Wikis > Case Studies > Economic Analysis
  1. Productivity challenges in Singapore Part-1

    Author/s:
    HAWYEE AUYONG
    Year:
    2014
    Abstract:
    Since 2010, the Singapore government has committed to reduce the rate of growth in foreign labour, and to support economic growth through increases in labour productivity. Singapore’s economic policy challenges today bear little resemblance to the pressing, existential challenges the country faced more than 50 years ago in 1961, where the priority was employment creation. This case explores how Singapore’s challenges in raising labour productivity today could be, to a large extent, the product of economic policy decisions made in the past. Part 1 covers the years 1961 to 1985.

    This is part 1 of a 3-part case study.

     

  2. Productivity challenges in Singapore Part-2

    Author/s:
    HAWYEE AUYONG
    Year:
    2014
    Abstract:
    Part 2 covers the years 1985 to 1998. After the 1985 recession, Singapore continued with its efforts to raise labour productivity, but the high priority placed on rapid economic growth impeded these efforts somewhat. Factor accumulation, labour force expansion, and wage restraint continued to be important to rapid economic growth. This case also examines how Singapore’s policies towards foreign labour changed after the recession despite persistent misgivings within the government, and discusses some academic analyses of the Singapore growth model that were published in the 1990s.

    This is part 2 of a 3-part case study. Part 3 will be available in the last quarter of 2014. Please get in touch with the case writer (sppayhy@nus.edu.sg) if you would like access to the last part of this case study.

     

  3. Singapore’s Fiscal Response to the Great Recession: Radical Innovation or Incremental Change?

    Author/s:
    ALISHA GILL
    Year:
    2013
    Abstract:
    Singapore’s Budget for financial year (FY) 2009 was delivered in January, at the start of the Great Recession. Commentators hailed it as an extraordinary budget, and praised the radical policy measures that it contained. Although these claims contained a grain of truth, they also overstated the extraordinariness of Budget 2009. This case study situates Budget 2009 in the context of the Ministry of Finance’s evolving policy orientations, and relates the seemingly radical measures in Budget 2009 to earlier policy initiatives that the Ministry had undertaken in response to greater economic volatility and uncertainty. The perspective gained from such an understanding of Budget 2009 is one of path dependence, continuity and incremental change. Though policymakers were articulating what appeared to be novel policies, these were in fact highly embedded in established policy understandings, orientations and bureaucratic capabilities. Analysing Budget 2009 against the backdrop of the earlier policy innovations of the Finance Ministry also allows one to appreciate how cumulative, incremental policy decisions contributed to significant shifts in the Singapore government’s response to a major recession.

     

  4. The Buck Stops Where? A Healthcare Policy Trilemma for Singapores Foreign Workers

    Author/s:
    MOSES SAM PAUL JOHNRAJ and NICOLE BACOLOD
    Year:
    2012
    Abstract:
    Between October 2010 and November 2010, The Cuff Road Project (TCRP), a twice a day food programme in Little India, Singapore, had catered to 610 foreign workers. Of this, 81% had encountered injuries in their work and had filed a Work Injury Compensation claim. Many low-skilled foreign workers worked in the construction sector where there could be serious work-related injuries. Although there were several legislative measures and regulations to ensure the safety and well-being of these foreign workers, these were oftentimes unknown to the injured workers and were often not complied with by the employers, causing the medical treatment for injured workers to be delayed or denied. This case study highlights some of the policy gaps and the challenges faced by Singapore in maintaining a high level of growth vis-à-vis ensuring the welfare of foreign workers with particular reference to the construction sector. It zooms in on the experiences of two foreign construction workers who experienced workplace injuries, requiring costly and long medical treatment.

    Second Prize – Case Writing Competition 2012

     

  5. All the Maharajahs Men

    Author/s:
    ANISHA GEORGE
    Year:
    2011
    Abstract:
    In the early 2000s, the national air carriers of India, Air India (operating international air services) and Indian Airlines (servicing domestic routes and neighbouring countries) were facing a financial crisis following a slump in the aviation sector worldwide due to global recession and rising fuel prices. In 2007, the two airlines had been merged in a bid to galvanize their fortunes but the merger had not been successful. Expensive fleet acquisition, sale of bilateral air traffic rights in favour of private and foreign carriers and attempted integration policies in the course of the merger resulted in mounting losses and debt for the company. The leader of the airline’s largest trade union sought to work with a newly-appointed, socialist Minister for Aviation to garner government support to save the airline through capital and equity infusion. The alternate options to government aid were privatisation or a shrinking of the airline. The government had occupied an ambivalent stance and public support stood against the airline’s favour. Given the political scenario, the strategic importance of the national carrier and the ailing aviation scenario of India itself, how could the merged national carrier be saved?

    Second Prize – Case Writing Competition 2011

     

  6. When the poor became bankable-Microfinance crisis in Andhra Pradesh

    Author/s:
    SHRIYA MOHAN and P PRAVEEN SIDDHARTH
    Year:
    2010
    Abstract:
    The success of Grameen Bank, founded by Muhammad Yunus, had led to the sprouting of microfinance institutions in India. The Grameen model provided financing support for income generation in remote areas where banks had been tardy in providing service and had historically seen high repayment rates. However, the microfinance sector in India underwent a change in its model in August 2009 when India’s largest private microfinance institution (MFI) raised funds from the public through an IPO, promising high rates of return. While this was condemned as commercialization of microfinance, the market-oriented model aimed to help more poor people by tapping the large pool of investor capital rather than the limited pool of donor or subsidized funds. The situation reached a crisis in October 2010 when there was a spate of farmer suicides in Andhra Pradesh, the microfinance capital of India. More shocking facts about the industry such as the exorbitantly high interest rates, intense competition among MFIs which had led to multiple loans being offered for consumption in addition to income generation and tight repayment schedules, came to light. The group-lending system which enforced repayment through social pressure had exacerbated the situation for women caught in debt traps. The Reserve Bank of India, the country’s central bank had to intervene urgently. This case raises questions of ethics, profit models for social businesses and regulation through government intervention.

    Second Prize – Case Writing Competition 2010

     

  7. Growth Pangs of a Microfinance-Institution

    Author/s:
    DURREEN SHAHNAZ and SAVITA SHANKAR
    Year:
    2010
    Abstract:
    A development oriented microfinance institution based in Tamil Nadu, India, wants to grow without drifting away from its mission. The case gives students an opportunity to consider the dilemmas faced by social enterprises, when they aim for sustainable and socially responsible growth in competitive sectors such as microfinance.