About Nick: i am an economist based in malaysia. I write about ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AND POLITICAL ECONOMY, while sneaking in a pop culture reference or two.

Archive

Albania
- Jun 16, 2014 The Logic of Industrial Policy
Basketball
- Apr 1, 2023 In The Middle For Once: Markets, Government and Innovation
- Jun 10, 2023 National Lessons from the Unserious 2022/23 Boston Celtics
- Sep 30, 2023 Taxation reform and the Elite Social Terrain: Lessons from the Tang Dynasty
- Jul 6, 2024 National Lessons from the (Finally) Serious 2023/24 Boston Celtics
Capitalism
- May 31, 2012 Capitalism: A means, not an end
- Nov 9, 2015 The Myth of the ‘Sharing Economy’
- Feb 8, 2016 Re-thinking Property Rights for Sustainable Development
- May 8, 2017 Why Focusing on Cost of Living is Misguided
- Jun 17, 2017 Religion and Economic Outcomes
- Dec 5, 2017 Thanksgiving, Black Friday and a High-Income Nation
- Feb 2, 2020 Why Stakeholder Capitalism Misses the Point
- Apr 1, 2023 In The Middle For Once: Markets, Government and Innovation
- May 4, 2024 KL20 and the Need for Accepting Failure
Climate
- Jul 1, 2023 Dinosaurs, Climate Adaptation, Chaos Theory and Blended Finance
Covid-19
- Apr 4, 2020 How Will We Behave in a Covid-19 World
- May 9, 2020 Some Longer-Term Lessons from Covid-19
- Nov 11, 2020 More Information on Tackling Local Covid-19 Cases Needs to be Made Public
- Feb 8, 2021 A True Test of Our Collective Machinery
- Apr 5, 2021 The Ripples of Covid-19 Vaccination
- Aug 7, 2021 Industrial Revolution Lessons for Malaysia's National Recovery Plan
- Mar 12, 2022 Earning the Right to Implement and Maintain Personal Responsibility
Culture
- Feb 5, 2022 Lifts in a Lobby, Cultural Evolution and Power Distance in Malaysia
- Apr 9, 2022 Structural Reforms Versus Preservation of the Status Quo
- May 7, 2022 Schools, Universities and Old Boys' Clubs
- Aug 26, 2023 Dangers of Conformity and the Status Quo
- Jan 6, 2024 Four Cool Ideas I Learnt in 2023, and Four Questions
- Sep 7, 2024 ‘Indie’ Public Goods for Modern-Day Malaysia
Democracy
- May 13, 2013 On Moving Forward
- May 12, 2014 Politics and Economics
- Oct 6, 2014 The Primacy of the Median Voter
- Jul 4, 2016 Brexit, Trump, and the Political Economy of Fear and Anger
- Aug 8, 2016 Information as Bargaining Power
- May 20, 2018 "Maka Kami, Rakyat Malaysia"
- Feb 4, 2019 Correlations in the History of Earth and Economic Policy
- Apr 1, 2019 The Necessity of a Hand-in-Hand Institutional and Societal Reform
- May 1, 2019 May 9th 2018 and the Evolution of a Nation
- Feb 2, 2020 Why Stakeholder Capitalism Misses the Point
- Mar 7, 2020 Keep Packing the Truck
- Jun 13, 2020 The Reunification of Economics and Politics by Alberto Alesina
- Dec 12, 2020 Democracy a Verb and Not Just a Noun
- Oct 30, 2022 What "The Expanse" Can Teach Us about Power and Politics
- Feb 4, 2023 Ten (more) Indie Development Indicators
- Jan 6, 2024 Four Cool Ideas I Learnt in 2023, and Four Questions
- Mar 2, 2024 Listen All Y’all, It’s a Sabotage
- Aug 3, 2024 Abraham Lincoln and Foreign Policy in the Year of Elections
- Sep 7, 2024 ‘Indie’ Public Goods for Modern-Day Malaysia
Dinosaurs
- Jul 2, 2022 The Unexpected Similarities between Jurassic World and Global Inflation
- Dec 10, 2022 Mammals, Dinosaurs and Malaysian Public Policy Moving Forward
- Jul 1, 2023 Dinosaurs, Climate Adaptation, Chaos Theory and Blended Finance
Economic Growth
- Dec 11, 2011 Technological Supercycles and Discontinuous Jumps
- Oct 13, 2013 Shocking Our Way Out of the Middle-Income Trap
- Mar 24, 2014 The “Distance to the Frontier” Narrative of Malaysia’s Economic Growth
- Aug 11, 2014 In Defense of Amartya Sen
- Aug 1, 2015 The Tortoise Won: The Need to Return to Fundamentals
- Sep 30, 2015 Malaysia and Regression to the Mean
- Jan 4, 2016 2016: Our Collective Obligation
- Mar 7, 2016 Exports for Imports
- Apr 4, 2016 More Entrepreneurs, More Artists, Fewer Politicians
- Jan 2, 2017 Improving Productivity is Meaningless without the “Why”
- Jun 17, 2017 Religion and Economic Outcomes
- Sep 4, 2017 "We Weren't Supposed to Be Here"
- Oct 12, 2017 Ten “Indie” Development Indicators
- Jun 3, 2019 Complexity and the Services Sector
- Jul 8, 2019 “All That Is Gold Does Not Glitter”
- Aug 12, 2019 Gearing Up in the New Trade Ecosystem
- Sep 9, 2019 The (Unconventional) Role of SMEs and Micro-Enterprises for Economic Development
- Oct 1, 2019 Are We Really Ready for Innovation-Based Growth?
