Kiasunomics

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 numbe...

Associate Professor Song Changcheng joins Professor Sumit once again to discuss the importance of Small to Medium Enterprises (SMEs) 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 nationa...

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.

In this flag-off episode, the brains behind the Kiasunomics book series, Professor Sumit Agarwal and Associate Professor Ang Swee Hoon engage in hearty banter other about how the podcast series came about, and how they hope to bring research insights to the masses through bite-sized discussions.

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.

Professor Sumit analyses the pros and cons of the gig economy, and whether it is sustainable.