The Singapore Economic Review

In spite of remarkable results obtained, China requires more sophisticated economic structure and flexible institutions to foster its development in a more difficult context. Particularly important are the integration of public and private sectors, proper division of labor between them, and cooperative distinction of roles. The expansion of the private sector and entrepreneurship have been leading factors in China’s economic miracle. However, despite the numbers of new private enterprises increasing, their dynamic innovation slowed down in recent years. This negatively affects the sustainability of China’s economic growth. This paper considers several reasons for the attenuation of Chinese entrepreneurship and considers that it requires the revival of enterprise and ownership reform together with support to their innovative role. The latter should complement innovation in the public sector to counterbalance the biased structure and nature of Chinese innovation and afford new international challenges. This paper contributes to identifying solutions for reversing the deterioration of entrepreneurship in the frame of enterprises and ownership reform. Solutions lie in institutional innovation, like accelerating the pace of market-oriented reform, improving corporate governance for state-owned enterprises and commercial banks, strengthening domestic competitions, and deepening the mixed ownership reform.

In this paper, we study the distributional impacts of regional land and migration policies on housing, land markets and resource re-allocation in the context of the Chinese economy. The distribution of both housing prices and population is endogenously determined in a general equilibrium framework. We calibrate the model into the Chinese economy during 2010–2015 to match certain key moments regarding migration flow and land supply policies among 278 prefectural cities. Counterfactual exercises suggest that a uniformly tightened land policy distracts population from flowing into large to median-size cities; hence, housing price growth slows down in large cities. A uniformly tightened migration policy leads to more population recipient cities at an overall smaller scale, which causes housing prices to grow in most cities. Housing and population distribution become less dispersed under both exercises. If land supply distribution becomes less dispersed, housing and land prices become lower in most cities, and land price distribution becomes more even.

Maintaining the stability of the financial system is of great significance to a country’s economic security, and accurate measurement of systemic financial risks is the basic premise. This paper selects nine important factor index data in China’s five markets, uses the credit weight method and extreme value method to construct a time-sensitive China financial stress index. It is concluded that the change of the financial stress index precedes the change of the economic development trend, which proves the guiding significance of constructing the stress index to economic development. Finally, reasonable suggestions were put forward to relevant departments.

This paper explores the spatial distribution and dependence of employment of workers and geographical concentration of 71 manufacturing industries by capturing the neighborhood effects across 637 districts in India, covering 10.54 million establishments using () data. Empirical results validate the spatial dependence of employment in rural and urban areas. However, results indicate substantial evidence of rural–urban employment disparity, especially in the northern states of India. Further, empirical results show that the effect of geographical concentration on highly localized industries seems to diverge in rural and urban areas. Besides, results exhibit that the higher employment industry has a low employment-to-establishment ratio (EER) at the establishment level in rural and urban areas. Nevertheless, using cartograms, we find that the spatial concentration of highly employable industries and the EER is highly skewed and asymmetrically concentrated in a few districts of only four to five states in India. Therefore, the results suggest that policymakers could focus mainly on industries with massive potential for employment opportunities at the regional level.

This paper extends Banerjee and Poddar [Banerjee, S and S Poddar (2019). ‘To sell or not to sell’: Licensing versus selling by an outside innovator. Economic Modelling, 76, 293–304] by lifting the cap on per unit royalty rates in the cases of royalty licensing and two-part tariff licensing. We reconsider the optimal technology licensing contract by an outside innovator facing two heterogeneous licensees in a standard Hotelling framework. Our findings show that the optimal licensing policy could be fixed fee to the efficient firm, or two-part tariff to both firms (pure royalty to both firms), or two-part tariff to the efficient firm, depending upon the cost differentials between the firms and the size of innovation.

In view of the interaction between demand and supply shocks and the nature of the disparity in business cycles between Advanced Economies (AEs) and Emerging Market Economies (EMEs), we reinvigorate policy “silver bullets” that ascertain a sustainable growth revival in the aftermath of the COVID-19 shock. Using a novel business cycle dating algorithm, we identify up-cycle and down-cycle phases in India’s gross domestic product growth rate and use dynamic factor analysis using several high-frequency indicators for tracking private investment activity in India. On the demand side, our empirical results indicate that a boost to private investment can arrest a growth deceleration during a down-cycle, via consumption and output channels. We also observe that both the quantum and quality of public expenditure play an important role in arresting the growth deceleration. On the supply side, however, global supply chain disruptions could dampen the pace of investment during the post-COVID investment-led recovery. For both channels to work, credit offtake is necessary for a bank-dominated EME like India. Finally, despite low-capacity utilization rates, we draw several policy conclusions to jump-start economic activity levels.

