I applied to do academic research under the supervision of Howard Pack. My research will focus on government-chaebol relations from the perspective or risk-sharing and capital allocation role of the government. I hope to draw from this research lessons which China can learn from in managing its relationship with its state-owned entities. I will submit part of this essay to fulfill my requirements for my Hist 107 course on comparative capitalist societies.

I also recently received my Hist 107 short paper where I wrote on “Industrial Policy as Necessary Substitute for Market Arrangements in Modernization Process”. I am quite happy with the paper as it allowed me to explore the role of governments in “modernization”. I am also satisfied as the professor told me that I got one of the less than 5 A+ which he has given out in this course since he started teaching it many years ago.

The abstract:

In this paper, I argue that industrial policy exercised by the visible hand of the government is necessary in the ‘modernization’ of societies. This is made necessary by market failures inherent in developing economies, which frequently lack secondary institutional arrangement essential for forming competitive markets. My paper suggests how this is consistent with Rostow’s, Gerschernkron’s, Chalmers’, and Haber’s disbelief in market-led self-coordinating efforts towards modernization. I will provide economic analysis of the examples raised by them, and thus develop further the logic underlying Rostow’s and Chalmers’ support of a government-led process of modernization.

I have posted the paper here. I think the paper can benefit from a fuller explanation and elaboration but I do not have the time for it at this moment.

(West Philly, USA) A typical door at Sayre High School, where I am working on a prototype school-based communty health center and a college prep program.

The first thing that struck me when I visited Sayre School in West Philadelphia was how the doors would automatically lock once they were shut. It could only be opened from the inside. It was a hassle, and every time I went out of a room, I had to knock on the door to get someone to open it for me.

Initially, this struck me as being rather strange. However, as I walked around the school, I noticed the ubiquitous security features absent from my high school life. I noticed that some doors to classrooms and offices were reinforced by iron grilles. Some were adorned with shattered glass such as the one featured above. These images reminded me that I was in a school where violence and crime was a part of everyday life. I believe that environment plays a big part in shaping the individual and this was certainly not an environment where students can be shaped to their fullest potential.

Having lived in a school surrounded by barb wired fences before, I always wondered if security was meant to keep people out or to keep people in. In placing the iron grilles on doors, what kind of message are we sending to students? How does this siege mentality contribute to their attitudes towards their teachers, or their self-esteem?

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A note from my Prof when I mentioned that I wanted to skip his class for a talk on ‘Globalization and Equlibrium Inflation Output Tradeoffs’:

You can miss class anytime the marginal costs of attending outweigh the marginal benefits of the next best alternative. I intend to send out an outline of the topics to be covered Tuesday, since there is so much to cram into the last session before the quiz. That should help you prepare.

PROF

(Tokyo, Japan) This man was entertaining students in the park with his anime-ish antics.

I followed Linda to attend an anime club today to take a break from the intense routine of 7am to 12 midnight 7 days a week work schedule which I set for myself. (Note however that work is a misnomer since aside from the clubs and research that I am involved in, I have a lot of dinner meetings with friends and attend a lot of enrichment talks such as the one on Contemporary North Korea.)

Initially, I had my misgivings about attending the meet, considering that my only anime exposure was through Pin (who is not so far away at Columbia). Well, the people were as expected really into anime. The number of anime puns flying around was crazy (with me and even Linda being unable to understand most of them). However, I was glad I went as the geek culture is fun to indulge in at times. The people were innocent in their interests. No positions to jockey for. Just food, interesting anime and friendly banter! I will be going back for more…

Oh, and did I mentioned the bashful admission by three guys at the meet that their favorite anime was Sailormoon?

I just love some of the professors here for their humor, humility and accessibility. One of them who is retired but is still teaching for my program, and who was at the forefront of the Cliometrics revolution, had the following email conversation with me:

Attached is the first installment in my campaign to convince you that economic stories are all around you.

The blogs I mentioned last time are Brad DeLong and Marginal Revolution. Google them, if you wish.

PROF

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Thanks for the article. Doubt the author will agree with a Tobin tax. Aren’t Brad DeLong and Marginal Revolution conservative economists?

Cheers,
Oikono

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I have to confess I had to look up “Tobin Tax.” I predict a highly successful Wharton career if you are willing to play “Stump the Professor” during your first week at Penn. Of course, I may be easier to stump than most Penn professors.

In answer to your query, if you believe with me that speculation is an equilibrating force, ceteris paribus, you would probably also feel that a tax on short-term currency trading (so-called hot money) would slow the return to equilibrium and is therefore a bad policy choice. I might add that I believe successful short-term currency traders are those who haven’t gone broke yet.

Brad DeLong is very interventionist, and Tyler Cowan and Alex Tabarrak are libertarians in their normative prescriptions. They often cite each other on positive economic analysis. It is worth pointing out that most professional economists can still conduct civil discussions with each other on economic matters, regardless of ideological stance. I wish liberal and conservative politicians could claim the same common ground.

