Commentaries and Op-eds
Several opinion pieces and commentaries of mine on the Singapore economy since the year 2000 grapple with the theme of the nature and challenges of growth, joblessness and rewards to low-wage earners.
Growth
14 June 2006 op-ed, joint with Kong Weng Ho, in The Business Times, titled, Perspiration, Inspiration and Singapore's Growth. [link]
22 July 2005 op-ed, joint with Kong Weng Ho, in The Business Times, titled, When the Economy Hits the Brakes. [link]
4 September 2001 op-ed in The Business Times, titled, What's New, What's Next for Singapore? [draft]
12 December 2000 op-ed in The Business Times, titled, Economic Openness: Benefits and Challenges. [draft]
Unemployment
29 July 2008 op-ed in The Business Times, titled, Less room for MAS to influence Inflation Rate. [link]
30 November 2004 op-ed in The Business Times, titled, A Fix for Joblessness. [draft]
15 April 2003 op-ed in The Business Times, titled, The Daunting Challenge of Structural Unemployment. [draft]
This is a feature article, titled, "The Changing Unemployment Landscape in Singapore," which gives a summary of my research on unemployment. It appeared in the January 2005, number 3 issue of Singapore Management University's research newsletter, SMU Knowledge Hub. [link]
Low-Wage Workers
30 September 2005 op-ed in The Straits Times, titled, Making Work Pay for Low-Wage Earners. [link]
10 February 2006 op-ed in The Straits Times, titled, Workfare: Striking the Right Balance. [draft]
Letter to the Forum page of The Straits Times on 26 June 2007, "Improve design features of workfare scheme." [draft]
The Singapore Model of Workfare: Three Suggestions published in ETHOS, Issue 3, Oct 2007. [link]
Selected Papers and Publications
(Some links require your library's subscription)
Macro
Hoon and Phelps, 1992, Macroeconomic Shocks in a Dynamized Model of the Natural Rate of Unemployment, American Economic Review. [link]
Hoon and Phelps, 1997, Growth, Wealth and the Natural Rate: Is Europe's Jobs Crisis a Growth Crisis?, European Economic Review (Papers and Proceedings). [link]
Hoon and Phelps, 2008, Future Fiscal and Budgetary Shocks, Journal of Economic Theory. [draft]
Hoon, 2006, Payroll Taxes, Wealth and Employment in Neoclassical Theory: Neutrality or Non-Neutrality? Center on Capitalism and Society Working Paper No. 16, September, Columbia University. [link]
Hoon and Phelps, 2003, Low-Wage Employment Subsidies in a Labor-Turnover Model of the `Natural Rate', in Edmund S. Phelps (ed.), Designing Inclusion: Tools to Raise Low-End Pay and Employment in Private Enterprise, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. [draft]
Here are two open economy macro papers with an endogenous natural rate of unemployment:
Hoon and Phelps, 2007, A Structuralist Model of the Small Open Economy in the Short, Medium and Long Run, Journal of Macroeconomics.[draft]
Hoon and Phelps, 2002, Asset Prices, the Real Exchange Rate, and Unemployment in a Small Open Economy: A Medium-Run Structuralist Perspective, in Warren Young and Arie Arnon (eds.), The Open Economy Macromodel, Norwell, Mass.: Kluwer Academic Press. [draft]
Trade, Jobs and Wages
Hoon, 2001, Adjustment of Wages and Equilibrium Unemployment in a Ricardian Global Economy, Journal of International Economics. [link]
Hoon, 1990, Abstract of my PhD dissertation submitted to Columbia University, titled, Market Structure, Trade Theory and Unemployment. [draft]
Hoon, 1991, Comparative Advantage and the Equilibrium Rate of Unemployment, Economics Letters. [link]
Hoon, 1999, Intraindustry Trade, High-Wage Jobs, and the Wage Gap, Economics Letters. [link]
Kee and Hoon, 2005, Trade, Capital Accumulation and Structural Unemployment: An Empirical Study of the Singapore Economy, Journal of Development Economics. [link] [draft]
Hoon, 2002, Endogenous Growth and Equilibrium Unemployment in a North-South Model, Review of Development Economics. [link]
This research monograph gives a book-length treatment of the theme of international trade and equilibrium unemployment that I began to work on in my 1990 Columbia PhD dissertation. Hoon, 2000, Trade, Jobs and Wages (Edward Elgar Publishing) [link]
The book is reviewed by Peter M. Summers in Economic Record, March 2002, Vol. 78, Issue 240, pp. 113-115. [link]
Singapore Economy
Hoon, 2005, Future Job Prospects in Singapore. [draft]
Hoon and Ho, 2007, Distance to Frontier and the Big Swings of the Unemployment Rate: What Room is Left for Monetary Policy? [draft] [Powerpoint slides]
Ho and Hoon, 2003, Service Links and Wage Inequality. [draft]
From 1987 to 1997, I published five papers (three with co-authors who were former students of mine) on analytical aspects of the Central Provident Fund (CPF), Singapore's defined contribution social security system in the Singapore Economic Review. I will make available here scanned copies of reprints with permission given by the Singapore Economic Review. [Note: These are big files that might take some time to open or download.]
1. "The Effects of a CPF Cut: A Note," Singapore Economic Review, Vol. 32, no. 2, October 1987, pp 66-74. [reprint]
2. "The Long-Run General Equilibrium Consequences of Choosing the CPF Contribution Rate in the Singapore Economy," Singapore Economic Review, Vol. 36, no. 1, April 1991, pp. 70-80. [reprint]
3. "A Model of the Link Between the Fiscal System and Singapore's Central Provident Fund in General Equilibrium," with Kai Lin Teo, Singapore Economic Review, Vol. 37, no. 2, October 1992, pp. 73-88. [reprint]
4. "Individual Lifetime Uncertainty, Annuity Market and the Central Provident Fund," with Lai Yee Ng, Singapore Economic Review, Vol. 41, no. 2, October 1996, pp. 41-52. [reprint]
5. "Taxes, the Central Provident Fund, and Retirement Decisions," with Mei Choo Neo, Singapore Economic Review, Vol. 42, no. 2, October 1997, pp. 61-74. [reprint]
Book Reviews
Review of Barriers to Riches by Stephen L. Parente and Edward C. Prescott, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2000 published in Singapore Economic Review, April 2001, Vol. 46, No. 1, pp. 145-148. [draft]
Review of Money and the Natural Rate of Unemployment by Finn Ostrup, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000 published in Journal of Economic Literature, June 2004, Vol. 42, No. 2, pp. 516-517. [draft]
