Crisis Management and Public Policy

Crisis Management and Public Policy
Author: Hui Ying Sng
Publisher: World Scientific
Total Pages: 219
Release: 2011
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 9814340901

"One of the key themes of this book is to study economic crises and financial crises, and the policy measures that are available to manage them. The second key theme of the book is to review several public policies in Singapore, such as competition, healthcare, training, free trade agreements, state capitalism and inequality."--Publisher's description.

Does State Capitalism Work in Singapore?

Does State Capitalism Work in Singapore?
Author: Isabel Joo Lay Sim
Publisher:
Total Pages:
Release: 2011
Genre: Corporations, Government
ISBN:

There is divided literature on the utility of government-owned and governmentrun enterprises. This study adds to this literature by examining Singapore's stateowned companies called Government Linked Companies ("GLCs"). It addresses three questions: (i) How does Temasek, Singapore's state holding company own and govern listed GLCs? (ii) Do financial and operating performances of Singapore's GLCs improve after privatisation? (iii) Is there a link between the GLCs' performance and their corporate governance? Using data relating to the period 1980 to 2008, the study examines the role of GLCs within Singapore's economic policies; how they are privatised; their corporate background and management; the role of Temasek; and GLCs' performance and corporate governance practices. In providing insights into the role of Singapore's GLCs, this thesis brings into question much of the literature that is adverse to government ownership. Singapore's GLCs are well managed, efficient and profitable. They have played a vital economic role in transforming Singapore from a developing third world country to a developed first world country. The study suggests that Temasek applies stringent governance and operating guidelines to GLCs. The financial and operating performance of GLCs does not improve post-privatisation. The study further suggests that GLCs' performance is not related to several attributes of governance including board size, duality of office, the political connectedness of board members and board interlocks.

Liberalism Disavowed

Liberalism Disavowed
Author: Chua Beng Huat
Publisher: NUS Press
Total Pages: 238
Release: 2017-06-23
Genre: History
ISBN: 9814722502

In Liberalism Disavowed, Chua Beng Huat examines the rejection of Western-style liberalism in Singapore and the way the People's Action Party has forged an independent non-Western ideology. This book explains the evolution of this communitarian ideology, with focus on three areas: public housing, multiracialism and state capitalism, each of which poses different challenges to liberal approaches. With the passing of the first Prime Minister, Lee Kuan Yew and the end of the Cold War, the party is facing greater challenges from an educated populace that demands greater voice. This has led to liberalization of the cultural sphere, greater responsiveness and shifts in political rhetoric, but all without disrupting the continuing hegemony of the PAP in government.

State Capitalism

State Capitalism
Author: Joshua Kurlantzick
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 297
Release: 2016-03-08
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0199385726

The end of the Cold War ushered in an age of American triumphalism best characterized by the "Washington Consensus:" the idea that free markets, democratic institutions, limitations on government involvement in the economy, and the rule of law were the foundations of prosperity and stability. The last fifteen years, starting with the Asian financial crisis, have seen the gradual erosion of that consensus. Many commentators have pointed to the emergence of a powerful new rival model: state capitalism. In state capitalist regimes, the government typically owns firms in strategic industries. Not beholden to private-sector shareholders, such firms are allowed to operate with razor-thin margins if the state deems them strategically important. China, soon to be the world's largest economy, is the best known state capitalist regime, but it is hardly the only one. In State Capitalism, Joshua Kurlantzick ranges across the world--China, Thailand, Brazil, Russia, South Africa, Turkey, and more--and argues that the increase in state capitalism across the globe has, on balance, contributed to a decline in democracy. He isolates some of the reasons for state capitalism's resurgence: the fact that globalization favors economies of scale in the most critical industries, and the widespread rejection of the Washington Consensus in the face of the problems that have plagued the world economy in recent years. That said, a number of democratic nations have embraced state capitalism, and in those regimes, state-backed firms like Brazil's Embraer have enjoyed considerable success. Kurlantzick highlights the mixed record and the evolving nature of the model, yet he is more concerned about the negative effects of state capitalism. When states control firms, whether in democratic or authoritarian regimes, the government increases its advantage over the rest of society. The combination of new technologies, the perceived failures of liberal economics and democracy in many developing nations, the rise of modern kinds of authoritarians, and the success of some of the best-known state capitalists have created an era ripe for state intervention. State Capitalism offers the sharpest analysis yet of what state capitalism's emergence means for democratic politics around the world.

