Post on 12-Oct-2014
SMU Economics Intelligence Club 2012 Page 1
SMU Economics Intelligence Club Challenge
Wong Hong Wei, with contributions from Lin Fangjun, Lin Fangcheng, Leung Weiwen and both the 1st and
2nd SEIC EXCO, wrote this case primarily for record keeping, and to improve accessibility to information
on the branches within the club, which otherwise is not readily available in writing. This case illustrates
the problems the club faces, and the author hopes that this historical perspective on issues will help
current and future leaders in making decisions that will take the club to greater heights.
30 April 2012
Introduction Singapore Management University (SMU) prides itself on its pedagogy, which actively harnesses
active discussion to facilitate student’s learning. Yet, there is a lack of intellectual discussion in
Economics courses because many lecturers use limited lesson time to cover only the most relevant
course content. At best, lecturers leave the discussion to online forums, which is less than
satisfactory due to its limitations.
At the same time, the link between the academic materials and their application to daily life has
been weak. Many developed an aversion to technicality, and desire the less quantitative ones, as
observed from the preference in taking closer-to-life modules such as Public Sector Economics,
Maritime Economics and Game Theory. Due to the irrelevance of economic theories on the surface,
many students’ interest in economics dwindles. Learning often stops at the classroom (or the
seminar room in SMU’s case).
Therefore, the learning environment has been less than ideal as the faculty can only go so far in
fostering an environment conducive to learning. However, ultimately, the students are the ones
responsible for their studies.
The inherent need for further exploration, amongst students fervently passionate about Economics,
remains unfulfilled. With the motivation to make up for these shortcomings, a group of students1
came together and Chatternomist2 was born.
1 Lee Cheuk Yin, Lin Fangjun, Lin Fangcheng, Wong Hong Wei, Leung Weiwen, George Lee Ye Han, Lu Zihao
originated the concept of a seminar-style Economics Club. Shane Ai Changxun, Ben Lim Shi Cheng separately created its publications arm. Kwan Yu Wen, Justin Wong Siew Yann and Tan Kwan Hong, who joined later, were also integral members by the official formation of the club. 2 This was the previous unofficial name of SMU Economics Intelligence Club. The name was changed to
improve marketability and to adapt to suit the growth needs of the club beyond engagement in seminars.
SMU Economics Intelligence Club 2012 Page 2
Preliminary work before formal establishment of the club The founders aimed to meet 3 targets. Firstly, they wanted to foster an environment conducive to
learning of Economics by providing an avenue for intellectual discussion and sharing of ideas.
Secondly, they wanted to build a link between Economics theories and their application to daily life,
including public policy formulation. Thirdly, they hoped to promote interest in the field of Economics
amongst SMU students (regardless of School).
The original founders were eager to formally establish the club. However, they were not certain
about its viability3 or their ability to overcome red tape. Time was not on their side, as several key
members4 had planned for exchange programmes in the following year. To sustain the momentum,
they decided to launch the club unofficially early in the second semester of Academic Year 2010-
2011.
Preliminary work was done through conducting surveys to discover the general interest amongst
SMU students, and to gauge the actual demand for hosting a seminar series amongst students
(Exhibit 8). The result was encouraging. The vast majority of the respondents indicated their
preference on at least one particular topic of Economics, if a seminar session was held.
However, acknowledging that there could be differences between simply ticking a box on a survey
form and actually spending time and effort to attend a Chatternomist event, a series of 3 pilot
seminars sessions were held across the semester. The theme of the seminars was chosen to be
Economics History, which is believed to be an area of interest amongst SMU students not covered by
the faculty.
The actual turnout ranged from 12 to 15 students. Although the level of attendance was less than
initially hoped for, many attendees gave very positive remarks about the seminar series as it was not
only informative but also engaging, and there was genuine interest to participate in the seminar.
With this, the founders felt that there was sufficient evidence on the feasibility to hold such
seminars, and that an academically-inclined Economics club can value-add to the school. By June
2011, talks were already underway with SMU School of Economics (SOE). After the merger with
another group of like-minded students who were separately pursuing publications on current issues
in Political-Economics, the green light was given to set up the club.