PROF

(Philly, USA) The contradictions of a society that is so rich and yet has so much poverty

Before we can address the benefits which Penn would obtain from a West-Philadelphia community and school partnership, we have to examine the underlying mission of the university and place the benefits within this contextual framework. The university’s benefits are driven by the university’s mission, which in turn is driven by societal needs.

Provision of Public Goods Basis for Societal Needs

I argue that societal needs are predicated on the provision of public goods and base this premise on Galbraith’s argument (1998) that we live in an “affluent society”. Having met the material private needs for the majority of society through free markets, we need to turn our attention to the relative poverty in public goods, which cannot be adequately provided by free markets. The provision of public goods does not lie only in the government’s domain but also with the multitude of social institutions that comprise society, of which universities and Penn are a part of. As Sullivan (1999) argues, the university is a “great influence…as a shaper of outlooks” and hence, functions as a “public institution”. Public goods can take the form of fighting poverty, providing healthcare or providing democratic leadership…etc.

The prestige of university depends on its socially useful role. In an affluent society, economic production will be de-emphasized, as goods produced are of limited urgency. Hence, the prestige accruing to producers will decline. Thus, it is this impetus that Bill Gates and other wealthy individuals have to bolster their reputation and prestige through philanthropy. Similarly, the continued prestige of Penn will depend on its ability to serve a socially beneficial role through provision of public goods, rather than its ability to produce wealthy professionals.

Penn Mission and Benefits

In seeing that the mission of the university is aligned with service to the community, the question of how Penn benefits from working with the community answers itself. The main benefit is since Penn exists for the community, it fulfills its mission by working for the community. Penn also derives prestige by serving its community and fulfilling its social role. Hence, in working with the West Philadelphia community, Penn bolsters its own image and reputation.

As a university fulfilling a social role, but with students trapped in an environment still geared towards production, Penn benefits from community involvement through the humanizing effect which such service entails. Through interacting with West Philadelphia, and realizing the poverty exists in the community, the community allows Penn to transform its students into the socially aware citizens, which it should produce in line with its Mission. The awareness of social issues promoted by such an exercise also helps train democratic-minded citizens.

If community service and public goods provision function are overriding responsibilities of Penn, then every course should be, as far as possible, linked to educating students to provide these functions. Thus, the presence of real social problems present in Philadelphia provides incredible learning opportunities for Penn students. In involving students with real-world problems, Penn provides experiential learning, a far superior learning experience that solves the “inert knowledge problem” raised by Saltmarsh and Hollander (2000).

It is not just learning opportunities that are created; co-creation of socially useful knowledge also occurs. In collaborating with the community, Penn benefits from access to direct observation of social problems, as well as the ability to mine data from the community. This knowledge created applies directly to Penn’s mission, and is a valuable university resource.

Bibliography

Galbraith, John Kenneth. 1998. The Affluent Society. Mariner Books.

Sullivan, William M. 1999.The University as Citizen: Institutional Identity and Social Responsibility. Council on Public Policy Education.

Saltmarsh, John and Hollander, Elizabeth. 2000. Book Review: The Academic Benefits of Service-Learning: Research Results. American Journal of Education

(Seoul, Korea) Army kids watches as life passes them by

A person whom I know spent the last half a year (edit: its actually 18 months) in limbo hiding out in a foreign country. He was waiting for his asylum application to be processed as he was on the run from the Singaporean army, which he had served for months as a conscript before realizing that humanity should not be subjected to such indignity. During military service, he considered committing suicide and was placed in a mental institute (where conditions are truly appalling).

At first, the country was reluctant to process his application as they did not understand the sacrifice involved in subscribing oneself to a system that stood in utter disdain for freedom of action and mind. That person faced being deported back and spending years in military prison for his action, and I can almost imagine the fear and depression that he must faced in such a situation.

However, I am glad to hear that his asylum application on grounds of conscientious objection to forced military service has been approved. I am happy for him and glad that he is able to move on with his life. I served two years and two months in the military despite my strong personal objections against the lack of community service options for conscientious objectors. Those two years and two months made me happy to hear that someone else who did not fit into the rigid and inequitable structure of the Singaporean military is able to escape it. And to be able to take such risks is truly admirable. I wish the person the best in his future.

I am not against the military. I am also not entirely against conscription. However, I feel that existing terms can be significantly shortened, existing conditions drastically improved and options for conscientious objectors implemented. Those who did not conscientiously object, who did not value their freedom and individuality to similar extents, cannot understand the pain of forced conscription to the person whom I knew.

I wrote this for a class which I am sitting in on but which I am not taking officially. It involves the study of how Penn can benefit the impoverished West Philly population through academic analysis applied to social problems.

These two questions are inextricably linked as it is my identity which shaped my learning outcomes I hope to achieve.

I was born in Singapore and studied in a neighborhood school (government-run schools catering to students with poorer academic abilities and coincidentally (or not), from lower income backgrounds). Students at my middle school came from lower to middle-class backgrounds. After graduating from middle school, my grades helped me matriculate at one of the top high schools in Singapore, where students were largely wealthier. I could have lived a normal life, oblivious to the poverty and social problems around me… but I failed at this.

