Events

Roundtables and Seminars

CGL roundtables and seminars are a platform for policy experts to enter into in-depth discussion on specialised topics. Roundtables usually involve 2 or more invited guests who debate and discourse on issues of governance where the session is moderated by a CGL senior fellow.

2008 Seminars and Rountables

The Myth of the Rational Voter: Why Democracies Choose Bad Policies
18 November 2008
Associate Professor Bryan Caplan

"Voters are worse than ignorant, they are, in a word, irrational – and they vote accordingly." This is Associate Professor Bryan Caplan’s key thesis in his recent book The Myth of the Rational Voter: Why Democracies Choose Bad Policies (Princeton University Press, 2007). Caplan argues that democracies frequently adopt and maintain policies that are economically damaging. This runs contrary to the idea of the “wisdom of crowds” or the “miracle of aggregation” which states that when votes are aggregated, a minority of well-informed voters can lead to optimal decisions/guesses even if the majority of the voters are ignorant and vote randomly.

Based on responses to the Survey of Americans and Economists on the Economy, Associate Professor Caplan identified four systematic biases of voters. First, voters do not understand the benefits of markets and how the pursuit of private profits yields public benefits: they have an anti-market bias. Second, they underestimate the benefits of interactions with foreigners: they have an anti-foreign bias. Third, voters equate prosperity with employment rather than productivity: they have a make-work bias. Last, they tend to think economic conditions are worse than they are: they are biased toward pessimism. He suggests relying more on markets and less on democracy, and advocates improving economic literacy among the populace to reduce these systematic biases.

Bryan Caplan is an Associate Professor in the Department of Economics, Center for Study of Public Choice, and Mercatus Center, at George Mason University. He is the author of The Myth of the Rational Voter: Why Democracies Choose Bad Policies (Princeton University Press, 2007), which was named “the best political book this year” by the New York Times and a “Best Book of 2007” by the Financial Times. A self-professed libertarian, Associate Professor Caplan has won the First Place Article prize in the Templeton Enterprise Awards and the Thomas S. Szasz Award for Outstanding Contributions to the Cause of Civil Liberties. His current project is a new book, Selfish Reasons to Have More Kids.

Supplying Energy Through Greater Efficiency
19 September 2008
Dr Alan Meier

Many studies show that over 30% of present electricity use can be saved economically. But why aren't consumers making these investments? Many barriers discourage investments in energy efficiency. As a result of market failures and other barriers, there is significant underinvestment in energy efficiency. Actions by governments and other groups can address these market failures and reduce the barriers to greater energy efficiency. Higher energy prices also create space for new, profitable business opportunities. Dr Meier, a senior scientist in the Energy Analysis Department at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, provided insights on how governments can make sensible investments in energy efficiency and capture opportunities to increase energy productivity. See Lecture Notes

Fostering a National Innovation Ecosystem: Lessons for Singapore from the US Experience
25 August 2008
Dr Charles Wessner

Dr Charles Wessner, Director of Technology, Innovation and Entrepreneurship at The National Academies of Sciences, USA and a well-known policy expert on technology and innovation in the US, focused on policy recommendations for fostering a conducive national innovation ecosystem. Dr Wessner discussed the policy myths and market realities of the US innovation ecosystem, and distilled lessons for policymakers in Singapore, which included an examination of the role of government, and how it can partner universities and industry effectively to encourage research and innovation. Dr Wessner also shared best practices and lessons from the innovation experiences of other countries. See Lecture Notes

ESRN Lunch Forum "Targeting That Works: Enhancing Efficiency and Fairness"
(co-organised with the Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports)
20 March 2008
Professor Richard Zeckhauser (Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy Distinguished Visitor)

Governments face increasing pressure to do more to improve the conditions and opportunities of disadvantaged and low-income individuals through social programmes. Often, the effectiveness of these social programmes requires better targeting of scarce government resources to the people who will benefit most from the programmes. Targeting aims to enhance both efficiency—maximising social benefits per unit of cost—and fairness—directing resources to those who need them most. However, targeting also means that resources will be diverted from those whose participation in the programme imposes significant costs on others and those who benefit less from the programme. This is why targeting is fraught with political risk and difficulty.

In his ground-breaking book, Targeting in Social Programs: Avoiding Bad Bets, Removing Bad Apples, KSG Harvard Professor Richard Zeckhauser defines bad bets as those individuals who are unlikely to benefit much from the social resources channeled to them, and to whom resources should be channeled differently. An example is the older person who suffers from a chronic illness receiving subsidised and costly medical treatment at a hospital (as opposed to him receiving care in a step-down facility). He defines bad apples as individuals whose irresponsible behaviour imposes significant costs on others in the programme and marks them unsuitable as beneficiaries. Welfare abuse and fraud are a good example of bad apples.

In the lunch forum, Prof Zeckhauser discussed the pathologies that commonly account for poor targeting in social programmes, different approaches in targeting, and ways to improve targeting in social programmes. See Lecture Notes

Country Outlook Seminar: Sustaining Growth, Realising Potential
27 March 2008
Mr Gurcharan Das

Once shackled by dirigiste policies that accounted for what was derisively known as the “Hindu rate of growth”, India has now embraced globalisation and free-market policies that have transformed it into one of the world’s fastest growing economies, alongside China. India’s growth model, however, is a unique one. Unlike the Asian economies, India’s growth is not export-driven but relies largely on domestic consumption. Growth is also not broad-based, accompanied by a labour-intensive industrial revolution, which could absorb the tens of millions of Indians still trapped in rural poverty; instead, it is led by high-tech services. Neither has India had the agricultural productivity increases that industrialised countries have had in the past.

