Kiasunomics©: Stories Of Singaporean Economic Behaviours

by Sumit Agarwal, Swee Hoon Ang, Tien Foo Sing

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.


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

General readers.
Kiasu;Singaporeans;Economic Behaviours;GST; "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

267 pages, Kindle Edition

Published November 10, 2017

About the author

Sumit Agarwal, MD, MLA Group of Industries, Kanpur was born in 1975. After completing his five year integrated course in Chemistry and a minor in management from IIT Kanpur, MBA-Marketing from NM Institute, he is now managing a group of chemical manufacturing industries in Kanpur (www.mlagroup.com )

A strong nationalist at heart, he is running an NGO, PRERNA (www.prernaa.org ), which is dedicated to the development of a stronger India. PRERNA is currently partnering management of 6 adopted government primary schools with an objective to facilitate best quality education in Government schools. He has been awarded by the Governer of UP for his contribution to primary education. He is also the founder of Kasauti, a consortium of NGOs to aid clean and answerable politics.

Through his first book “The Four Patriots” he aims to introduce and popularize a new genre- patriotic fiction, to encourage and inspire people to actively participate in the country’s development. Apart from the fact that the book is being published by Rupa Publishers, the leading publishing house in the country, the story has already been adopted for a movie by a leading production house.

He is also a music composer, lyricist, singer and writer. Over the last two years, he has composed many soulful songs based on relationships, patriotism and human emotions. Two of his songs have been aired on MTV Indies this year. His music videos can be viewed on his Youtube Channel, Sumit Agarwal,or on his website www.sumitagarwal.net.

An adept multi-tasker, he is also a speaker on topics related to nation building, work life balance and multi-tasking.

Reviews

[Priscillia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book, my only grouse is that the additional materials (ie the research papers) can be up on a dedicated or academia website for readers like me who would like to read the research in its entirety. The common reader will not be able to access the research via the bibliography alone as some journals and portals may be restricted.

[Bucky Hussain · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great book to convince the typical Singaporean that thinking like an economist (and in general applying curiosity to your life) is important. I felt like the authors were always scratching the surface in terms of how much detail they went into. I hungered for more but I recognize that the target audience are probably satisfied with the level of granularity here.

[Alan Hughes · Rating 3 out of 5]

With an interest in Singapore (married to a Singaporean) and in economics, I thought that this was an entertaining read. I thought the writers had targeted it at locals with a possible general interest in behaviour economics. The nagging voice in the back of my head at times was it promotes government policy but that’s a minor point. Enjoyable.

[Yves · Rating 2 out of 5]

I attended the "premiere" at my local library during which most of the books' few puny findings were revealed by two of the three authors. Shoddy narrative borders the infantile. Does not pass the test of Singapore standards for Excellence. Proceeds go to a good cause: Scholarships.

[Jason L. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good info for those living and staying in Singapore. Would recommend the author to use less Singlish and fillers and go straight to the point next time. It’s a good book nevertheless!

[Rithik · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is my first book on research papers in the form of stories. Although the stories are not compelling, they are better for a layman to understand crux of research in economics.

[Sheng Xin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very engaging and easy to understand for people with no economics or finance background. Through this book, my appreciation for academia papers have grown significantly due to how relatable it is to our daily lives.

[Philipp · Rating 3 out of 5]

A book about typical singapore economic behaviour (like CPF, taxi drivers, buying HDB etc.)

[Tiffany · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting but simplistic