under intense criticism for its poor handling of the incidents, including its failure in crisis communication. Its value: This case can be used to illustrate a number of perspectives and concepts from the literature on crisis and organisational communication. Of particular contemporary interest is what the case shows about how communication technologies, including social media, should and should not be used by organisations.

"Smuggled Refugees": The Social Construction Of North Korean Migration, Jiyoung Song

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

In this paper, I demonstrate the identity transformation of North Korean women in interaction with state and non-state actors and domestic and regional structures, which I formulate for the purposes of this paper. From a state-centric social constructivist perspective in politics and international relations, I examine how the identities and interests of North Korean women are constituted and reconstituted in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, the People's Republic of China and five South-East Asian countries along their migration routes before they reach the Republic of Korea – the so-called “Seoul Train in the Underground Railway”. Back in their country …

Why Do Similar Provinces Approach Development Differently? An Approach To Understanding Central-Local Relations In China, John A. Donaldson

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

As China decentralized in the 1980s, many provinces received the latitude to implement their own strategies and approaches to economic development. Not surprisingly, such strategies varied regionally as provinces with different levels of wealth and resources implemented different approaches to achieving economic development. Yet, some of these examples are quite puzzling, with provinces that share many similarities implementing markedly different strategies. Moreover, some provinces not only implemented different approaches to economic development, but adopted entirely different goals – interpreting the very definition of economic development differently. To explain these differences, China scholars have focused on different factors, including constraints and …

At The Threshold Of A New Singapore, Tan K. B. Eugene

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

In a commentary, SMU Associate Professor of Law and NMP Eugene Tan shared his views on Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong's National Day Rally Speech. He noted that PM Lee had outlined a vision for Singapore that epitomised opportunity, hope, fairness and social solidarity. This, marked a new direction in governance, and would form the basis of a strategic reconceptualisation of Singapore's future and how we would get there. Associate Prof Tan noted that with the call for a fundamental relook of policies, Singapore Inc's hedonistic treadmill, with its emphasis on economic values, affluence and consumption, must now compete for …

What Kind Of Asian Are You?, Uyen T. Le

SURGE

You don’t know anything about me. You’ve never been to my country; you don’t know my native language; you may not even be able to locate Vietnam on a map.

And that’s ok. What matters isn’t that you already know about my country and my culture. What matters is your attitude toward learning about it. [excerpt]

Comments On The Setting Up And The Growth Of Smu By Mr Heng Swee Keat, Minister For Education At Smu Commencement Ceremony 2013, Swee Keat Heng

Oral History Collection

Transcript of speech by Mr Heng Swee Keat, Minister for Education at SMU Commencement Ceremony on Wednesday, 25 July 2013, 9am at Resorts World Sentosa. He was involved in the setting up of SMU and talked about the growth, the daring, and the sharing by SMU and its students.

Dark, Semi-Sweet And Full-Bodied, Singapore Management University

Perspectives@SMU

Cadbury grows up in India

Nursing Homes: Insure To Ensure Quality Care, Singapore Management University

Perspectives@SMU

Women are more likely to need nursing care, but few – men or women – can afford it in old age

Chinese Cinema's Role In Moulding Chinese Culture, Singapore Management University

Perspectives@SMU

Mainland China may be an economic force, but its soft power is still lacking

Balinese Elementary Schools, Jane A. Best

Bali Soundscapes Essays

Kerambitan’s elementary school houses approximately 100 students. These students, from first to sixth grade, attend class six days a week from 8 AM until noon (the afternoon heat is too strong). Like in many American elementary schools, the teachers on this level teach all core subjects; in Indonesia these subjects are math, reading, culture, and social studies. Subjects are highly standardized on a national level; students in Bali are learning the same things as students in Java or any of the other islands. The exception to this rule is the culture class; here students learn about Balinese culture, arts, and …

Balinese Temples, Samantha F. Moroney

Bali Soundscapes Essays

There is a temple; the name is Pura Dalem. It is the Kerambitan Temple by the post office. The name of the god there is Dewi Durga. Dewi Durga is like a body guard, and protects all of Kerambitan. [excerpt]