Kiasunomics‪©‬

Have you ever wondered whether individuals born in the year of the Dragon are truly blessed? Or why you can't find a taxi when you need one? What about the effects of superstitious beliefs on housing prices? Kiasunomics© explores these issues and more in a series of stories through the lens of Teng, the protagonist of this book. Told in a conversational story-telling style yet grounded on rigorous research, the book explains the influences and outcomes of the decisions we make, using simple economic logic. The book follows the life journey of Teng — from birth to adulthood — and examines how seemingly innocuous decisions bear economic consequences on his life. It starts with the decision by Teng's parents to have him as a Dragon baby and shows how this decision affects not only his education but also his career and spending in the long term. The grown-up Teng in later chapters, is a taxi driver who learns that the daily budgeting of finances from many of his taxi-driving friends has proven to be poor financial planning. The story also shows how his purchase of a flat based on superstitious beliefs, and its location near a primary school and a Mass Rapid Transit station influences prices, and with some surprising results. This book touches the man on the street with issues that many Singaporeans can identify with. These include how Singaporeans' shopping in Johor affects their spending and savings; how different shoppers respond variedly to predictable promotions such as the Great Singapore Sale; how the haze or a mere nearby construction site affects water and electricity consumption; how playing golf elevates women's opportunities to sit on corporate boards; how Singaporeans' travel patterns are affected by their opinion towards public transportation; and how retirement poses financial challenges in silver years. These and many more are unravelled in the 20 stand-alone chapters through the authors' application of their research findings to day-to-day issues. Kiasunomics© brings to light that research can be made relevant to our daily living. Research helps us make sense of what we do and with that, we can learn to make better decisions for a smarter thinking nation.Contents: Acknowledgements Note from the Authors List of Acronyms Glossary of Singlish Terms Introduction Dragon Baby, There Are So Many of You Taxi Driver, Where Are You? New Wife, New Life To Johor, to Johor, to Buy That Nice Dress Gentlemen, Start Your Engines Ladies, Ready, Get Set, Shop Muthu, Don't Be Reckless Mind Your 4s and 8s Circling Up Tolls and Trolls New House, New Friends Lady, Do You Want to Tee off? Papa, Don't Forget to Switch off the Lights Mama, Don't Forget to Switch on the Air-con Boy Boy, Go to a Good School Smoke Gets in Your Eyes Girl, Shower Faster, Save Water Auntie, We Paint Your Flat Vegetable Seller, Why So Expensive? Teng, Are You Grown Up? About the Authors Readership: General readers. Keywords:Kiasu;Singaporeans;Economic Behaviours;GST;RetirementReview: "Penned in an appealing, conversational style, Kiasunomics© provides deep insights into how we can make better decisions in a complex world, if we knew what research has found. It provokes readers to reflect and pose questions of their own. I'm delighted that research at National University of Singapore has created practical impact for the nation and beyond." Professor Tan Eng Chye Deputy President (Academic Affairs) and Provost, National University of Singapore "I marvel at how the NUS professors can weave their research findings into a storybook. It's enlightening to see how much Economics can affect us. People will find this book interesting to read and benefit from their research." Dr William Fung Group Managing Director Li & Fung Group "Everyone interested in the value of big data can benefit from this book. The authors have been able to marry deep data analytics with empirical observations to come up with extremely interesting insights. In addition, the storytelling nature...