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Land and buildings form a significant portion of the national wealth in most economies, but in Singapore and Hong Kong, two small city-states where land is scarce, real estate has an important role in the functioning of the whole economy. Transnational property and development companies are important players in Singapore and Hong Kong. They form an important part of the local stock market and have enjoyed considerable growth while providing substantial revenue for governments and wealth for individuals. Because of this important role, the paper redescribes Singapore and Hong Kong as property states, not rent-seeking economies as the term rent is usually used in discussing Asian capitalism. The importance of real estate, an immobile asset, is not only surprising in a global era defined in part by the mobility of capital, but also because in Singapore and Hong Kong land is publicly owned. The paper attempts to explain the anomaly by analysing the land allocation mechanisms in Singapore and Hong Kong. In spite of their similarities, real estate markets in Singapore and Hong Kong exhibit several differences, linked in turn to different policy options for their management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the determinants of foreign direct investment (FDI) from Singapore to two main host destinations: China and Hong Kong. It allows policy makers and researchers to understand the differences/similarities in the determinants of FDI from Singapore to a developing country, China, and a developed country, Hong Kong. Annual time series data covers the period 1994 to 2014 is used. Commonly used determinants, such as gross domestic product per capita of a host country, gross domestic product per capita of Singapore, real interest rate of a host country and trade openness of a host country are utilized to study Singapore's outward FDI (OFDI). Because the sample has only 21 observations, autoregressive distributed lag based bounds testing approach to cointegration developed by Pesaran, Shin & Smith (2001) is used to estimate cointegrating regression among these variables. This approach is an appropriate econometric estimation technique because the estimated long-run coefficients obtained from the reparameterization of an ARDL model are super-consistent even in small sample size. The main findings show that gross domestic product per capita of a host country attracts FDI from Singapore to each of these countries. It is also observed that higher interest rates in these two host countries attract Singapore's FDI. The degree of openness of China influences the flows of Singapore's FDI to China positively, but not for Hong Kong. It is a surprise that this empirical study is unable to find evidence that gross domestic product per capita of Singapore has an influence on its own FDI outflows. The overall results reveal that the motives of multinational corporations (MNCs) from Singapore to invest abroad typically differ between developing and developed economies, depending upon their respective competitive advantages. In general, MNCs invest in more advanced economies, such as Hong Kong, due to its purchasing power and market potential. Same goes for the developing markets, such as China, that consists of cheaper labor and large market opportunities. For the developing economies, trade liberalization is proved to be the pull factor that attracts MNCs. The more open an economy, the greater the attraction it has to MNCs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hong Kong has maintained a pegged exchange rate since 1983, while Singapore has been on a floating regime since the early 1970s. This paper provides an interpretation of the different performance of the Hong Kong and Singapore economy that could be attributable to the differences in their exchange rate regime. We develop a model that can help to interpret the differences in both the longer run trends in inflation and real exchange rates in Hong Kong and Singapore as well as the short differences in macroeconomic and real exchange rate volatility. The difference in the response of the two economies to the Asian crisis is also consistent with our model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The economic success of some of the countries within the East Asian region has generated a range of studies which have attempted to identify the sources of that growth. One strand within these analyses has focused on the critical role of schooling in the accumulation of human capital. This paper examines the role which education has played in the rapid development of the four 'Asian Tigers'; namely: Hong Kong, Taiwan, South Korea and Singapore. It is argued that whilst patterns of educational provision displayed some common features there were also significant differences in other areas such as the role of the state, sources of educational funding, the role of technical education and of the school curriculum. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article conceptualizes the financial policy regimes of London, Hong Kong, Singapore and Shanghai, in the process of comparing and contrasting the sociopolitical relations that exist within the four cities. Based on the data collected from extensive field research, I identify four distinct financial policy regimes. First, a combination of low state intervention and influential industry actors in London reflects a financial policy regime that features dominant industry interest groups. While Hong Kong similarly features low state intervention, its industry actors are not influential. In contrast, financial sector development in Singapore features a ‘cocreation’ of financial policies by a close-knit network of state and industry actors. Lastly, Shanghai’s financial policy regime is largely dominated by state actors from both the central and local levels. By delineating and analyzing the policy regimes of the four international financial centers (IFCs), this article provides the first step toward a clearer and more critical understanding of how sociopolitical relations impact IFC development. In the process, it extends the analysis of IFCs beyond conventional neoliberal understandings of economic development. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

A model of corporate ethics and social responsibility (CESR) was developed and empirically tested among Chinese business undergraduates in Hong Kong and Singapore. As predicted, it was found that CESR beliefs were negatively related to Machiavellianism and two Confucian concepts, guanxi (interpersonal connections) and mianzi (face). CESR beliefs were also lower among Hong Kong than Singaporean youths. The negative effects of guanxi, mianzi, and Machiavellianism were more pronounced for the Hong Kong than Singapore sample. Implications of these findings are discussed and directions for future research suggested. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on Asian countries that have experienced economic growth over the past 50 years including Hong Kong, China; Japan; Singapore; South Korea and Taiwan. With the exception of Hong Kong, the economic success of the Asian countries has been attributed to the interventionist framework. Export-orientation is one strategy that is most associated with the success of the five Asian countries. The export-oriented strategy helped the five Asian countries in many ways. The ensuring growth of employment enabled the country to save and accumulate capital for reinvestment. The export-oriented strategy also positively affects the competitive advantages of the country. There are other non-economic factors, such as culture, the need to survive, strong government, historical factors and even luck, that could have helped in the development process of these countries. Policy-makers must know how to use the total-systems approach to solving economic problems. In other words, policy-makers must know how to analyse their economies as complex systems.