Stakeholder Capitalism

Stakeholder Capitalism
Author: Klaus Schwab
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Total Pages: 311
Release: 2021-01-27
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1119756138

Reimagining our global economy so it becomes more sustainable and prosperous for all Our global economic system is broken. But we can replace the current picture of global upheaval, unsustainability, and uncertainty with one of an economy that works for all people, and the planet. First, we must eliminate rising income inequality within societies where productivity and wage growth has slowed. Second, we must reduce the dampening effect of monopoly market power wielded by large corporations on innovation and productivity gains. And finally, the short-sighted exploitation of natural resources that is corroding the environment and affecting the lives of many for the worse must end. The debate over the causes of the broken economy—laissez-faire government, poorly managed globalization, the rise of technology in favor of the few, or yet another reason—is wide open. Stakeholder Capitalism: A Global Economy that Works for Progress, People and Planet argues convincingly that if we don't start with recognizing the true shape of our problems, our current system will continue to fail us. To help us see our challenges more clearly, Schwab—the Founder and Executive Chairman of the World Economic Forum—looks for the real causes of our system's shortcomings, and for solutions in best practices from around the world in places as diverse as China, Denmark, Ethiopia, Germany, Indonesia, New Zealand, and Singapore. And in doing so, Schwab finds emerging examples of new ways of doing things that provide grounds for hope, including: Individual agency: how countries and policies can make a difference against large external forces A clearly defined social contract: agreement on shared values and goals allows government, business, and individuals to produce the most optimal outcomes Planning for future generations: short-sighted presentism harms our shared future, and that of those yet to be born Better measures of economic success: move beyond a myopic focus on GDP to more complete, human-scaled measures of societal flourishing By accurately describing our real situation, Stakeholder Capitalism is able to pinpoint achievable ways to deal with our problems. Chapter by chapter, Professor Schwab shows us that there are ways for everyone at all levels of society to reshape the broken pieces of the global economy and—country by country, company by company, and citizen by citizen—glue them back together in a way that benefits us all.

Seeking the Best Master

Seeking the Best Master
Author: Miklós Szanyi
Publisher: Central European University Press
Total Pages: 380
Release: 2020-02-01
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 9633863228

The economic crisis of 2008–2009 signaled the end of the Post-Washington Consensus on restricting the role of the state in economic and development policy. Since then, state ownership and state intervention have increased worldwide. This volume offers a comparative analysis of the evolution of direct state intervention in the economy through state-owned companies in Austria, Brazil, France, Germany, Hungary, Poland, Turkey, Singapore, and Slovenia. Each case study includes substantial explanations of historical, cultural, and institutional contexts. All the contributors point to the complex nature of the current revival in state economic interventions. The few models that are successful cannot hide the potential problems of excessive state intervention, linked to high levels of moral hazard. State-owned enterprises are primary tools of market and price manipulation for political purposes. They can be used outright for rent seeking. Yet state-owned enterprises can also play important roles in prestigious national initiatives, like major public works or high-profile social and sports events. The authors conclude that after the uniform application of democratic market economic principles, the 2000s witnessed a path-dependent departure from standard economic and political operating procedures in developed countries.

The Oxford Handbook of Asian Business Systems

The Oxford Handbook of Asian Business Systems
Author: Michael A. Witt
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Total Pages: 754
Release: 2014
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0199654921

The Handbook explores institutional variations across the political economies of different societies within Asia. It includes empirical analysis of 13 major Asian business systems between India and Japan, and examines these in a comparative, historical, and theoretical context.

State Capitalism

State Capitalism
Author: Lalita Som
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 385
Release: 2022-06-07
Genre: Government business enterprises
ISBN: 019284959X

The crises emanating from the Global Financial Crisis and the COVID-19 Pandemic have underscored, the emergency role of the State and its smooth, seamless reactivation, for situations when private activity and markets are disrupted. In many countries, SOEs have been a crucial part in delivering on that effort as agents of the State. While SOEs are increasingly sought to play a role during emergency situations, evidence suggests that they misallocate capital and mismanage resources. This is indicative of the conflicts of interests in owning and regulating enterprises as well as between the commercial and non-commercial objectives of SOEs, crony capitalism, the private agenda of public officials, internal management of SOEs, the significant role played by state owned banks and financial institutions and the conflicts that arise in the State's primary role vs. its ownership of enterprises. The studies of eight countries from different regions undertaken for this book, provide answers to these key policy questions related to state capitalism. Generalizing from the results of multi-country studies to arrive at universally applicable predictions, prescriptions, and policy recommendations, is inherently difficult. Individual countries are quite different in their socio-economic, historical, political, and institutional circumstances. So are their experiences, as the eight country studies highlight, even as the book attempts to extrude, from available research, the principal common characteristics of, and practices followed by, successful SOEs independently of country context. Among other conditions, the two most important conclusions that can be drawn from the country studies are that competition and regulation rather than ownership per se is key to efficiency.

Singapore's Authoritarian Capitalism

Singapore's Authoritarian Capitalism
Author: Christopher Lingle
Publisher:
Total Pages: 200
Release: 1996
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN:

Questions the capacity of the present political system to sustain record economic gowth in Singapore, due to internal contradictions and imposed institutional arrangements.