India’s growth has taken place in spite of the state, whose policies have not kept pace with the booming private sector. Although the government embarked on a series of economic reforms in the 1980s, which intensified after 1991, Indian entrepreneurs still face a range of obstacles, such as stringent labour laws and indirect taxes. Poor governance has also led to the failure of the state in the provision of public goods such as education, health care, clean drinking water and basic infrastructure. Indians are increasingly forced to turn to the private sector where the state has failed while the bloated and inefficient public sector continues to be a major drag on growth. But the state cannot merely withdraw. Markets do not work in a vacuum; they need a network of regulations and institutions. The state will also have to grapple with the socio-economic challenges that come with rapid change, such as regional growth disparities and sharpening income divides, which could threaten social harmony and political stability.

Mr Gurcharan Das, author of international bestseller India Unbound, spoke about the long-term sustainability of India’s spectacular economic growth and offered his take on what the state needed to do to maintain the growth momentum and handle the developmental challenges arising. See Lecture Notes

Seminar on Ageing, Innovation and Policy
9 January 2008
Dr Joseph F. Coughlin
A rapidly ageing population is often seen as a problem that societies must overcome. Yet, this very same trend can be an opportunity. To see it as such, policymakers need to understand the changing profile of this fast-growing segment of the population. The ageing baby boomers of today are already quite unlike the elderly of previous generations. They are wealthier, healthier and better educated, and they have higher expectations and more sophisticated demands. By changing their mindset and attitudes towards the elderly, policymakers can be creative – both in designing innovative policies to cater to their needs, and in seeing, and seizing, the opportunities that an ageing population may create.

In this seminar, Professor Joseph Coughlin, Director and Founder of Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s AgeLab and an expert in the field of ageing, shared his insights on disruptive demographics, how to come up with innovative policies and products and deliver them well, and how countries may overcome obstacles that reduce the effectiveness of innovative policies and technologies. See Lecture Notes

2007 Roundtables

Country Outlook Seminar on India’s Foreign Policy
26 November 2007
Mr Rajiv Sikri
India has greatly changed in the last decade and a half. It has been growing at an impressive rate, but its economic prosperity cannot be sustained within the framework of an autarkic model of development. Globalisation affects not only India’s economic development, but its foreign policy too. While the changing values of the Indian middle class and the influence of the Indian Diaspora are altering Indian society and the Indian ruling elite’s world view, the complexity of India’s democratic polity creates uncertainties and necessitates compromises.

The ongoing vociferous debate over the India-US nuclear deal, which has created a domestic political controversy in India, indicates that foreign policy has become a matter of widespread public and political interest within India. Good relations with the US are extremely important for India, but India will also have to see how its growing partnership with the US affects its other vital relationships. One of India’s biggest challenges will be to find the right balance between its relations with the US and China, a difficult neighbour with which India shares an unsettled border.

In this seminar, Mr Rajiv Sikri, former Secretary (East) of India's Ministry of External Affairs, and currently Consultant at the Institute of South Asian Studies (ISAS), shared his insights on how globalisation and other forces are affecting India's foreign policy orientation, and the prospects for the India-US-China triangular relationship. The seminar was chaired by Mr See Chak Mun, Singapore's former High Commissioner to India and currently Senior Advisor, Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

A View from Shell: The Future of the Energy Industry
16 November 2007
Dr Cho-Oon Khong and Dr Peter Snowdon
The two Shell scenario planners used the insights derived from developing Shell's Global Scenarios 2025 to highlight the driving forces and deep-rooted structural change taking place in the energy system. They articulated some hard truths about our energy future that must be tackled together, to meet the future challenges of more energy, secure energy and responsible energy. See Lecture Notes

Intrinsic Motivation
2 November 2007
Professor Bruno S. Frey was in Singapore as the Ministry of Trade and Industry’s Distinguished Visiting Speaker. The Centre held a special roundtable on Intrinsic Motivation featuring Professor Frey for invited guests. Professor Margit Osterloh, who co-wrote Successful Management by Motivation with Professor Frey, also contributed to the discussion.

Professor Bruno S. Frey was a Professor of Economics at the University of Constance before taking on the appointment of Professor of Economics at the University of Zurich in 1977. He is currently Head of the Chair of Economic Policy and Non-Market Economics in the Institute for Empirical Research in Economics, University of Zurich. A leading researcher and thinker in the field of welfare economics, he co-founded the Centre for Research in Economics Management and the Arts (CREMA) in Switzerland, of which he is Research Director. He is the author of numerous articles in professional journals and books, including Not Just for the Money (1997), Economics as a Science of Human Behaviour (1999), Arts & Economics (2000), Inspiring Economics (2001), Successful Management by Motivation (with Margit Osterloh, 2001), Happiness and Economics (with Alois Stutzer, 2002) and Dealing with Terrorism – Stick or Carrot? (2004).

Implications of Shi'a Assertiveness & Sectarian Tensions in Iraq
2 February 2007
Professor Amin Saikal is Director of the Centre for Arab and Islamic Studies (The Middle East & Central Asia) and Professor of Political Science at the Australian National University.

2006 Roundtables