- Nov 4, 2019 The Dead Poets Society and an Innovation-Based Economy
- Dec 8, 2019 The Similarities between Falling in Love and Industrial Policy
- Jan 4, 2020 'So-So' Technologies and Malaysia in the 2020s
- Aug 13, 2020 On Evolution, Innovation, R&D and the 12th Malaysia Plan
- Sep 9, 2020 How Employment in Malaysia is Particularly Vulnerable to the Coronavirus
- Feb 8, 2021 A True Test of Our Collective Machinery
- Mar 8, 2021 A Future of More Frequent Chaos
- May 8, 2021 The European Super League and a Systemic Failure in Innovation
- Jun 5, 2021 Trust, National Development and Jurassic World
- Jul 3, 2021 The Societal Optimal Level of Failure
- Aug 7, 2021 Industrial Revolution Lessons for Malaysia's National Recovery Plan
- Sep 4, 2021 Economic Growth and a Societal Merdeka of Our Spirit
- Oct 2, 2021 Economic Competitiveness and Firm Productivity
- Dec 4, 2021 The Race between Education and Technology
- Apr 9, 2022 Structural Reforms Versus Preservation of the Status Quo
- Sep 3, 2022 Towards an Inclusive and Sustainable Development Bargain
- Oct 1, 2022 Temporal Justice and Climate-Focused Growth
- Feb 4, 2023 Ten (more) Indie Development Indicators
- Mar 4, 2023 Global History, the History of Science and Malaysia's Policy Imperatives
- Apr 1, 2023 In The Middle For Once: Markets, Government and Innovation
- Apr 29, 2023 Patience as a Virtue for National Development
- Jun 10, 2023 National Lessons from the Unserious 2022/23 Boston Celtics
- Jul 29, 2023 The Dark Knight and Ekonomi Madani: The Importance of Sticking the Landing
- Sep 30, 2023 Taxation reform and the Elite Social Terrain: Lessons from the Tang Dynasty
- Feb 3, 2024 Imagination, Innovation and the Consequences of the Roman Empire
- May 4, 2024 KL20 and the Need for Accepting Failure
- Jun 1, 2024 Subsidy Rationalisation and Diminishing Marginal Returns on Data
- Oct 5, 2024 Income, Not Cost, in an Increasingly Inflationary World
Economics
- Dec 11, 2011 Technological Supercycles and Discontinuous Jumps
- May 31, 2012 Capitalism: A means, not an end
- Sep 11, 2012 The Changing Commons
- Aug 18, 2013 Fighting Crime with Economics
- Oct 13, 2013 Shocking Our Way Out of the Middle-Income Trap
- Nov 3, 2013 Give GST a Chance
- Dec 2, 2013 Should BR1M Become a Conditional Cash Transfer?
- Dec 30, 2013 On Price Hikes, Citizens and their Government
- Jan 13, 2014 Finding One’s Economic Faith
- Feb 10, 2014 On “Flip-flopping”
- Mar 24, 2014 The “Distance to the Frontier” Narrative of Malaysia’s Economic Growth
- May 12, 2014 Politics and Economics
- Jun 16, 2014 The Logic of Industrial Policy
- Jul 14, 2014 An Economic Perspective of Homelessness
- Aug 11, 2014 In Defense of Amartya Sen
- Oct 6, 2014 The Primacy of the Median Voter
- Mar 9, 2015 The Self Versus The Community: An Economics Perspective
- Oct 5, 2015 Elasticity, Complexity and The Wire
- Feb 8, 2016 Re-thinking Property Rights for Sustainable Development
- May 2, 2016 An Economic Perspective on Love
- Jul 3, 2017 Taxes as a Two-Way Deal
- Nov 8, 2017 Persuasion in a Rashomon World
- Jun 4, 2018 Patient Capital for the Long-Term
- Nov 5, 2018 Inequality and the Shrinking of Malaysia’s Collective Brain
- Dec 3, 2018 Why is the Status Quo so Sticky?
