Structural Form and Reduced Form – Two Empirical Analytical Tools
Economists use reduced-form and structural approaches to address questions or model various aspects of economic phenomena. Reduced-form models focus on the effects of causes, explaining relationships between factors without delving into the exact reasons behind those connections. This approach often uses regression. For instance, imagine studying how education affects...
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Cool Head and Warm Heart: How Economists Address Crimes
Some people argue that economics is just a "boring math game" and doesn't really deal with the messy, real-world economy we're all living in. As Thomas Quincey once put it, "Economists are too obsessed with math." But actually, economics does help us think about a bunch of stuff: Why is...
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Report Discussion on Education Hub at Social Solution Initiative, Osaka University
Prof. Travis NG, the Director of the Economic Research Centre, discussed the report “Building an education hub to address some population challenges” at The Social Solution Initiative (SSI) at Osaka University in June 2023. The paper serves as a discussion material during a meeting between the Policy Research @ HKIAPS...
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How Can Hong Kong Residents Make Use of Government Data in their Decision Making Process? (Case 1: Choosing a Hospital)
Introduction Various Hong Kong governmental agencies have been uploading datasets that they collected to their own websites. Hence, the establishment of the Annual Open Data Plan in 2018 has provided a comprehensive platform that consolidates their datasets, which is also updated regularly for public use. However, according to the Hong...
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Hong Kong Official Data Sources from Various Governmental Institutions
Everyone has to make a lot of decisions every day, and we always hope to have something to support our decision-making so that we can try our best to reduce any uncertainties. That’s why information is important for all of us: They serve as evidence to help us establish fact-based...
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Teaching Case – Balance of Payment for Kowloon True Light School at The Chinese University of Hong Kong
On 21 December 2022, 22 students from the Kowloon True Light School visited The Chinese University of Hong Kong and participated in the Balance of Payment Teaching Case workshop prepared by 2 student helpers from the Department of Economics. We made some adjustments to the game design of the teaching...
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What Leads to Divorce? Some Economic Findings
In our previous blog post, we introduced 3 common measures of divorce. Both the crude divorce rate and the refined divorce rate of the United States show that the number of divorces in the U.S. has been declining. We now look at some factors affecting divorce. Domestic Violence Bowlus...
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How Do We Measure Divorce Rates? Introduction of 3 Common Measures
There has been a myth in the United States, which is that over 50% of the married couples in United States will end in divorce. If true, it will bring a lot of irreparable damages to children, families, and the taxpayers. Are we able to debunk the myth from the...
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When Does Good Money Drive Out Bad Money
I. Introduction Gresham’s Law is a theory that predicts what will happen when two kinds of money circulate in an economy at the same time. However, the Gresham’s Law is conditional on certain circumstances. Outside of those circumstances, its predictions may not come true. II. The Story of Gresham's...
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Possible causes behind the recent economic crisis of Sri Lanka
Background A perfect storm has been riding on Sri Lanka that causes a widespread impact on its economy, society and order. Due to the reckless tax cut and the sluggish tourism sector caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and Russia-Ukraine War, the Sri Lanka government's revenue dropped sharply with its budget...
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The price level history of Hong Kong during the 1980s-2000s
From the mid-1980s to the beginning of the 2000s, Hong Kong’s price level as indicated by the Consumer Price Index fluctuated significantly, reaching the top of around 13% in 1991 and then falling into a negative zone after the Asian financial crisis. In contrast, the CPI from 2006 onwards has...
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Decomposition of Consumer Price Index in Hong Kong
Most countries around the world have been undergoing an increasing upward pressure on the price levels as shown by consumer price index, including the United States, the United Kingdom, the EU zone, Singapore and so on. Nonetheless, Hong Kong stands out in the crowd with its price level hovering around...
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Price level trends and possible causes in some ASEAN economies
Inflationary pressure in the United State has been piling up since the middle of 2020, whose price level as measured in the consumer price index(CPI) increased from almost zero per cent to 8.5% in May 2022, marking four-decade highs. During the same period, price levels in ASEAN economies also demonstrate...