The beginnings of SMU Economics Intelligence Club Lin Fangcheng was chosen to be the overall leader and the one ultimately responsible for the newly
created club, SMU Economics Intelligence Club (SEIC). The club, however, was very much run like a
self-managed team. Every member was a personal friend of another, and there were great amounts
of passion for the club. It was not uncommon for anyone to be stepping beyond his designated role
to help out voluntarily wherever possible.
3 The founders are not aware of the existence of any club at the undergraduate level that served the same
purpose, and there is a trend that undergraduates tend to avoid seminars which are overly technical. 4 Lin Fangjun, Lin Fangcheng, Lee Cheuk Yin indicated their wish to go on exchange in AY 2011-2012 T2.
SMU Economics Intelligence Club 2012 Page 3
The levels of fervour and excitement were running high amongst the founding members, and many
ideas surfaced on the direction that SEIC can take. To steer everyone towards a common goal, SEIC
formulated its Vision and Mission as follows:
Vision
To be the intellectual hub for SMU students in their journey of economic discovery.
Mission
To value-add to the school, enrich the lives of students and contribute productively and
meaningfully to society.
The formal creation of the club paved the way for further club expansion. Recruitment was of
paramount concern, so as to boost membership and spread the passion for Economics. Marketing
efforts were stepped up, spreading the word beyond friends and students of SOE. A Facebook SEIC
persona was created, and emails were sent to the school (Exhibit 6A) to create awareness. To
specifically target the freshmen, SEIC appealed5 to take part in Vivace 20116, and also made a
presence in OIKOS Camp 20117.
The publicity and recruitment exercise was a success, with over 100 people indicating their interest
in joining. To boost membership retention rates, SEIC distributed name cards (Exhibit 6B) which
displayed the seminar timings. Several emails and reminders were also sent to promote the
seminars.
The seminar sessions were student-run, and were held on a bi-weekly basis. Economics topics
(Exhibit 1) ranged from development to monetary policy. To deliver issues closer to the heart of
students, senior members of the club shared their experiences on internship, exchange, selection of
modules and brought in speakers for Public Policy Challenge 2011.
Yet, membership retention proved to be tricky. Only 41 members were present during the first
seminar, with subsequent seminars seeing a gradual decline in attendance. Some pinpointed the
main reason to be the increasingly heavy workload as the school semester progresses (and so
students have less free time to attend SEIC events). However, it is also noted that up to a third of the
seminar attendees were new faces, suggesting the failure of the previous session in generating
sufficient appeal. Another reason could be attributable to the differing interest amongst students, as
they would attend only the ones most relevant to them.
Despite the mediocre response, the enthusiasm for Economics discovery and sharing remained high.
This kept the executive committee (EXCO) going even when the work was taxing - plenty of research
was required prior to each presentation. To fill the gaps, a few members of the EXCO stepped up and
presented more than once.
Concurrent to the seminars, the publications wing of SEIC, SMU Political-Economics Exchange (SPEX),
keenly sought out members willing to write. With active contributors from highly-ranked overseas
5 Signups for Vivace had officially closed by the formal establishment of SEIC.
6 Vivace is an annual event that showcases the various clubs and student bodies in SMU.
7 Oikos Camp is an annual event organized for the freshmen of the School of Economics.
SMU Economics Intelligence Club 2012 Page 4
universities, and eager SMU students, SPEX successfully published a series of 7 newsletters, each
with 3 articles, also on a fortnightly basis. Without the budget for print, and with no in-depth
expertise in IT and web hosting knowledge, Scribd8 was employed to distribute the newsletter via
electronic means.
While the semester was coming to an end (Nov 2011), a new problem emerged. A few key members
had planned for exchange in the next semester. As these members held important positions, their
absence would create a leadership vacuum. In addition, the long-term sustainability of SEIC was
carefully considered and debated. It was not foreseeable for members to continue the demanding
practice of presentation and research on an individual basis. This made less sense when there were
untapped potential from members not within the EXCO, whom may be capable and willing to
contribute. A further problem arises when not all members of the club know one another - writers
do not attend seminars and vice versa.