- Feb 4, 2019 Correlations in the History of Earth and Economic Policy
- Jun 3, 2019 Complexity and the Services Sector
- Jun 13, 2020 The Reunification of Economics and Politics by Alberto Alesina
- Jul 11, 2020 Holding "Due Process" Accountable
- Oct 2, 2021 Economic Competitiveness and Firm Productivity
- Jan 8, 2022 The Perils of Over- and Under-Government
- Jun 4, 2022 Making Bricks from Clay: Digitising our Historical Data
- Jul 2, 2022 The Unexpected Similarities between Jurassic World and Global Inflation
- Aug 1, 2022 Sustainability, ESG, and Stages of Development
- Sep 3, 2022 Towards an Inclusive and Sustainable Development Bargain
- Oct 1, 2022 Temporal Justice and Climate-Focused Growth
- Oct 30, 2022 What "The Expanse" Can Teach Us about Power and Politics
- Dec 10, 2022 Mammals, Dinosaurs and Malaysian Public Policy Moving Forward
- Jan 7, 2023 Michael Jordan and Optimism for Public Policy in 2023
- Jun 10, 2023 National Lessons from the Unserious 2022/23 Boston Celtics
- Jul 29, 2023 The Dark Knight and Ekonomi Madani: The Importance of Sticking the Landing
- Nov 4, 2023 Public Transport and Fuel Subsidy Rationalisation
- Dec 2, 2023 Board Games and the Absurdity of a Performative Purity Arms Race
- Jan 6, 2024 Four Cool Ideas I Learnt in 2023, and Four Questions
- Mar 2, 2024 Listen All Y’all, It’s a Sabotage
- Apr 6, 2024 The Dark Knight and Malaysia’s Upcoming ASEAN Chairmanship
- Oct 5, 2024 Income, Not Cost, in an Increasingly Inflationary World
Education
- Oct 27, 2013 The Importance of Mathematics
- Jan 5, 2015 Everyone Needs to Calm Down about PT3
- Mar 13, 2017 Rethinking Public Scholarships in Malaysia
- Apr 3, 2017 The Future of Education in a World of Robots
- Oct 12, 2017 Ten “Indie” Development Indicators
- Mar 5, 2018 Correlation, Causality and the Lack Thereof
- Aug 9, 2018 The Merits and De-Merits of Meritocracy
- Sep 3, 2018 Meritocracy and Inequality: The Role of Affirmative Action
- Mar 4, 2019 The Integration of Science and Arts
- May 9, 2020 Some Longer-Term Lessons from Covid-19
- Dec 4, 2021 The Race between Education and Technology
- Feb 4, 2023 Ten (more) Indie Development Indicators
- Jun 1, 2024 Subsidy Rationalisation and Diminishing Marginal Returns on Data
- Sep 7, 2024 ‘Indie’ Public Goods for Modern-Day Malaysia
Exports & Imports
- Aug 1, 2015 The Tortoise Won: The Need to Return to Fundamentals
- Oct 5, 2015 Elasticity, Complexity and The Wire
- Dec 7, 2015 Distributional Outcomes of a Falling Ringgit
- Mar 7, 2016 Exports for Imports
- Jan 2, 2017 Improving Productivity is Meaningless without the “Why”
- Aug 12, 2019 Gearing Up in the New Trade Ecosystem
Football
- May 8, 2021 The European Super League and a Systemic Failure in Innovation
- Sep 3, 2022 Towards an Inclusive and Sustainable Development Bargain
- Mar 4, 2023 Global History, the History of Science and Malaysia's Policy Imperatives
Gender Inequality
- Apr 7, 2014 On the Long-Term Persistence of Gender Norms
- Dec 8, 2014 What do Malaysians Want? A (Brief) Investigation into the World Values Survey
- Jun 6, 2016 Earning our Blessed Endowments
- Sep 5, 2016 The Complexity of the Gender Wage Gap
- Oct 12, 2017 Ten “Indie” Development Indicators
History
- Feb 4, 2019 Correlations in the History of Earth and Economic Policy
- Oct 10, 2020 WEIRD and the Bangsar Bubble
- Jun 5, 2021 Trust, National Development and Jurassic World
- Aug 7, 2021 Industrial Revolution Lessons for Malaysia's National Recovery Plan
- Sep 4, 2021 Economic Growth and a Societal Merdeka of Our Spirit
- Jan 8, 2022 The Perils of Over- and Under-Government
- Apr 9, 2022 Structural Reforms Versus Preservation of the Status Quo
- May 7, 2022 Schools, Universities and Old Boys' Clubs
- Jun 4, 2022 Making Bricks from Clay: Digitising our Historical Data
- Mar 4, 2023 Global History, the History of Science and Malaysia's Policy Imperatives
- Apr 29, 2023 Patience as a Virtue for National Development
- Aug 26, 2023 Dangers of Conformity and the Status Quo
- Sep 30, 2023 Taxation reform and the Elite Social Terrain: Lessons from the Tang Dynasty
- Feb 3, 2024 Imagination, Innovation and the Consequences of the Roman Empire