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Debate on dividend tax in Hong Kong
What is dividend tax? Dividend refers to the part of after-tax profits of a company for distribution to its shareholders in proportion to the number of shares they hold. With dividend tax imposed, part of companies’ dividend distribution will be taxed by a certain percentage. Hong Kong does not levy...
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Price control on gasoline, New Jersey USA
I. What happened In 2012, Hurricane Sandy greatly damaged New Jersey’s infrastructure and led to a temporary outage that disrupted the operation of some gas stations. Newspapers reported that 60% of the gas stations in New Jersey were closed. The sellers raised the gasoline price by as much as 30%...
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Price control on Uber, India
I. What happened Uber is a well-known app providing ride-hailing services, with businesses operating around the world. It is a rather new business model – “the sharing economy” which matches up taxi passengers and drivers. In India before 2016 when price used to be unregulated, as opposed to the traditional...
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Price Control on food, Sri Lanka
I. What happened Hard hit by COVID-19, Sri Lanka's tourism sector was severely dragged in 2020. Its tourism revenue dropped from the highest of USD 450 million in December 2019 to nearly zero throughout the second and third quarter of 2020. As a result, the country's economic growth in 2020 also...
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Lecture on “Evolution of Money” in Pui Ching Middle School
On 19 March 2022, Prof Travis Ng was invited to Pui Ching Middle School to deliver a lecture on the topic of "Evolution of Money". Due to another outbreak of COVID-19 in Hong Kong, the lecture was held virtually on ZOOM. There were about 35 students attended the class. While...
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Quantity Theory of Money: causes of inflation and its implications on monetary policies
What are the factors that cause inflation? A standard approach to analyse inflation is to use the famous “Quantity Theory of Money” shown below. it is originally formulated by Polish mathematician Nicolaus Copernicus in 1517 and later popularized by economists Milton Friedman and Anna Schwartz. MV = Py M =...
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Introduction of useful indicators – Consumer Price Index compiled by C&SD
What is Inflation? The term Inflation is used to denote an ongoing rise in the general level of price quoted in units of money. The magnitude of inflation is the inflation rate, which is usually calculated by measuring the annualized changes in the price level of a basket of goods...
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Introduction of useful indicators : Doing Business Project from World Bank
What is the Doing Business project about? The Doing Business project from the World Bank provides objective and quantitative measures of business regulations and their enforcement across 190 economies and selected cities at the subnational and regional levels, which serves as an important indicator for multinational companies when choosing potential...
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Understanding common errors in surveys and statistical reports
Understanding common errors in surveys and statistical reports Errors extensively exist in most of the survey results, whose sources vary from nonresponse error, measurement error, framing error, etc. When reading statistics from a survey, we need to recognize all sorts of potential errors behind it, in order to avoid being...
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Cautionary remarks for the statistics of Regional Headquarters, Regional Offices and Local Offices by C&SD
Cautionary remarks of interpreting the survey results There are a few cautionary remarks worth paying attention to when reading the number of Regional Headquarters(RHQs) /Regional Offices(ROs)/Local Offices(LOs) in the report of “Annual survey of companies in Hong Kong with Parent Companies Located outside Hong Kong" ( called the Survey hereafter),...
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The development of regional headquarters in Hong Kong in recent decades
Executive summary: The number of RHQs in Hong Kong grew steadily in the long run, despite dropping for two consecutive years in 2020 and 2021. The number of RHQs from mainland China rose exceptionally in recent years, narrowing the share gap with the US, the head in the list. Over...
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The Belt & Road Global Forum Annual Roundtable 2021
On 3 September 2021, the Belt & Road Global Forum Annual Roundtable 2021 was held by Belt and Road Global Forum in Hong Kong. Prof SHENG Liugang participated in the event with a presentation on "Driving Growth through Connectivity—Harnessing the new momentum of the GBA（Greater Bay Area）and RCEP（Regional Comprehensive Economic...