At high school, most of my schoolmates, having lived in elite social circles all their life, did not even know that poverty existed in Singapore. Whereas students in my high school had resources and opportunities to dream of attending Ivy League universities, teachers in my middle school told us that we should be grateful if we even made it into a university, much less a renowned university.

It is this exposure to various social circles, and the contrast in opportunities, that fueled my interests in poverty and inequality. I believe that poverty is a vicious cycle, where inequality of resources feeds into inequality of outcomes. I embarked to change this by joining a community service project to teach English and refurbish a school in rural China. My team raised $40 000. Full of idealism and enthusiasm, I embarked on a journey that changed my views on community service.

In China, I realized my team had conceived our project on poorly thought out premises. The school children did not need new computers; they needed electricity. The school children did not need new walls; they needed teachers. There was also little use of teaching them English when after we left, they would never have the opportunity to use it again. When I left, I felt that I did not create the positive impact on the community which I set out to achieve. It was a rude shock to learn that all my efforts in raising the funds and organizing the project were inconsequential. For a while, I was tempted to rationalize the experience and convince myself of its benefits. But I chose to confront the painful reality in the end. In doing so, I realized that enthusiasm was no substitute for rigorous academic analysis applied to solving practical problems.

I wanted to contribute not only enthusiastically but effectively. On my next project, I tried to approach the problem methodically and analytically. In founding ArtIntern, an organization encouraging talented students to believe in the possibility of an arts career, I analyzed the reasons for the lack of artists through interviews and data collection. I also challenged myself to think of creative ways of implementing the chosen solutions. On this project, I was both an academic and practitioner; I see no reason why the two roles must be mutually exclusive.

It is this fusion of academic thinking with practical implementation that brings me to this seminar. I appreciate the opportunity to apply academic analysis to community problems. Equally important is the opportunity to share ideas and solutions with a community of equally passionate students, and in doing so, develop better solutions.

(Shanghai, China) Working to solve poverty…I hope

I have not been updating my blog regularly since arriving at Penn as there is simply so much I want to do. In addition to the heavy workload for the Joseph Wharton Scholars class I am taking, and the Huntsman class of Comparative Capitalist Systems, the intense Management 100 class for Wharton and my Math and Chinese classes, I am attending two additional courses that interests me greatly. One of them is ‘Contemporary North Korea’ , a series of seminars led by the eminent Dr. Cameron Hurst whom I met at the Korea Conference in Seoul.

The other course is
URBAN UNIVERSITY-COMMUNITY RELATIONSHIPS (BFS)
Ira Harkavy & Lee Benson

The new Penn curriculum developed by the seminar would have as a significant component, thematic, problem-solving clusters, i.e., interrelated, cross-disciplinary, complementary sets of courses designed to stimulate and empower students to produce, not simply consumer, societally-useful knowledge. By societally-useful knowledge, we mean knowledge actively used to solve universal strategic problems of democracy and society, schooling and society, health and society, poverty and society, environment and society, culture and society, etc., as those universal problems manifest themselves locally at Penn and in West Philadelphia/Philadelphia.

This course by Ira Harkavy, director of the Center for Community Partnership appeals to me, as it attempts to apply academic thinking to the solution of problems. It underlies my belief that academic knowledge has practical and transformational value. In presenting a paper at the World Bank Annual Bank Conference on Development Economics in Tokyo, I chose to focus half the paper on my experience setting up an NGO, and the other half on an academic analysis of my approach, as I believed in the value derived from combining the empirical with the academic. I hope to apply this approach in West Philly and contribute to an impoverished community; a impoveresihment accentuated by contrast against the predominantly wealthy kids who populate Penn or any other Ivy League institution.

In addition, I am writing three research papers and planning to work with a professor on a research project. One research paper is for my Comparative Capitalist Systems class, where I hope to analyze path dependency as an explanation of certain political-economic outcomes in Northeast Asia (at this stage, I have only a rough idea of my precise thesis). The other paper focuses on new financial instruments that can benefit development in developing economies with large inflows of remittances, an idea that I became interested in after reading the World Bank’s Global Development Finance report. I am also writing another paper on the economic and social impact of increasing population density for a conference in Germany which I attended in 2005 and which I might attend again next year.

I will also either become a research assistant to McDermott, who works on development, or with Martin Asher, who needs help on a macro-forecasting model. Although development is my primary interest, I was just starting on a macro-forecasting model when I worked for Manu Bhaskaran, former Chief Economist and Strategist for Societe Generale, and would like to continue working on something of the same intellectual vein.

My last activity will be to get round to organizing a Philosophy in Film society with Professor Karen Detlefsen’s help. I really enjoyed my Proseminar, which involved watching movies and discussing the philosophical themes contained in those movies, and promised her that I would find like-minded people to organize further sessions.