- Aug 3, 2024 Abraham Lincoln and Foreign Policy in the Year of Elections
Innovation
- Aug 13, 2020 On Evolution, Innovation, R&D and the 12th Malaysia Plan
- May 8, 2021 The European Super League and a Systemic Failure in Innovation
- Jul 3, 2021 The Societal Optimal Level of Failure
- Dec 4, 2021 The Race between Education and Technology
- Jun 4, 2022 Making Bricks from Clay: Digitising our Historical Data
- Jan 7, 2023 Michael Jordan and Optimism for Public Policy in 2023
- Mar 4, 2023 Global History, the History of Science and Malaysia's Policy Imperatives
- Apr 1, 2023 In The Middle For Once: Markets, Government and Innovation
- Aug 26, 2023 Dangers of Conformity and the Status Quo
- Feb 3, 2024 Imagination, Innovation and the Consequences of the Roman Empire
- May 4, 2024 KL20 and the Need for Accepting Failure
Justice
- Feb 2, 2020 Why Stakeholder Capitalism Misses the Point
- Mar 7, 2020 Keep Packing the Truck
- Jul 11, 2020 Holding "Due Process" Accountable
- Dec 12, 2020 Democracy a Verb and Not Just a Noun
- Jan 15, 2021 Our Malaysian Journey Forward
- Apr 5, 2021 The Ripples of Covid-19 Vaccination
- Nov 6, 2021 Of Dune, Star Wars and Social Mobility
- Mar 12, 2022 Earning the Right to Implement and Maintain Personal Responsibility
- May 7, 2022 Schools, Universities and Old Boys' Clubs
- Oct 1, 2022 Temporal Justice and Climate-Focused Growth
- Oct 30, 2022 What "The Expanse" Can Teach Us about Power and Politics
- Dec 2, 2023 Board Games and the Absurdity of a Performative Purity Arms Race
Malaysia
- Dec 11, 2011 Technological Supercycles and Discontinuous Jumps
- Sep 11, 2012 The Changing Commons
- May 13, 2013 On Moving Forward
- Aug 18, 2013 Fighting Crime with Economics
- Oct 13, 2013 Shocking Our Way Out of the Middle-Income Trap
- Oct 27, 2013 The Importance of Mathematics
- Nov 3, 2013 Give GST a Chance
- Dec 2, 2013 Should BR1M Become a Conditional Cash Transfer?
- Dec 30, 2013 On Price Hikes, Citizens and their Government
- Feb 10, 2014 On “Flip-flopping”
- Mar 24, 2014 The “Distance to the Frontier” Narrative of Malaysia’s Economic Growth
- Apr 7, 2014 On the Long-Term Persistence of Gender Norms
- May 12, 2014 Politics and Economics
- Jun 16, 2014 The Logic of Industrial Policy
- Jul 14, 2014 An Economic Perspective of Homelessness
- Sep 8, 2014 Entrepreneurship as a Solution to Crime
- Oct 6, 2014 The Primacy of the Median Voter
- Nov 3, 2014 Towards Logical Consistency: Uber and Immigration
- Dec 8, 2014 What do Malaysians Want? A (Brief) Investigation into the World Values Survey
- Jan 5, 2015 Everyone Needs to Calm Down about PT3
- Feb 28, 2015 Towards Actual Fiscal Reform and Consolidation
- Apr 6, 2015 Comparing Things – The Counterfactual
- May 4, 2015 55, Not Out – Behavioral Finance and the EPF
- Jun 8, 2015 The Institutionalization of the Malaysian Mindset
- Jul 6, 2015 The Incoherence of Blanket Policies in Malaysia
- Aug 1, 2015 The Tortoise Won: The Need to Return to Fundamentals
- Sep 30, 2015 Malaysia and Regression to the Mean
- Oct 5, 2015 Elasticity, Complexity and The Wire
- Dec 7, 2015 Distributional Outcomes of a Falling Ringgit
- Jan 4, 2016 2016: Our Collective Obligation
- Mar 7, 2016 Exports for Imports
- Jun 6, 2016 Earning our Blessed Endowments
- Sep 5, 2016 The Complexity of the Gender Wage Gap
- Oct 10, 2016 Empathy and Policymaking
- Dec 12, 2016 Exploring the Case for an Unconditional Basic Income
- Jan 2, 2017 Improving Productivity is Meaningless without the “Why”
- Feb 6, 2017 We Need a Kinder World
- Mar 13, 2017 Rethinking Public Scholarships in Malaysia
- Mar 25, 2017 Between Where We Are And Where We Want To Be
- Apr 3, 2017 The Future of Education in a World of Robots
- May 8, 2017 Why Focusing on Cost of Living is Misguided
- Jun 17, 2017 Religion and Economic Outcomes
- Sep 4, 2017 "We Weren't Supposed to Be Here"
- Oct 12, 2017 Ten “Indie” Development Indicators
- Apr 2, 2018 Fake News – Accountability of the Governed and their Governors
- May 20, 2018 "Maka Kami, Rakyat Malaysia"
- Jun 4, 2018 Patient Capital for the Long-Term
- Sep 3, 2018 Meritocracy and Inequality: The Role of Affirmative Action
- Oct 1, 2018 What Does it Really Mean to be a Competitive Nation?
