Euston Quah

The economic cost of particulate air pollution on health in Singapore

Abstract The rapid process of urbanization and industrialization in developing countries and newly industrialized countries (NIC) over the past few decades has resulted in degradation in air quality in these countries. However, accompanying this phenomenon has been the growing realization that economic development and environmental management are mutually supporting goals. The paper attempts to address this concern by estimating the economic cost of particulate air pollution on health in Singapore. Using the damage function/dose response approach, the mortality and morbidity effects of particulate air pollution on the population of Singapore are estimated. In addition, the economic values of these health impacts are also calculated in terms of the statistical lives which could be saved and the cost of illness incurred. The results show that the cost of particulate air pollution (PM10) in Singapore is substantial both in absolute and relative terms. It is estimated that the total economic cost US

Mothers, Maids and Tutors: An Empirical Evaluation of their Effect on Children's Academic Grades in Singapore

3662 million is about 4.31% of Singapore’s GDP in 1999. The findings thus strengthen the assertion that policy-makers should not ignore the environment in their pursuit for economic progress.

Transboundary Pollution in Southeast Asia: The Indonesian Fires

Abstract As female labour force participation in the workforce increases in Singapore, the basic economic unit—the home—has become wealthier, although arguably at the expense of both personal and family leisure. Yet with additional income, breadwinners are better able to undertake investment for their own well‐being or their childrens well‐being that can offset the net loss of utility associated with less leisure. Concomitantly, it is common to find a domestic helper living with a Singapore family and other specialist helpers such as paid home tutors, who come to the home. This paper examines how this new investment vis‐à‐vis new home variables affects a childs overall academic performance. Primarily, the effects of a mothers choice to work, the presence of either tutors or domestic helpers and the effects of different investment strategies to raise a childs qualitative attributes. The paper asserts that how a child performs academically is less dependent on his/her choice of time use; rather, it is the number of qualitative benefits the child receives in the home environment. The conventional wisdom of ‘the more the better’ is questioned by the results of this study, arguing instead that diminishing returns set in far quicker when over‐investment in the child takes place.

The siting problem of NIMBY facilities: cost -- benefit analysis and auction mechanisms

Abstract Uncontrollable forest fires in Indonesia have caused much environmental damage in Southeast Asia with immediate countries such as Singapore, Malaysia, Brunei, and even Southern Thailand bearing most of it. The intentional burning of forests has engendered a transboundary haze pollution problem with severe economic ramifications in both victim and perpetrator countries. This paper reviews the related issues and suggested policy responses from the different interdisciplinary perspectives. Identification and analysis by way of a “stakeholders approach” to the possible sharing of costs in certain programs to combat the fires and haze is suggested. The paper also discusses the role of economic incentives in managing forest fires.

Pricing a scenic view: the case of Singapore's East Coast Park

In this paper the authors discuss the characteristics of NIMBY (‘not in my backyard’) facilities as they relate to the impacts on the local neighbourhood. They evaluate the available conflict-resolution instalments used for the siting of NIMBY facilities, and in particular aim to suggest two alternative auction mechanisms for localities affected by these facilities, Some considerations for general compensation schemes arc also presented. Here, efficiency and some cost – benefit rules for compensation are suggested. Finally, some equity concerns are discussed.

Valuing family household production: a contingent evaluation approach

Landscapes and scenic views are often changed by economic development. This paper uses a contingent evaluation survey to determine the total economic value of a major park in Singapore—the East Coast Park. Given the small size of Singapore, the paper shows how values for option, existence and use can be derived from the frequency of visits to the park. It highlights the socio-economic characteristics of environmentally conscious Singaporeans. The results show that the value of the East Coast Park is 0.1% to 0.3% of Singapores 1997 GDP. When the estimates are assumed to grow with income, the present value of this perpetual flow of benefits amounted to between S

An assessment of four popular auction mechanisms in the siting of NIMBY facilities: some experimental evidence

2.1 to S

Use of damage schedules in environmental valuation: The case of urban Singapore

7.2 billion. The feasibility, usefulness and applicability in an Asian setting of the contingent valuation method is demonstrated.

Country studies and the value of household production

The time of family members is often refgarded as an important input used in family household production. Unlike existing methods used in the valuation of the time spent in home production, namely the opportunity cost of time and the replacement cost method, a contingent evaluation approach is proposed here. Consistent with the way non-market goods an services are valued, the method essentially elicits people’s willingness to pay for household production whilst taking into account opportunity costs. Particular attention is also paid to the objective of valuation - whether it is for GNP accounting, matrimonial property settlements or for welfare and compensation issues - and the appropriate measures to be used - marginal, total and net valuation. Using a model of home production, these different meaures of economic value are distinguished both conceptually and in their uses. The results from a modest study of household production using the methods described here are presented. These results are then compare...

Modelling Transboundary Air Pollution in Southeast Asia: Policy Regime and the Role of Stakeholders

The issue of locating locally unfriendly but socially beneficial facilities such as landfills and power stations is an important public policy concern in many countries. Local residents in the area where such facilities are to be located tend to exhibit strong opposition, no doubt due to the asymmetric distribution of the costs and benefits of such not-in-my-backyard (NIMBY) facilities. A potentially useful mechanism for the siting of such facilities is by compensation auctions, which attempt to incorporate the market mechanism into the decision making process. In such auctions, communities name the compensation they require to host such facilities, and the community demanding the least amount of compensation gets to host the facility. This research attempts to evaluate the performance of such compensation auctions using laboratory exepriments. Four popular auction formats are evaluated: first- and second-price and all-pay first-and second-price sealed-bid auctions. The latter two formats correspond to the compensation auctions with penalty payments proposed by Kunreuther and Kleindorfer (1986) and Quah and Tan (1998), who claim that these auctions are more efficient as they restrains strategic (or over) bidding. Our results, however, contradict this claim. We show that the first-and second-price auctions without penalty payments are in fact more efficient, in that they tend to minimize social costs, and truthful bidding is more likely.