Several changes were made to the structure of the club (Exhibit 4). The function of research was
separated from that of seminar because it was one of the main activities of SEIC, and additional
focus on it was required. Members were encouraged to form groups to research on common topics
of interest, with the choice to present their findings in subsequent seminars. Next, the consulting
branch was added, to locate and work with external agencies. In order to overcome the difficulty of
club segregation, future seminar sessions would be held with the aim of bringing together branches
from research, consultancy and publications. Through these transformations, the architects of the
club held on tightly to the club mission, as they envisioned the branches in publications and seminar
disseminating information and value-add to the school, research enriching the lives of participating
students, and members of consultancy applying the skills learnt in the classroom to the public sector
where work is done for the good of society. Finally, an interim EXCO was chosen, with Wong Hong
Wei as the interim President.
Building on and sustaining the legacy Club development continued into December 2011. The winter break provided a good respite from
academics for the club to be reorganized and consolidated. Nonetheless, it was difficult to gather
the entire EXCO (in its expanded form), especially with members overseas. Emails proved to be slow,
messy and unconducive for discussions. In response, a Facebook9 group was created with EXCO only
access. This mitigated some of the problems of electronic communication. When speedier responses
were required, Skype10 meetings were held. Group decision making over the internet actually turned
out to be fine, much to the surprise of the interim EXCO.
By the start 2012, much work was already done. The consulting branch had 2 teams assigned to the
Ministry of Manpower (MoM), each with a separate project objective. 5 research teams were
formed with the focus on various topics, including economic bubbles, pollution, monetary
economics and poverty. SPEX continued its momentum and trained the new members for editorial
work. Except for the invitation of guest speakers, which was waiting to be confirmed, the schedule
for the next seminar sessions to be held in the coming semester was planned and finalized. Then,
8 Scribd is an online website used to share publications.
9 Facebook is a very popular online social networking website.
10 Skype is an online messenger service.
SMU Economics Intelligence Club 2012 Page 5
SEIC also began operating its very own website11, and had its first approved budget from SOE, which
granted it more financial discretion for funds utilization, as it was previously only a small pool that
was contributed by the founders.
The interim EXCO was ready to take on the tasks. Recruitment efforts were restarted. The message
of SEIC was spread through personal contacts, emails and Facebook. Things looked brighter than a
semester ago, with the increased membership numbers holding stable during the semester. Mr
Manu Bhaskaran, a prominent speaker, and partner of Centennial Group, and speakers from the
Ministry of Trade and Industry, accepted the invitations to speak at SEIC’s seminars. SPEX made a
breakthrough when the newsletter became available in Chinese, to be circulated to renowned
Chinese universities through informal networks. At the time of writing, SPEX had just successfully
published its 14th newsletter.
Nevertheless, it was not all smooth sailing. Both consulting projects required high levels of
commitment. The given assignments were not easy. One project underwent the stage of
conceptualization multiple times because data which were much needed were not easily available,
incomplete or unreliable. The other project was more fortunate as there were sufficient data.
However, the methodology relied on advanced knowledge in mathematics and Excel, which the
junior team members had difficulties in.
The problems were compounded when many members of the consultancy team were also the ones
most actively involved in and leading the research groups. A decision was made to halt most
research activities, after the presentations in the first seminar, so as to focus on the consultancy
deliverables, judged to be of higher urgency and importance as MoM, an external party, is involved.
Another matter high on the agenda of the interim EXCO was to prepare and lay the ground for the
next EXCO to take over. The next EXCO had to be selected because a number of personnel in the
interim EXCO would not be able to serve for a second semester. Also, it was felt that the new people,
who will be roped in, can better ensure the longer term continuation of the club. And elections, as
opposed to hand-picking, would grant the new EXCO with the mandate to carry out its roles and
responsibilities. In spite of the need for elections, voting was foreseen to be problematic when
members do not know one another well. Interactions between club members at the few seminar
session might be inadequate for members to know one another well enough. To mitigate this issue
on elections information asymmetry, all candidates were encouraged to fill in details (Exhibit 7) to
make known their intentions to run, their qualifications which qualify them to be part of the EXCO,
and the plans they have for SEIC in the future. The elections were smoothly executed, and the club
voted Leung Weiwen to head the next EXCO.