- Nov 5, 2018 Inequality and the Shrinking of Malaysia’s Collective Brain
- Dec 3, 2018 Why is the Status Quo so Sticky?
- Mar 4, 2019 The Integration of Science and Arts
- Apr 1, 2019 The Necessity of a Hand-in-Hand Institutional and Societal Reform
- May 1, 2019 May 9th 2018 and the Evolution of a Nation
- Jun 3, 2019 Complexity and the Services Sector
- Aug 12, 2019 Gearing Up in the New Trade Ecosystem
- Sep 9, 2019 The (Unconventional) Role of SMEs and Micro-Enterprises for Economic Development
- Oct 1, 2019 Are We Really Ready for Innovation-Based Growth?
- Nov 4, 2019 The Dead Poets Society and an Innovation-Based Economy
- Dec 8, 2019 The Similarities between Falling in Love and Industrial Policy
- Mar 7, 2020 Keep Packing the Truck
- Apr 4, 2020 How Will We Behave in a Covid-19 World
- May 9, 2020 Some Longer-Term Lessons from Covid-19
- Aug 13, 2020 On Evolution, Innovation, R&D and the 12th Malaysia Plan
- Oct 10, 2020 WEIRD and the Bangsar Bubble
- Nov 11, 2020 More Information on Tackling Local Covid-19 Cases Needs to be Made Public
- Jan 15, 2021 Our Malaysian Journey Forward
- Mar 8, 2021 A Future of More Frequent Chaos
- May 8, 2021 The European Super League and a Systemic Failure in Innovation
- Jun 5, 2021 Trust, National Development and Jurassic World
- Aug 7, 2021 Industrial Revolution Lessons for Malaysia's National Recovery Plan
- Sep 4, 2021 Economic Growth and a Societal Merdeka of Our Spirit
- Oct 2, 2021 Economic Competitiveness and Firm Productivity
- Jan 8, 2022 The Perils of Over- and Under-Government
- Feb 5, 2022 Lifts in a Lobby, Cultural Evolution and Power Distance in Malaysia
- Mar 12, 2022 Earning the Right to Implement and Maintain Personal Responsibility
- Aug 1, 2022 Sustainability, ESG, and Stages of Development
- Dec 10, 2022 Mammals, Dinosaurs and Malaysian Public Policy Moving Forward
- Apr 29, 2023 Patience as a Virtue for National Development
- Jun 10, 2023 National Lessons from the Unserious 2022/23 Boston Celtics
- Jul 1, 2023 Dinosaurs, Climate Adaptation, Chaos Theory and Blended Finance
- Jul 29, 2023 The Dark Knight and Ekonomi Madani: The Importance of Sticking the Landing
- Nov 4, 2023 Public Transport and Fuel Subsidy Rationalisation
- Dec 2, 2023 Board Games and the Absurdity of a Performative Purity Arms Race
- May 4, 2024 KL20 and the Need for Accepting Failure
- Jun 1, 2024 Subsidy Rationalisation and Diminishing Marginal Returns on Data
- Jul 6, 2024 National Lessons from the (Finally) Serious 2023/24 Boston Celtics
- Sep 7, 2024 ‘Indie’ Public Goods for Modern-Day Malaysia
Policy
- May 13, 2013 On Moving Forward
- Aug 18, 2013 Fighting Crime with Economics
- Oct 13, 2013 Shocking Our Way Out of the Middle-Income Trap
- Nov 3, 2013 Give GST a Chance
- Dec 2, 2013 Should BR1M Become a Conditional Cash Transfer?