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APEC Study Centre Consortium 2021
On 6 July 2021, the APEC Study Centre Consortium (ASCC) was held online by APEC New Zealand. Prof. Travis Ng participated in the event with a presentation on “Some Economic Effects of Foreign Ownership Restrictions”. The aim of having foreign ownership restrictions is to protect insiders/ local people. It is...
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International Student Summit 2021 – Presentation
Read more on the Summit On 26th June 2021, we had our final session, Presentation. 14 teams presented their work within 10 minutes and were asked by the judges of panel subsequently. We had invited Dr. Vinci Chow and Dr. Wallace Mok from Department of Economics, CUHK, to be the panel...
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International Student Summit 2021 – Orientation
Read more on the Summit Orientation On 29th May 2021, our orientation day of the Summit, we had around 54 students (17 teams) participating in the event. Prof. Travis Ng provided an analysis training to them and helped them grasp the idea of how to analyse a policy from Economics...
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Private International Law
In international trade, conflicts arise because of different systems of commercial law in various countries, which leads to the so-called conflict of laws. For example, when dealing with a trade dispute, each country’s judicial system works on different principles. Which country’s law should be applied? This, in turn, is another...
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Unilateral Trade – Test run
Our student helper team has conducted a test run on their game – Unilateral Trade – on the last Saturday, 27 February 2021. The test run was to examine the game design and whether the messages behind can be effectively delivered. Unilateral Trade is a teaching case for promoting trade...
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Balance of Payment – Test run
On the last Saturday (23 Jan 2021), we have successfully tested our teaching case - Balance of Payment. The aim of this test run is to examine whether our game design of this teaching case is effective to deliver the message behind. Balance of Payment is a teaching case that introduces Current Account and Capital...
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Virtual Regional Fair 2020
Representing Faculty of Social Science, Prof. Travis NG delivered a talk on Virtual Regional Fair 2020 on 12 Dec, 2020. The Fair was an event held by The Chinese University of Hong Kong, aiming to provide admission information for high-school students. The talk, titled “The Social Scientific Nature of Business Organisations”, was...
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“Play” It Forward HK@APEC Game Design Competition
“Play” It Forward HK@APEC Game Design Competition was held successfully on 14th November, 2020. 22 student teams devised creative games with international trade concepts. Prof. Travis NG was invited to judge the game designs and gave valuable recommendations to the participants. The Competition was co-organised by JAHK with seminars and...
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E-APEC Study Centres Consortium Conference 2020
The E-APEC Study Centres Consortium Conference 2020 was hosted by Malaysian APEC Study Center (MASC) at the Institute of Malaysian and International Studies (IKMAS), Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) on Sept 23, 2020. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic ,the Conference was held through ZOOM meeting. The theme this year is “Towards an Inclusive, Sustainable Growth...
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HK@APEC Seminar 2020
HK@APEC Seminar was held on Sept 26, 2020, by part of the Hong Kong Committee for Pacific Economic Cooperation (HKCPEC) and Junior Achievement Hong Kong (JA HK). This seminar is one part of “Play” It Forward HK@APEC Game Design Competition where participants, mostly secondary school students, apply their knowledge to game design. Prof. Travis NG...
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Aviation – Database
Introduction This data set aimed at providing a general view on the development of aviation industry within Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) in the past decade. This data hope to serve as a platform to introduce the recent development of the fast-growing aviation industry in APEC to the public, as well...
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Invisible Trade – Teaching Case
Introduction This is a teaching case aiming to introduce certain trade concepts and Hong Kong trade situation to secondary school students or non-economic undergraduates. Two groups of students from Department of Economics, The Chinese University of Hong Kong involved in the whole project, from conducting research on Hong Kong Trade statistics to...
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Invisible Trade – School Visits
On May 15 and 20, Prof. Travis NG led our student helpers to implement our game “Invisible Trade” for the students from Pentecostal Lam Hon Kwong School and Po Leung Kuk Yao Ling Sun College respectively. It was a valuable experience for both of our students and the secondary school...