The global financial crisis that followed Lehman Brothers’ declaration of bankruptcy in September 2008 critically highlighted the significance of research on systemic risk and macro-prudential supervision. Accordingly, this paper mainly analyzed the relationship between financial crises and the article output in financial crisis research through the application of bibliometrics. The occurrence of a financial crisis leads to changes in the output of articles on crisis and risks. Hence, we focused on bibliographic coupling (e.g., co-authorship, co-occurrence), data classification by risk type in this study (e.g., market risk, credit risk) and citation analysis (e.g., top 1% cited paper). Meanwhile, the analysis indicated the most relevant disciplines in financial crisis research. For example, the number of top 1% cited articles and citations, MARKET RISK documents and citations published the most papers. In other words, the market risk is valued in the financial risk literature.

This paper utilizes network data envelopment analysis and the second-order cone programming approach to evaluate the performance of 20 Taiwanese local governments (which consist of 6 municipal governments and 14 non-municipal governments). We first explore the fiscal policies in local governments using non-parametric methods. Second, this study develops an innovative two-stage process to measure the effects of fiscal policies to economic efficiency and fiscal effectiveness of 20 local governments for from 2010 to 2016. Several findings are summarized as follows. (1) Non-parametric results reveal that current and capital expenditures, as well as tax and non-tax revenue of municipal governments, were higher than non-municipal governments. (2) The municipal governments have a higher economic efficiency level and fiscal effectiveness yearly and on average based on the two-stage efficiency scores. Overall, empirical results provide insights to local governments on the efforts to integrate resources that will exert a synergistic effect on governance performance. To mitigate economic problems arising from increasing fiscal deficits, it is recommended to implement forward-looking policies and allocate government funds wisely during the early expansion stage. This can be achieved by analyzing tax systems and adopting fiscal policies that boost tax revenue and enhance overall fiscal effectiveness.

The purpose of this research is to elaborate a three-stage hybrid measure data envelopment analysis (DEA) with meta-frontier model, and then estimate the technical efficiency of Taiwanese semiconductor integrated circuit (IC) companies by using data from 2005 to 2016 on 92 firms. The study divided the Taiwanese semiconductor IC companies into two groups (IC design and IC manufacturing/packaging/testing) based on their different production characteristics and using the concepts of DEA meta-frontier models proposed by [O’Donnell, CJ, DP Rao, GE Battese (2008). Meta-frontier frameworks for the study of firm-level efficiencies and technology ratios. Empirical Economics, 34(2), 231–255] to estimate their efficiencies. The empirical results of this study show that the adjustment range of the average meta-efficiency values of all firms is higher than the adjustment range of the financial turbulent in 2007–2009 and 2011–2013. Second, before and after the adjustment, the distribution of the meta-technology ratio (MTR) changed slightly. The main reason may be that the global economic recession triggered by the 2007–2009 global financial tsunami and the 2011–2013 European debt crisis offset the impact of technological progress. Finally, under the considerations of environmental factors, the ratio of export to total sales, the degree of diversification, research and development spillover effects and the ratio of investment to mainland China are the main determinants influencing the operational performance of Taiwanese semiconductor IC firms and the impacts on MTR.

Overseas presidential visits are an essential diplomatic activity that support official development aid (ODA) for humanitarian and strategic purposes worldwide. This study examines the effects of such visits on bilateral ODA allocation by focusing on South Korea, which achieved economic development through foreign aid, subsequently becoming a donor country. We find that presidential diplomatic visits abroad increase ODA agreements in visiting countries, confirmed through multiple robustness checks. ODA is increased through several aid delivery channels (concessional loans, public institutions and summit meetings in recipient countries) with heterogeneous effects across regions. Thus, political leaders’ diplomatic visits are crucial to ODA allocation.

Innovation is a major economic growth contributor, which is often hindered by corruption. However, this relationship is not always supported. This study analyzes the interrelation between anti-corruption (AC) and technological innovation (TI) in China by applying the bootstrap rolling-window full-sample and subsample Granger causality test. The results confirm that the influence of AC on TI is two-fold. On the one hand, AC positively influences TI, indicating that it facilitates TI. This finding supports the “sanding-the-wheels” hypothesis, which postulates that corruption impedes innovation. On the other hand, there is a negative influence from AC to TI, which is mainly caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Further, the results show that TI positively influences AC, implying that TI can affect government’s AC-related decisions. Based on these findings, governments should coordinate their efforts toward innovation and AC, while firms should adopt innovation-driven strategies for long-term growth.