- Dec 30, 2013 On Price Hikes, Citizens and their Government
- Feb 10, 2014 On “Flip-flopping”
- Mar 24, 2014 The “Distance to the Frontier” Narrative of Malaysia’s Economic Growth
- Jul 14, 2014 An Economic Perspective of Homelessness
- Dec 8, 2014 What do Malaysians Want? A (Brief) Investigation into the World Values Survey
- Jan 5, 2015 Everyone Needs to Calm Down about PT3
- Feb 28, 2015 Towards Actual Fiscal Reform and Consolidation
- Apr 6, 2015 Comparing Things – The Counterfactual
- May 4, 2015 55, Not Out – Behavioral Finance and the EPF
- Jun 8, 2015 The Institutionalization of the Malaysian Mindset
- Oct 10, 2016 Empathy and Policymaking
- Dec 12, 2016 Exploring the Case for an Unconditional Basic Income
- Feb 6, 2017 We Need a Kinder World
- Mar 13, 2017 Rethinking Public Scholarships in Malaysia
- Apr 3, 2017 The Future of Education in a World of Robots
- May 8, 2017 Why Focusing on Cost of Living is Misguided
- Apr 2, 2018 Fake News – Accountability of the Governed and their Governors
- Jun 4, 2018 Patient Capital for the Long-Term
- Sep 3, 2018 Meritocracy and Inequality: The Role of Affirmative Action
- Nov 5, 2018 Inequality and the Shrinking of Malaysia’s Collective Brain
- Dec 3, 2018 Why is the Status Quo so Sticky?
- Jun 3, 2019 Complexity and the Services Sector
- Aug 12, 2019 Gearing Up in the New Trade Ecosystem
- Oct 1, 2019 Are We Really Ready for Innovation-Based Growth?
- Nov 4, 2019 The Dead Poets Society and an Innovation-Based Economy
- Dec 8, 2019 The Similarities between Falling in Love and Industrial Policy
- Jan 4, 2020 'So-So' Technologies and Malaysia in the 2020s
- Jul 11, 2020 Holding "Due Process" Accountable
- Sep 9, 2020 How Employment in Malaysia is Particularly Vulnerable to the Coronavirus
- Nov 11, 2020 More Information on Tackling Local Covid-19 Cases Needs to be Made Public
- Feb 8, 2021 A True Test of Our Collective Machinery
- Mar 8, 2021 A Future of More Frequent Chaos
- Oct 2, 2021 Economic Competitiveness and Firm Productivity
- Dec 4, 2021 The Race between Education and Technology
- Jan 8, 2022 The Perils of Over- and Under-Government
- Feb 5, 2022 Lifts in a Lobby, Cultural Evolution and Power Distance in Malaysia
- Mar 12, 2022 Earning the Right to Implement and Maintain Personal Responsibility
- Jul 2, 2022 The Unexpected Similarities between Jurassic World and Global Inflation
- Sep 3, 2022 Towards an Inclusive and Sustainable Development Bargain
- Oct 1, 2022 Temporal Justice and Climate-Focused Growth
- Dec 10, 2022 Mammals, Dinosaurs and Malaysian Public Policy Moving Forward
- Jan 7, 2023 Michael Jordan and Optimism for Public Policy in 2023
- Feb 4, 2023 Ten (more) Indie Development Indicators
- Apr 1, 2023 In The Middle For Once: Markets, Government and Innovation
- Apr 29, 2023 Patience as a Virtue for National Development
- Jul 1, 2023 Dinosaurs, Climate Adaptation, Chaos Theory and Blended Finance
- Nov 4, 2023 Public Transport and Fuel Subsidy Rationalisation
- Mar 2, 2024 Listen All Y’all, It’s a Sabotage
- Apr 6, 2024 The Dark Knight and Malaysia’s Upcoming ASEAN Chairmanship
- May 4, 2024 KL20 and the Need for Accepting Failure
- Jun 1, 2024 Subsidy Rationalisation and Diminishing Marginal Returns on Data
- Sep 7, 2024 ‘Indie’ Public Goods for Modern-Day Malaysia
- Oct 5, 2024 Income, Not Cost, in an Increasingly Inflationary World
Politics
- May 13, 2013 On Moving Forward
- Nov 3, 2013 Give GST a Chance
- Dec 2, 2013 Should BR1M Become a Conditional Cash Transfer?