Forging ahead and taking SEIC to greater heights At the time of writing, the new EXCO strongly feels that SEIC still have high potential for growth.
There are plans to execute a Community Service Project (CSP), tying Economics concepts and public
policy with the goal of reaching out to the community at large. Simultaneously, it is hoped that the
CSP will provide an alternative platform for SEIC to reach out to the incoming batch of freshmen.
Also in the pipeline is the creation of SEIC Database, which will house data and information
11
SEIC was given free web hosting by the student association of SMU, available at http://seic.smusa.sg
SMU Economics Intelligence Club 2012 Page 6
generated by primary sources, with wiki-like contribution by users. This will further augment the
research capabilities and capacity of SEIC. Additionally, the new EXCO have swung into action for
recruitment via Vivace 2012 and Oikos Camp 2012 to expand the membership base. To top it up, the
new initiatives will be bolstered by the SEIC website (currently undergoing major revamps), that will
boost publicity for the events and support data gathering and storage.
Although SEIC is now in a much stronger position than a year ago, with established branches, 54
active members, and growing presence, the ex-interim president finds that a number of challenges
remain regarding the club’s long-term viability and sustainability.
Membership is a major concern. A majority of the founding members are now in their senior years.
As the club continues to rely on their support, will the club lose its fervor and fade away after their
graduation? Also, a few other clubs in SMU are moving towards research, consulting and
publications, albeit in different fields. This may pose competition to attract members with similar
interests and skill sets.
Next, even though each elected personnel holds an EXCO position, there is no specific task or
requirement assigned to each person. The club is able to function up till today because of close
personal ties between EXCO members. Will SEIC in the future come to a standstill when
responsibilities get bounced around? Or will competition occur over the scarce club resources? For
example, the 4 branches of the club might dispute over the rights to the allowance of 2 emailers a
week to the school.
While growth is good for the club, expanding too quickly could mean that the club could be
targeting too many areas. Manpower again could be thinly stretched, resulting in decreased
productivity. And it would be less than ideal if the club was to deviate from its core vision and
mission.
Then, certain students of the school do not view SEIC favorably. The perception of SEIC as a dean’s
listers12 club could have deterred potential members from signing up. Casual conversations with a
few students revealed that they think of SEIC as a club for nerds or simply a club that only the
intelligent can join.
12
Dean’s List is awarded to students who have achieved a GPA of 3.7 out of 4 over the academic year.
SMU Economics Intelligence Club 2012 Page 7
Exhibit 1: Seminar
Chatternomist, AY 2010-2011 Term 2 Seminar (Date, Week13) Topic
Seminar 1 (13 Jan 2011, Week 2)
Freakonomics: price discrimination
Economic History – The Ages before Adam Smith
Economic Update: What Good is Wall Street
Seminar 2 (10 Feb 2011, Week 6)
Freakonomics:
Diversified Opinions Increases Attractiveness
Maths and Economics
Seminar 3 (10 Mar 2011,Week 10)
Introducing SPEX
Iron Law of Value
A Discussion on Gold
SMU Economics Intelligence Club, AY 2011-2012 Term 1 Seminar Topic
Seminar 1 (22 Aug 2011, Week 2)
Highlight of past seminars
Why Development?
How to choose your modules
Seminar 2 (5 Sep 2011,Week 4)
External study programs
“How much is the view at East Coast worth?”
Seminar 3 (19 Sep 2011, Week 6)
Commanding Heights 2: the Battle of Ideas
Seminar 4 (10 Oct 2011, Week 9)
“Who Hayek blames for our economic messes today?”
