Kiasunomics – Season 1
In this first season of the Kiasunomics podcast, host Professor Sumit Agarwal examines Singapore trends and behaviours relating to its native cultures, deep-seated superstitions, physical environment and growing gig economy. From the studies conducted by fellow researchers and himself, they make sense of the seemingly quirky economic decisions Singaporeans make.
In this episode, Professor Sumit and Professor David Reeb discuss the possibility of how playing golf may give female executives a leg up in their career, and the reasons why.
How does something seemingly unscientific like cultural superstition impact housing purchase decisions in Singapore? In this episode, Professor Sumit invites Singapore Management University’s Associate Professor Song Changcheng for chat on how his research suggests that the numbers “4” and “8” may significantly influence the preferences of Singaporean Chinese.
Planning for a baby in the zodiac year of the dragon to secure your child’s future? Think again. In this episode, Professor Sumit discusses the research findings of Professor Qian Wenlan, and how this popular belief amongst the Chinese in Singapore may instead have the reverse effect on the success of children in that cohort.
In this episode, Professor Sumit properly defines what the gig economy is. He discusses the greater autonomy, flexibility and power it gives to employees, and how the inclusive nature of the gig economy may even allow Singapore to better tap on its manpower.
In the interest of cost and time savings, business owners have begun to carve out work spaces within their homes, thereby creating home offices. In support of this, the Singapore Government launched a Home Office Scheme in a bid to encourage the birth of home-grown businesses in the country. Professor Sumit analyses the effectiveness of this incentive in stimulating a lasting increase in the number of Small to Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in Singapore.
Associate Professor Song Changcheng joins Professor Sumit once again to discuss the importance of Small to Medium Enterprise to a country’s economic growth, and the effectiveness of Singapore’s policies in lowering the barriers to entry for budding entrepreneurs.
The world tackles the real crises of consumerism depleting the world’s natural resources to a point of leaving little to the future generations. In this episode, Professor Sumit looks at the creative campaign ideas Singapore devised, particularly one that inspired children to educate their parents about sustainability.
Singapore has on several occasions dealt with serious air pollution crises arising from the haze generated from widespread fires in neighboring countries. In this episode, Sumit shares his findings from the study of electricity and water usage in Singapore during these periods of severe air pollution, and about how this exerts additional strain on the state’s resources.
Water conservation has always been a priority in Singapore’s national resource management, having insufficient natural sources to sustain the country’s population. In this episode, Professor Sumit chats to Visiting Assistant Professor Fan Mingxuan from the NUS Department of Real Estate about the effectiveness of plumbing methods and public housing infrastructure upgrades in supporting this national cause.
In this episode, Professor Sumit and Visiting Assistant Professor Fan Mingxuan continue their discussion on Singapore’s water conservation policies. Specifically, they delve into a water policy that introduced a tariff on usage, and the impact of the announcement on different citizen profiles.