- Feb 10, 2014 On “Flip-flopping”
- May 12, 2014 Politics and Economics
- Jul 14, 2014 An Economic Perspective of Homelessness
- Oct 6, 2014 The Primacy of the Median Voter
- Nov 3, 2014 Towards Logical Consistency: Uber and Immigration
- Jul 6, 2015 The Incoherence of Blanket Policies in Malaysia
- Aug 1, 2015 The Tortoise Won: The Need to Return to Fundamentals
- Mar 7, 2016 Exports for Imports
- Jul 4, 2016 Brexit, Trump, and the Political Economy of Fear and Anger
- Oct 10, 2016 Empathy and Policymaking
- Feb 6, 2017 We Need a Kinder World
- Feb 5, 2018 Trump, Davos and Moral Foundations
- Jun 4, 2018 Patient Capital for the Long-Term
- Apr 1, 2019 The Necessity of a Hand-in-Hand Institutional and Societal Reform
- May 1, 2019 May 9th 2018 and the Evolution of a Nation
- Jun 13, 2020 The Reunification of Economics and Politics by Alberto Alesina
- Dec 12, 2020 Democracy a Verb and Not Just a Noun
- Apr 5, 2021 The Ripples of Covid-19 Vaccination
- Jan 8, 2022 The Perils of Over- and Under-Government
- Apr 9, 2022 Structural Reforms Versus Preservation of the Status Quo
- May 7, 2022 Schools, Universities and Old Boys' Clubs
- Sep 3, 2022 Towards an Inclusive and Sustainable Development Bargain
- Oct 30, 2022 What "The Expanse" Can Teach Us about Power and Politics
- Dec 10, 2022 Mammals, Dinosaurs and Malaysian Public Policy Moving Forward
- Feb 4, 2023 Ten (more) Indie Development Indicators
- Mar 4, 2023 Global History, the History of Science and Malaysia's Policy Imperatives
- Sep 30, 2023 Taxation reform and the Elite Social Terrain: Lessons from the Tang Dynasty
- Jan 6, 2024 Four Cool Ideas I Learnt in 2023, and Four Questions
- Feb 3, 2024 Imagination, Innovation and the Consequences of the Roman Empire
- Mar 2, 2024 Listen All Y’all, It’s a Sabotage
- Apr 6, 2024 The Dark Knight and Malaysia’s Upcoming ASEAN Chairmanship
- Aug 3, 2024 Abraham Lincoln and Foreign Policy in the Year of Elections
- Oct 5, 2024 Income, Not Cost, in an Increasingly Inflationary World
Reflections
- Jun 28, 2012 To shape a Shaper: Reflections on the World Economic Forum on East Asia
- Jan 13, 2014 Finding One’s Economic Faith
- May 2, 2016 An Economic Perspective on Love
- Sep 4, 2017 "We Weren't Supposed to Be Here"
- Feb 5, 2018 Trump, Davos and Moral Foundations
- Jan 1, 2019 Searching for the Light in the Dark
- Mar 7, 2020 Keep Packing the Truck
- Apr 4, 2020 How Will We Behave in a Covid-19 World
- May 9, 2020 Some Longer-Term Lessons from Covid-19
- Jun 13, 2020 The Reunification of Economics and Politics by Alberto Alesina
- Dec 12, 2020 Democracy a Verb and Not Just a Noun
- Jul 3, 2021 The Societal Optimal Level of Failure
- Sep 4, 2021 Economic Growth and a Societal Merdeka of Our Spirit
- Nov 6, 2021 Of Dune, Star Wars and Social Mobility
- Jun 10, 2023 National Lessons from the Unserious 2022/23 Boston Celtics
- Aug 26, 2023 Dangers of Conformity and the Status Quo
- Dec 2, 2023 Board Games and the Absurdity of a Performative Purity Arms Race
- Jan 6, 2024 Four Cool Ideas I Learnt in 2023, and Four Questions
- Mar 2, 2024 Listen All Y’all, It’s a Sabotage
- Jul 6, 2024 National Lessons from the (Finally) Serious 2023/24 Boston Celtics
- Aug 3, 2024 Abraham Lincoln and Foreign Policy in the Year of Elections
- Sep 7, 2024 ‘Indie’ Public Goods for Modern-Day Malaysia
Religion
- Jun 17, 2017 Religion and Economic Outcomes
Rethoric
- Nov 8, 2017 Persuasion in a Rashomon World
Sharing Economy
- Nov 9, 2015 The Myth of the ‘Sharing Economy’
Statistics
- Mar 5, 2018 Correlation, Causality and the Lack Thereof
- Apr 2, 2018 Fake News – Accountability of the Governed and their Governors
- Nov 11, 2020 More Information on Tackling Local Covid-19 Cases Needs to be Made Public
- Jun 1, 2024 Subsidy Rationalisation and Diminishing Marginal Returns on Data
Sustainability
- Aug 1, 2022 Sustainability, ESG, and Stages of Development
- Oct 1, 2022 Temporal Justice and Climate-Focused Growth
Taxes
- Jul 3, 2017 Taxes as a Two-Way Deal
- Feb 5, 2018 Trump, Davos and Moral Foundations
- Sep 30, 2023 Taxation reform and the Elite Social Terrain: Lessons from the Tang Dynasty
- Jun 1, 2024 Subsidy Rationalisation and Diminishing Marginal Returns on Data
Technology
- Jun 4, 2022 Making Bricks from Clay: Digitising our Historical Data
- May 4, 2024 KL20 and the Need for Accepting Failure
Trust
- Jun 5, 2021 Trust, National Development and Jurassic World
- Mar 12, 2022 Earning the Right to Implement and Maintain Personal Responsibility
- Jan 6, 2024 Four Cool Ideas I Learnt in 2023, and Four Questions
U.S.A.
