Chew Ging Lee

Foreign direct investment, pollution and economic growth: evidence from Malaysia

The bounds test developed by Pesaran et al. (2001) is applied to examine the existence of a long-run relationship between foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows, pollution and output of Malaysia. Granger causality tests are also utilized to test for the presence of the short-run and long-run causal relationship between these variables. Both FDI inflows and pollution have short-run causal relationship on output. Output only has long-run causal relationship on FDI inflows.

Tourism, trade, and income: evidence from Singapore

This paper examines the short-run and long-run dynamic interactions between exports, imports, international tourism, and economic growth for Singapore using annual data over 1980–2007. Since the sample size is relatively small, the long-run relationship of these variables is investigated with the bounds test. Granger causality test is then used to examine the dynamic interactions of these variables. The results suggest that the dynamic interactions of these four variables are complex. The results support growth-led tourism, tourism-led imports, and export-led tourism hypotheses in the short run. The results also show that imports have positive effects on economic growth in the long run. It is also found that tourism has indirect effects on economic growth in the long run through import activities. There is a bidirectional causal relationship between exports and income, which, in turn, affects the tourism industry.

Outward Foreign Direct Investment and Economic Growth: Evidence from Japan

Abstract This article aims at analysing the role of foreign direct investment (FDI) outflows in economic performance and the impact of economic growth on outward FDI with the data from Japan. Bivariate and multivariate Granger causality frameworks have been used in this study. The results suggest that the conclusion of bivariate framework may not be valid because it allows omission of important variables. The results of the multivariate framework show that there is a long-run positive unidirectional causality from outward FDI to gross domestic product (GDP) per capita. In the short-run, both per capita income and outward FDI do not allow Granger causality.

Research Note: The Convergence Hypothesis for Tourism Markets: Evidence from Singapore

This research note takes a brief empirical look at the convergence hypothesis in terms of long-run convergence and convergence as catching up, using data from Singapore over two periods. The findings suggest that in the recent period, international visitor arrivals in Singapore from either Africa or Europe are catching up with those from Asia. The international visitor arrivals in Singapore from either the Americas or Oceania are converging with those from Asia. The international visitor arrivals in Singapore from Europe are diverging from those of Asia in the earlier period.

English Language and Economic Growth: Cross-Country Empirical Evidence

This paper addresses the effect of English proficiency on economic growth empirically with Barro-type cross-sectional growth regression. The empirical results provide evidence of positive correlation between initial English proficiency and economic growth only for the countries in the Asia and Europe. Therefore, countries with higher levels of English proficiency among the fraction of its population are likely to grow faster. This paper suggests that the ability to absorb knowledge is positively related to the level of English proficiency. It implies that the level of English proficiency can be viewed as a component of human capital.

Determinants of Singapore's Outward FDI

Outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) has been an important element in Singapore’s economic strategy since the 1990s, with the government providing direct and indirect support to the internationalization process. Recent OFDI trends indicate that China has become an important destination for Singapore. In ASEAN, Singapore’s main investment markets are Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand. Singapore’s OFDI has important sectoral dimensions, supported by evidence from econometric analysis. It is also important to distinguish between OFDI stock and flows.

Short-run and long-run causalities between happiness, income and unemployment in Japan

This article examines the short-run and long-run causal interactions between happiness and two economic variables in Japan, namely, unemployment and income. Results suggest that whilst more rapid economic growth and lower levels of unemployment are important in raising people’s well-being in the short run, it is the relative growth performance of the economy that matters in the long run.

Electricity consumption and international tourism: the case of Singapore

International inbound tourists consume electricity of a destination either directly or indirectly. Despite the recognition of potential effect of international tourism on electricity consumption, not many papers have investigated the existence of such relationship empirically. This research note intends to fill the existing literature gap by determining such relationship with time-varying volatility models using the data of Singapore. A GARCH-M(1,1) model is selected. This model indicates that industrial production and total international inbound tourists have positive effects on electricity consumption. The model also suggests that the variability of electricity consumption has a positive effect on electricity consumption.

Long-run causality between customer satisfaction and financial performance: the case of Marriott

ABSTRACT Prior research that examines the relationship between customer satisfaction and financial performance (FP) in the hotel sector assumes that changes in customer satisfaction lead to changes in the FP of hotels. This research note aims to bridge the gap by looking into the possibility that FP of hotels may lead to increase in customer satisfaction with the annual data of Marriott from 1995 to 2016. To study the existence of long-run interactions between customer satisfaction and FP with firm size that is proxied by number of employees as the control variable under small sample size condition, the presence of cointegration among these variables with different appropriate dependent variable is investigated with the bounds testing approach. The obtained results suggest that there is a positive long-run causality from FP to customer satisfaction, and customer satisfaction has no effect on FP in the long-run. This study also finds that firm size has no impact on customer satisfaction. Explanation on each of these findings is provided in the conclusion. The selected sample and availability of data limit the generalisability of the findings of this study. Different hotel brands, measurements and analysis techniques will further the understanding in this field.

Floor-level premiums in private housing: the case of condominiums in Singapore

ABSTRACT Using a sample consists of 3367 actual condominium sales transacted in resale market from May 2012 to April 2015 from the Singapore Urban and Redevelopment Authority, a hedonic pricing model is used to investigate for the presence of floor-level premiums in the private housing market, condominium, in District 23 of Singapore. Unit size, types of land tenure and the distance to the nearest mass rapid transit (MRT) station are also used as other independent variables. The estimated coefficient of each of these independent variables is statistically significant. Each of these independent variables also has positive estimated coefficient, suggesting that they have positive effects on condominium resale prices. Main findings are (a) there is a presence of floor-level premium; (b) the condominiums with a distance more than 400 m to the MRT station get higher resale prices; and (c) there is an increasing effect of floor level on condominium price.