This study uses the panel quantile regression model and conducts path analysis to examine the impact of inter-provincial digital economy development in China on carbon emission reduction. Results reveal several key points: First, the impact of digital economy development on carbon emission reduction varies significantly across quantiles; it can promote or inhibit emissions and shows an inverted “U” relationship. Second, the inhibition effect of the digital economy on carbon emissions is significantly stronger than the growth effect. Third, more than half of the studied regions show an inhibitory effect of the digital economy on carbon emissions, primarily through indirect impact paths. Among these paths, the three most significant ones are the improvement of urbanization level, resident affluence level, and per capita gross domestic product (GDP). Policy recommendations are discussed.

This study examines the relationship among consumer confidence, food away from home (FAFH) and food at home (FAH) in the U.S. to figure out the high potential food sector for reducing food waste. Specifically, this paper uses the monthly data from January 2010 to December 2020 and the threshold vector error correction model (TVECM) for the analysis. Our test results of Johansen cointegration and threshold cointegration show that pairs of consumer confidence–FAFH and consumer confidence–FAH have a nonlinear long-run relationship. According to TVECM results, consumer confidence has a positive long-run Granger causation on FAFH approximately 93% (regimes 2 and 3), and on FAH over 5.4% (regime 3). About 7% of periods (regime 1) not included for a long-run Granger causation of consumer confidence on FAFH, and 5.4% period on FAH pertain to the COVID-19 period. Therefore, we conclude that a positive long-run Granger causation of consumer confidence on food consumption in the U.S. exists only in the FAFH. Based on our results, the policy implication is that the U.S. should focus on the FAFH to reduce food waste by predicting food demand to manage food stock.

In recent years, financial literacy has attracted much attention in the field of household finance as individuals have become more concerned about their financial well-being. Besides, financial products have become more complex over the years. Therefore, financial literacy has become crucial for financial decision making and has received the attention of policymakers, researchers and regulatory bodies. This study investigates the cross-sectional heterogeneity on the relationship between financial literacy and stock market participation in an emerging economy, particularly Pakistan. This study uses the survey data of the 300 individuals residing in Islamabad. Exploratory factor analysis is used to assess convergent and discriminant validity of the survey data. Results are estimated using logistic regression. Results of this study show that individuals with higher levels of financial literacy tend to participate more in the stock market. This study also finds the support for gender gap on the financial literacy and participation in the stock market. Further, it is observed that age, qualification and income are positively associated with stock market participation. In the end, the conclusion of the study is given along with significant policy implications.

This study proposes evidence of the effect of parental education on children’s education and skills in Thailand, using data from the Thailand Labor Force Survey of 1985–2017. Employing the instrumental variable (IV) approach using Thailand’s compulsory educational reform of 1978 as the IV to minimize the bias caused by the endogeneity of parental education, this study reaffirms the conventional positive link between parental education and children’s education. New and intriguing evidence is put forth on the negative link between parental education and the child’s brawn skill, based on industry and occupation used in the labor market. The influence of paternal education outweighs maternal education, in contrast to the evidence found in developed countries. The high intergenerational educational persistence indicates unequal opportunities in the country, as individual welfare is primarily tied to parental background. Therefore, weakening this linkage is a policy recommendation for the government to improve equality in the country.

To increase the use of healthcare services in Indonesia, the government of Indonesia introduced Askeskin, a subsidized social health insurance for the poor, in 2005. We examine the effects of this social health insurance on women’s healthcare use. Using propensity score matching, we find Askeskin induces women to use public healthcare facilities for birth delivery and antenatal checkup, discourages them from getting help from midwives for birth delivery, and makes them more likely to use contraceptives. The insurance seems to increase delivery care expenditure, however. We do not find evidence that it increases women’s preventive and curative healthcare use.

This study offers further evidence of the holiday effect on excess stock returns and volatility, and additional insights into its impact on the amusement park and attractions industry in the United States. The generalized auto-regressive conditional heteroscedasticity (GARCH) model and dummy variables are adopted to investigate pre- and post-holiday excess returns and volatility. Empirical results suggest the following: (1) both excess returns and excess volatility happen more frequently in pre-holidays than post-holidays; (2) the frequency of excess volatility is higher than excess returns for the holiday effect; and (3) nearly all significant excess volatilities are negative. We, therefore, conclude that the holiday effect exists in publicly traded amusement and theme parks.