Seminar 5 (24 Oct 2011, Week 11)
Research group update (bubble economics, poverty, monetary policy in China)
SMU Economics Intelligence Club, AY 2011-2012 Term 2 Seminar Topic
Seminar 1 (18 January 2012, Week 2)
Introduction of EXCO + Updates
Research @ SEIC on Trade, Growth and Poverty
MOF Budget Challenge 2012 Networking Session
Seminar 2 (1 Feb 2012, Week 4)
Grameen Bank and Microfinance
China’s Monetary Policy
Seminar 3 (15 Feb 2012, Week 6)
MTI Talk on Emerging Markets
Seminar 4 (7 March 2012, Week 9)
An evening with Mr Manu Bhaskaran
Seminar 5 (21 March 2012, Week 11)
Awards Ceremony
Dialogue on Pollution
Discussion on our upcoming CIP
13
Week refers to the number of weeks into the semester, as provided by the academic calendar of SMU
SMU Economics Intelligence Club 2012 Page 8
Exhibit 2: Research
Research Project 1
Description: China’s surging housing prices & its money
China saw high inflation in 2010 and 2011. In particular, its real estate prices surged. This is the
problem our group identified. We find that it is a complex problem with a number of causes. They
include the Government’s foreign exchange policy, hot money both within and without and shadow
banking or black money. We also did a comparison with Japan’s bubble burst in early 80s. Finally, we
propose a tight monetary policy (raising interest rate), structural reform from an export-oriented to
domestic consumption-driven economy. These policy responses have their merits but also come
with costs. The Chinese Government has to balance the pros and cons so as to achieve sustainable
growth
Research Project 2
Description: Trade, Growth, Poverty
What is the relationship between trade and poverty? On the one hand, trade is said to increase
growth, and growth is arguably good for the poor. On the other hand, anti-WTO protestors often say
that WTO expansion hurts the poor. We use a World Bank dataset from 2005 to 2010 and find a
negative correlation between trade and growth and explain this as due to the global recession. In
normal times, this would be positive. We find a positive correlation between growth and income
share of the bottom 20%. Hence we conclude that trade helps the poor.
Research Project 3
Description: Transboundary Pollution
Economic theory has good solutions to stop pollution when both polluter and victim are in the same
country. However, when the victims are in a different country from the polluter, it is often hard to
get an optimal solution, given that a world government does not exist.
We analyse the case of the Southeast Asian haze. Indonesia has been a source of forest fires in 1997,
2006 and 2010. We conclude that a more effective long-term management strategy is required. In
particular, ASEAN should focus on helping Indonesia’s efforts in modernizing the landownership
system, as well as creating a proper incentive structure for preventing slash-and-burn techniques.
Currently, most solutions are symptomatic, such as trying to put out fires as quickly as possible.
SMU Economics Intelligence Club 2012 Page 9
Research Project 4
Description: Bubble Economics
Bubbles seem to be the norm in modern economics. Real Estate Bubbles, Credit Bubbles and even
student loan bubbles are just some examples seen in recent times. Through our research, we find
that bubbles (or at least bubble-esque price movements are not freak events) but rather the
underlying nature of the behavior of particular goods and asset classes. This implies that with
sufficient understanding of such prices forces, such price movements can be expected and
anticipated rationally, hence disputing the very definition of what constitutes a bubble. Further
research into the particular behavior of simple asset classes is the projected direction for the
research project.
Research Project 5
Description: Evidence of China’s Reliance on its Required Reserve Ratio (RRR) as a key monetary tool
Since 2007, the People’s Bank of China (BOC) has been actively relying on its required reserve ratio
as a key monetary tool to make major adjustment to its money supply which ultimately affects
China’s interest rate. The first section of the research presents the large and frequent RRR
adjustments, growing complexity of China’s RRR, comparison to international benchmark and RRR
being regarded by the Chinese as a popular sterilization tool as evidences of the growing significance
of RRR as a monetary tool. The second section showed the persistent need for large scale
sterilization, China’s quantity-centric monetary policy framework and tactical advantages from the
perspective of the BOC to be the key reasons for Chinese government belief in RRR to be one of the
most reliable tools. The last section showed how a change in RRR affects interest rates and, in turn,
its implications on the suspected property bubble in China.
