Kiasunomics 2: Economic Insights For Everyday Life

by Sumit Agarwal, Swee Hoon Ang, Tien Foo Sing

Have you ever wondered how one can save from taxi rides during surge pricing? Why you would shop more under sunny weather? What effects does a bankrupt neighbour have on residents living in the estate? How do people perceive risks during the coronavirus pandemic? Kiasunomics©2 explores these issues and more in a light-hearted and easy-to-understand manner, by showing the economic ramifications of individual choices through the lens of Teng, the protagonist of this book, and his family and friends. Based on research from the National University of Singapore, the book explains the influences and consequences of the decisions made by all of us, using simple economic logic.This sequel to , a finalist at the Singapore Book Awards 2018, fast forwards a couple of years and follows Teng in his mid-career as a taxi driver. Ferrying passengers for a living, Teng has to grapple with challenges arising from ride hailing services. As one of the breadwinners in a three-generation household, Teng's ability to make wise financial decisions in a fast-changing world becomes increasingly important in attaining his dream of moving his family up the socio-economic ladder.This book covers hot and timely topics, which falling prices of old Housing and Development Board flats, rising land prices, wealth disparity among households, the Central Provident Fund retirement policy, regulation of car population, ride hailing services, mobile payments, and the coronavirus pandemic. These are unravelled through the authors' application of research findings.The book brings to light the relevance of research, often seen as esoteric, on our daily life and decision making. It also bears on policy implications, particularly issues on transportation, health, housing, and retirement.

Genres: Economics

327 pages, Kindle Edition

Published August 27, 2020

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

[Celeste · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nice book in that the economics focuses on the heartland and what you would imagine the average Singaporean household to care about.

Nice idea to publicise one’s academic research by transforming academic essays into a book for the masses (not unlike Eating Chili crab in the Anthropocene). Very interesting findings on housing and pollution that would be of interest to millennials as first home-owners of HDBs:
- Values of HDBs actually depreciate much slower than leasehold private properties (so Singaporeans should really stop complaining about the subsidised public housing that they get to benefit from) because the government will engage in home improvement programs and upgrading schemes more “willingly” (*cough* nearer an election) than private condo developers
- Singapore government astutely levying additional income taxes on people who quickly sold their HDB after the 5-year mark— this would weed out buyers who bought subsidised housing for investment rather than personal consumption and help disincentivise speculation and curb property prices
- When you sell off your BTO (?) HDB and upgrade to a bigger/ private flat with your proceeds, you are actually transferring subsidy from the government to private property purchases
- The more money you make off a housing sale, the more you will shirk at work (*thinks about the rich Shanghainese and how astronomical profits from housing investment in the 80s might affect one’s views of honest work*)
- Chinese factories pollute more after sunset because it becomes harder to spot pollution in the dark
- Chinese banks used credit card loan forgiveness as a conduit for bribery (!!! Makes me mad thinking about all the kids of well connected Chinese businessmen or government officials who paid their way into admission into more prestigious US schools with a completely fake admissions profile and how it set them up for future success... like a friend of a friend who went to USC and then levelled up to INSEAD for her MBA. And the attitude of someone in school who really wants something and fights for it vs someone who seemingly has it handed down to them, has no qualms using bribed money to buy Hermes bags and at the same time turn a blind eye to poor farmers’ plights in the provinces where rich people can just act with impunity.)
- Funny acronyms to explain working past retirement age — “AEIOU” Active, Enjoy, Independent, Outgoing, Useful.

Not so subtle insertion of oneself as characters inside the book...

Felt a bit like I was reading the Singapore government’s mouthpiece at times, with the CPF retirement and the saving energy chapter. But an interesting insight into how policy is disseminated from the top (Singapore committing to Paris Agreement goals) to the bottom (NEA disseminating messages in hawker centers to save energy).

[Nicole · Rating 1 out of 5]

thank god i didn't buy this book because the tone is SO elitist. classic singapore. any interesting economic insights (of which, as a research field, already makes me snore) were obscured by the talking-down-to-you tone.

[Xavier Tan · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fun book that seeks to distill (otherwise dry) economic research papers to the popular level in the form of a narrative – and interaction between familiar uncles and aunties and their neighbours (even if one of them is a university professor). Some economic phenomena this book lays out and explains include:
• When it drizzles, taxi supply increases by 0.37%, but when it pours (and surge pricing drives up the price), taxi supply drops (rather than rises) by 2.3%
• When there is surge pricing, a passenger can save 18% on average by booking a metered taxi rather than a Grab
• After a discount on early MRT rides for a limited time (10 weeks), even after the reward ends, those who were rewarded for the period continue to ride the MRT earlier than those who did not receive any reward (though the enter and exit times were later than the reward period). This is possibly due to habit formation.
• In the first 10 years, HDB flats depreciate 1% faster than private leaseholds, but after 20 years, private leaseholds depreciate at a much faster rate than HDB flats
• Good weather increases the value amount spent by consumers
• A property agent buying property for themselves pays 3% less than a non-agent on average. These agent-buyers pay lower prices compared to non-agents when buying from "distressed" sellers (i.e. sellers seeking to quickly sell their properties, eg. due to family emergencies), but this difference does not exist when agent-buyers buy from sellers who own multiple properties.
• China's increase in capital gains tax led to an underreporting in prices and, with that, wealthy buyers were more likely to buy a house than buys who need financing (due to the latter's interest to report a higher purchase price to secure higher bank financing diverging from a seller's interest to report a lower purchase price to avoid tax)
• Introduction of QR code payments increased small-value transactions (<$100) by 114%, and large-value transactions by 88%. This is accompanied by a significant increase in card sales for small merchants (spillover effect)
• A 'no-bargaining' rule increases profits of sellers with low reputation and revenue from non-promotion products more than other sellers and products respectively
• Due to HDB's Ethnic Integration Policy, chinese buyers pay an additional cash over value ("COV", the difference between the transaction and appraisal price of the HDB flat) of $95-$115/sqm (depending on whether the quota is block- or neighbourhood-level) where the 87% limit is near or has been reached, and $66/sqm or lower (depending on present concentration of chinese) where the limit is not reached. Malay sellers incur a COV discount when selling to Malay buyers, but over 90% of Malay sellers choose to sell to Malay buyers, incurring the COV discount.
• Neighbours living in the same block as bankrupts decrease their spending by up to 5%
• Based on data from 1995-2018, there is high intergenerational persistence in housing wealth for the top 20th percentile in housing wealth, and the bottom 60th percentile demonstrate the greatest mobility in housing wealth. However, children of middle-income parents (60th-80th percentile) are worse off than their parents in terms of intergenerational housing wealth.

[Peixuan Chua · Rating 5 out of 5]

very easy to digest the concepts.. will recommend to people who are keen to understand slightly deeper on some of the "happenings" in Singapore

[v · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5/5
could have been presented in a slightly more readable and simplified way especially if this was intended for a more general audience(?) but i did think the case studies were very interesting and it was a cute showcase of some of the quirkier economic research done in singapore!