Social protection programmes have expanded rapidly in the developing world in recent years. In Southeast Asia, the experience of the Asian Financial Crisis of the 1990s heightened awareness of vulnerability to poverty and the role of government in protecting households from a sudden loss of...

The paper examines the global production value chain in Singapore’s services sector. Specifically, it explores some of the key activities related to the retail value chain in the country. Based on the experience of other major economies, the productivity and competitiveness of the retail...

This paper provides an overview of Singapore’s inequality since 2000. Upon examining empirical indicators reflecting different aspects of inequality, there seems to be a divergence between largely stable macro-level trends and “felt” inequality experienced by citizens. While the empirical...

This paper discusses Singapore's progress in implementing the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) and tries to explore whether the city-state has encountered any domestic conflict whilst doing so. It concludes that being a highly trade- and FDI-dependent economy, it is in Singapore's national...