SMU Economics Intelligence Club 2012 Page 10
Exhibit 3: Publications
SPEX Publications Publication Article
SPEX 1 (11 September 2011)
The Ripple of US Debt in China
UK Fiscal Measures Report
Introducing the ASEAN Bloc
SPEX 2 (26 September 2011)
Opportunities in Unexpected Territories (Africa) (Part 1 of 2)
Towards Robust Asian Bond Markets
Greek Debt Explained
SPEX 3 (10 October 2011)
The ASEAN Infrastructure Fund
An Update on the Woes of the American Economy
Opportunities in Unexpected Territories (Africa) (Part 2 of 2)
SPEX 4 (24 October 2011)
Understanding the BRICs (Part 1 of 2)
The Price of the Safe Haven (Part 1 of 2)
The Federal Reserve and the US Economy
SPEX 5 (7 November 2011)
Understanding the BRICs (Part 2 of 2)
The Price of the Safe Haven (Part 1 of 2)
Deflation in Japan (Part 1 of 2)
Gadaffi’s Death – Libya’s Black Gold May do Little for Oil Prices
SPEX 6 (5 December 2011)
Inflation in China
Euro Woes
What’s Wrong with China’s Monetary Policy?
SPEX 7 (19 December 2011)
The Economic Implications of Nationalization (Part 1)
Divided We Stand, United We Fall
Are We Creating Another Tech-based Bubble?
SPEX 8 (16 January 2012)
More Liquidity or Else
The Rise of the Renminbi: Why does the Renminbi have to Appreciate and What are its Consequences?
Deflation in Japan (Part 2 of 2)
SPEX 9 (30 January 2012)
Overview of China’s Growth Outlook
The Role of Banks in Society
A Happier Singapore in Not-So-Happy Times
SPEX 10 (13 February 2012)
Brazil – An Increasing Protectionist attitude?
Why is there Inequality?
The Ailing Elephant
SPEX 11 (27 February 2012)
Vietnam’s Uncertain 2012
Capitalism Goes Beyond Mere ‘Self-Interest’
Social Security – Source of Insecurity (Part 1 of 2)
SPEX 12 (12 March 2012)
Social Security – Source of Insecurity (Part 2 of 2)
EU Oil Sanctions
The Success of Grameen Bank
SPEX 13 (26 March 2012)
Is China’s Economy Slowing Down?
Basel III: Its Provisions and Its Impact on the Financial World
Nobody Wins, Somebody Loses
SPEX 14 (9 April 2012)
Demystifying Singapore’s Budget
Reforms in Myanmar’s Economy
Staggering Growth of the Indian Economy: Lessons to learn from China
SMU Economics Intelligence Club 2012 Page 11
Exhibit 4: Leadership Structure
SMU Economics Intelligence Club, AY 2011-2012 Term 1
SMU Economics Intelligence Club, AY 2011-2012 Term 2
President Wong Hong Wei
Vice-President (Research)
Leung Weiwen
Vice-President
(Consulting) Justin Wong
Vice-President (SPEX)
Ben Lim Shane Ai Changxun
Publications Director Tan Jia Ming
Vice-President (Operations) Kwan Yu Wen
Finance Director Tan Kwan Hong
Honorary General Secretary
Timothy Ong Marketing Director
Herman Cheong IT Director Daniel Ang
Human Resource Director Ronny
Corporate Communications
Director Lee Beng Hwang
SMU Economics Intelligence Club 2012 Page 12
SMU Economics Intelligence Club, AY 2012-2013 Term 1
President, Leung Weiwen
VP (Research) Timothy Ong
VP (Consulting) Lee Beng Hwang
VP (SPEX), Ben Lim
Publication Director, Tan Jia Ming
VP (Operations) Herman Cheong
Finance Director, Alok Balachandran
Corporate Communications
Director, Lim Jun Jie
HR Director, Ronny
Honorary General Secretary, Vera Soh
Marketing Director, Fariha Imran
IT Director, Daniel Ang
SMU Economics Intelligence Club 2012 Page 13
Exhibit 5: Human Resources
The data below uses information updated on 1st March 2012. SEIC has 54 active members.