- Sep 8, 2014 Entrepreneurship as a Solution to Crime
- Jul 4, 2016 Brexit, Trump, and the Political Economy of Fear and Anger
- Feb 6, 2017 We Need a Kinder World
- Dec 5, 2017 Thanksgiving, Black Friday and a High-Income Nation
- Feb 5, 2018 Trump, Davos and Moral Foundations
- Jul 11, 2020 Holding "Due Process" Accountable
- Mar 8, 2021 A Future of More Frequent Chaos
- Dec 2, 2023 Board Games and the Absurdity of a Performative Purity Arms Race
- Aug 3, 2024 Abraham Lincoln and Foreign Policy in the Year of Elections
Wealth Inequality
- May 13, 2013 On Moving Forward
- Aug 18, 2013 Fighting Crime with Economics
- Jul 14, 2014 An Economic Perspective of Homelessness
- Feb 8, 2016 Re-thinking Property Rights for Sustainable Development
- May 8, 2017 Why Focusing on Cost of Living is Misguided
- Jul 3, 2017 Taxes as a Two-Way Deal
- Dec 5, 2017 Thanksgiving, Black Friday and a High-Income Nation
- Aug 9, 2018 The Merits and De-Merits of Meritocracy
- Sep 3, 2018 Meritocracy and Inequality: The Role of Affirmative Action
- Nov 5, 2018 Inequality and the Shrinking of Malaysia’s Collective Brain
- Jun 3, 2019 Complexity and the Services Sector
- Oct 1, 2019 Are We Really Ready for Innovation-Based Growth?
- Jan 15, 2021 Our Malaysian Journey Forward
- Mar 8, 2021 A Future of More Frequent Chaos
automation
- Nov 21, 2016 A World Without Unemployment
- Dec 12, 2016 Exploring the Case for an Unconditional Basic Income
- Apr 3, 2017 The Future of Education in a World of Robots
- Jan 4, 2020 'So-So' Technologies and Malaysia in the 2020s
culture & identity
- May 13, 2013 On Moving Forward
- Dec 8, 2014 What do Malaysians Want? A (Brief) Investigation into the World Values Survey
- Jun 8, 2015 The Institutionalization of the Malaysian Mindset
- Jun 6, 2016 Earning our Blessed Endowments
- Feb 6, 2017 We Need a Kinder World
- Mar 25, 2017 Between Where We Are And Where We Want To Be
- Jun 17, 2017 Religion and Economic Outcomes
- Jul 2, 2018 The World Cup and the World
- Oct 1, 2018 What Does it Really Mean to be a Competitive Nation?
- Nov 4, 2019 The Dead Poets Society and an Innovation-Based Economy
- Apr 4, 2020 How Will We Behave in a Covid-19 World
- Oct 10, 2020 WEIRD and the Bangsar Bubble
- Nov 6, 2021 Of Dune, Star Wars and Social Mobility
- May 7, 2022 Schools, Universities and Old Boys' Clubs
jobs & employment
- Aug 11, 2014 In Defense of Amartya Sen
- Sep 5, 2016 The Complexity of the Gender Wage Gap
- Nov 21, 2016 A World Without Unemployment
- Dec 12, 2016 Exploring the Case for an Unconditional Basic Income
- Apr 3, 2017 The Future of Education in a World of Robots
- Oct 1, 2019 Are We Really Ready for Innovation-Based Growth?
- Jan 4, 2020 'So-So' Technologies and Malaysia in the 2020s
- Sep 9, 2020 How Employment in Malaysia is Particularly Vulnerable to the Coronavirus