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Invisible Trade – Test run
We had successfully run a pilot test for the teaching case invisible trade. The objectives of the pilot test are the following: Examining the validity of the designated games Testing whether the games successfully deliver the main intuition to the subjects. The teaching case consists 4 parts: Introduction Tutor...
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Startup 101 Workshop Hong Kong Public Funding
We joined and supported the Workshop: 101 on Hong Kong Public Funding for Startups organised by StartupsHK on 29 Nov 2018. The Hong Kong government announced billions of dollars of funding for startups and SMEs, in this year, Financial Secretary Paul Chan has set aside HKD 50 billion to enhance Hong Kong’s innovation...
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The 22nd Air Transport Research Society (ATRS) World Conference
The 22nd Air Transport Research Society (ATRS) World Conference held on 2-5 July 2018 at COEX, Seoul, Republic of Korea. This four-day event allows presentations and discussions of, on the one hand, completed research in air transportation and, on the other hand, research in process. Also high-level speakers from academia, government as...
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APEC Study Centre Consortium Conference 2018
The 2018 APEC Study Centre Consortium Conference (ASCCC) held on 14-15 May 2018 at the International Convention Centre in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea. The conference aims to support the overall objectives of APEC 2018 hosted by Papua New Guinea. It will also be another opportunity for APEC’s network of...
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International Student Summit 2018
APEC Study Centre hosted an International Student Summit (ISS) from 10 May 2018 12 May 2018 for elite students from different countries. It aims to bring together high schools and universities from different economies, deepen understanding each others themes and exchanging ideas so as to foster global perspectives and partnerships....
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Seminar On Free Trade and Globalisation – The Hong Kong Experience in Retrospect and the Prospects
From left: Professor Anthony Y.H. Fung (CUHK), Professor Sung Yun Wing (CUHK), Mr Najeeb Haider (AIIB), Professor Fanny M.C. Cheung (CUHK), Professor Lawrence J. Lau (CUHK), Mr Edward Yau Tang-wah (HKSARG), Professor Richard Y.C. Wong (HKU), Ms Salina Yan (HKSARG), Mr Eduardo Pedrosa (PECC), Dr Patrick Low (HKU) and Professor...
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Visit APEC Study Centre of Thailand at Thammasat University
Dr Law Cheung Kwok, Co-director of APEC Study Centre, visited APEC Study Centre of Thailand at Thammasat University and met their director, Professor Suphat Suphachalasai. Dr Law also gave a talk to ASEAN students.
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APEC Symposium on Policy and System – for Promoting Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Modernization toward Industry 4.0
Dr Law Cheung Kwok, Co-director of APEC Study Centre, participated in a conference and presented a paper: “Policy for Promoting MSMEs Modernization towards Industry 4.0 in Hong Kong, China”
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APEC Study Centres Consortium Conference 2017
APEC 2nd Senior Officials’ Meeting (SOM-2) APEC Study Centre, CUHK participated in APEC 2nd Senior Officials’ Meeting (SOM-2) and related meetings held in Hanoi, Vietnam from 10th - 13th May 2017 and presented in 2 sessions. Workshop on SMEs’ Integration into Global Value Chains in Services Industries Under the chair...
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Entrepreneurship in APEC and Hong Kong
The APEC Study Centre published a short paper “Entrepreneurship in APEC and Hong Kong” in the “Global Entrepreneurship Monitor Hong Kong and Shenzhen 2016 - 2017” report in February 2017. This paper analyses entrepreneurial activities in Hong Kong and the APEC region using the proprietary dataset from the Global Entrepreneurship...
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Asian Meeting of the Econometric Society
The Econometric Society is an international society for the advancement of economic theory in its relation to statistics and mathematics. The society is holding meeting around the worlds to provide a platform for scholars to share their fruits of research and exchange ideas with outstanding scholars. This year, the Asian Meeting of...
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Good Talk 2016 – Future of the Pension System
Economics 3.0 and the HKIAPS jointly organised the “GoodTalk” show in March 2016, a free public talk series where speakers from a variety of backgrounds are invited to discuss salient economic issues. The theme of the talk was “Future of the Pension System” where the speaker panel was composed of 2 government...
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