Ongoing Research Projects

Grant Period : Dec 2023 - Jun 2025

Faculty : Zeren, LI

This study proposes a data-driven approach to investigate the rise of party-state capitalism in China. Through this research, I aim to accomplish two main objectives:
(1) Develop precise indicators of state-connectedness by analyzing comprehensive ownership network data.
(2) Estimate the causal impact of state-connectedness on public resource outcomes, such as government procurement, subsidies, and effective tax rates.

Exploring the revival of China's state sector holds significant importance. Not only does it shed light on the political and economic dynamics within China, but it also offers valuable insights for foreign investors, businesspersons, and policymakers across Asia and the globe, including those in Singapore.

I am seeking HSS funding to perform an exploratory analysis on a sample of publicly listed companies. Preliminary assessments of these firms will illustrate the viability and potential scalability of the project, potentially leading to a larger external grant for a more extensive investigation encompassing all firm samples.

Grant Period : Nov 2022 - Oct 2024

Faculty : ZHENG, Huanhuan

Foreign holdings of local currency (LC) debt in emerging markets (EMs) have risen significantly, especially after the global financial crisis (GFC). Before the 2000s, however, most EMs were not able to raise funds in their own currency from international market, a situation dubbed as “original sin” by Eichengreen and Hausmann (1999). This project explores the implications of falling original sin on the transmission of global financial cycles to EMs. 

Covered interest rate parity (CIP) implies that, with hedged exchange rate risk, the dollar returns on sovereign debts denominated in their respective local currencies should be the same. Recent studies have documented deviations from CIP after the GFC in both advanced markets (AMs) and EMs (see for example Coffey et al. 2009; Du and Schreger 2016; Du, Im, and Schreger 2018; Cerutti, Obstfeld, and Zhou 2019), igniting keen research interest in explaining the puzzle. We expect falling original sin, characterized by a shift in foreign debt holdings from foreign currency (FC) to LC, to slow down the convergence to CIP. We extrapolate that this is because foreign holdings of FC debt (FC external debt) that bypass regulations and cross-border investment barriers are more important in transmitting global financial cycles to EMs than foreign holdings of LC debt (LC external debt). As EMs become more integrated to the global market, the differential impacts of FC and LC external debt in transmitting global risk-on and risk-off shocks should shrink.

Grant Period : Feb 2022 - Feb 2026

Faculty : THAKUR, Ashutosh Dinesh

In many organizations, members need to be assigned to certain positions, whether these are civil servants to states, legislators to committees, or executives to roles. Who gets what position crucially affects the performance of the organization, the efficacy of its operations, the synergies/conflicts generated, and the resulting satisfaction/aspiration of its members. I use tools from market design and matching theory to i) empirically evaluate, ii) theoretically understand, and iii) practically improve the design of these assignment procedures.

I explore new applications of matching theory in public administration, e.g., allocating Indian civil servants to states and assigning US Senators to legislative committees. My empirical analysis leverages the institutional knowledge of the underlying matching mechanisms along with new preference data of US Senators and Indian Civil servants to evaluate the efficacy of the procedures and their impact on outcomes (e.g., American legislative policymaking and party discipline, and India’s state capacity and development outcomes).

Theoretically, my projects shed light on institutional stability and organizational culture: why organizations endogenously change their assignment procedures over time, which coalitions lobby for change, and when are they successful. Lastly, my work delivers practical design improvements for Indian civil service allocation procedures and other two-sided market platforms.

Grant Period : Sep 2021 - Aug 2025

Faculty : JIN, Lawrence

I investigate the role of behavioral biases in decision-making, and explore behavioral interventions (“nudges”) that can help improve public welfare. Specifically, I study decision-making in two settings: medicine and transportation.

The first setting is medical decision-making. For example, I study the behavior of diabetes patients in Singapore. Diabetes is a major public health problem in Singapore, costing over $1 billion annually to manage as a nation. The first step is to use data from SingHealth’s diabetes patient registry to empirically investigate behavioral & medical anomalies, and generate insights on the types of behavioral interventions that could help patients with glycemic control. Using the insights, I will design a comprehensive behavioral intervention program for the patients and test its effectiveness in the field.

The second setting is taxi drivers’ decision-making. In an earlier work, I found that taxi drivers tend to drive unnecessarily at the airport, which lowers their earnings and generates unnecessary air pollution.I will use the data from Singapore’s LTA to investigate other locations at which drivers often make similar mistakes, as well as other potential behavioral biases. Then, we will design and conduct a field experiment to “nudge” drivers to reduce their mistakes, which would in turn increase their income and reduce unnecessary air pollution in Singapore.