Club composition by Gender Club composition by Year of Study
Club composition by Primary Degree # of Participants in each SEIC Branch
Male, 42
Female, 12
1st year, 20
2nd year, 18
3rd year, 15
4th year, 1
Economics, 39
Business, 13
Accountancy, 1
Law, 1
36
12
10
9
0 10 20 30 40
Seminar
Consultancy
Research
Publications
SMU Economics Intelligence Club 2012 Page 14
Exhibit 6A: Marketing (Emailer)
Below shows some of the emailers sent to the school by SEIC since its inception
Date: August 12 2011
Date: September 17 2011
SMU Economics Intelligence Club 2012 Page 15
Date: January 15 2012
Date: March 20 2012
SMU Economics Intelligence Club 2012 Page 16
Exhibit 6B: Marketing (Name card)
Front
Back
SMU Economics Intelligence Club 2012 Page 17
Exhibit 7: Elections Write-up
Below is an instance of a submission by an election candidate.
List of Candidates
Candidate 1: Leung Weiwen Campaigning for: (1) President
a) Please introduce yourself
My name is Weiwen and I am hardworking, happy, and humorous. I'm in my third year in SOE with
a second major in Applied Statistics. Many of you know that I plan to do a PhD in Economics as an
aspiring academic. I thank many of you for allowing me to serve you. Without you, SEIC would not
be what it is today.
b) Describe the relevant experiences you have, including i) contributions to SEIC as a member /
EXCO etc or ii) Any other past involvement (such as CCA) which you think should qualify you
for a position in the EXCO
Contributions to SEIC:
- Founding member of SEIC
- Incumbent Interim VP (Research)
- Headed & oversaw four Research Teams (Poverty, Pollution, Monetary Policy, Bubblenomics)
- Assisted a consultancy team with the Ministry of Manpower
- Spearheaded SEIC's drive to become Best Newcomer CCA
Besides this, I also have been Teaching Assistant seven times, for Economics modules such
as Applied Econometrics & Economic Development in Asia, as well as non-economics modules such
as Political Philosophy and Systems Dynamics & Business Gaming. c) Tell us how you see SEIC, the problems and challenges SEIC faces, your planned course of
contribution/action
SEIC in the future.
- I plan to foster more cooperation between three of our branches (Research, Consultancy, SPEX). I
am already organizing summer seminars to train future Consultancy & Research group leaders and
members. I will persuade SPEX to run one or two seminars alongside this to make it a whole of SEIC
effort.
- Individually, I also see Research, Consultancy and SPEX, and Operations as centres of excellence.
Research and Consultancy have little problems finding group members. However, it becomes more
difficult when it comes to finding group leaders. The summer seminars are one way to solve the
shortage in group leaders. Another way to do this would be to make future leaders Exco members
(although they would not be required to attend all Exco meetings). I will also help Operations with the
organizing of seminars and SPEX with promoting their magazine.
SMU Economics Intelligence Club 2012 Page 18
Exhibit 8: Survey Results
72 responses were collected and 62% have economics as their primary degree. The survey indicates
three areas which students are most interested in. They are the economic naturalist14 (53%),
monetary economics (50%) and behavioural economics (47%). Only 2 responses or 3% indicated “not
interested”. This survey was done to gauge the actual demand for such a seminar series among
students.
In the same survey, results also revealed that about half the respondents are not aware of
economics related jobs but are interested to find out more. The founders saw the potential to invite
guest speakers with the purpose to network and share information on the job market.
11%
32%
50%
7%
Are you aware of jobs specific to economics graduates?
Yes. There are a lot of such jobs.
Yes. But there are not many such jobs.
No, not aware. I would like to find out more.
No, not aware. And I do not think this is so important to me
SMU Economics Intelligence Club 2012 Page 19
Exhibit 9: Plans on the shelf
Below are 2 initiatives discussed amongst the first SEIC EXCO. However, due to time and resource
constraints, they have been put on hold even up to the time of writing.
Economics Study Mission
This will entail an overseas trip to explore particular Economic topics and policy impacts of
governments. Suggested institutions on the itinerary include central banks, ministries and local
industries. One reason this is proposed is because of the notable absence of a study mission in SOE.
Economics Competition
An inter-varsity competition on Economics could be held, with professors from the major
universities as judges. Alternatively, to start with something small, an Economics or Economics-
current affairs competition could be held at the Secondary-Junior College level.