About the Speaker:

Professor Hoon is Associate Dean, School of Economics at the Singapore Management University. His major fields of interest are Macroeconomics, International Economics, Development and Growth. His papers have appeared in the American Economic Review, International Economic Journal, European Economic Review, Journal of Economic Theory, among many others and he is the author of several books. Professor Hoon’s work has been influential in explaining the dynamics of an economy’s response to various economic shocks. He is a co-editor of the Singapore Economic Review.

Abstract:

Are anticipations of future declines in the prices of computers, telecommunications equipment and software resulting from the technological improvements in the information and communications technology (ICT)-producing sector good for jobs? We show that, in a model exhibiting investment-specific technological improvement, a sudden anticipation of technical improvement in the ICT-producing sector to occur at future time t1, in fact, causes a slump in employment and a decline in firms' valuation measured both by stock market capitalization as a ratio to GDP as well as by Tobin's Q before t1. The key to generating a booming stock market alongside employment expansion is to hypothesize that when technical improvement in the ICT-producing sector occurs, the market forms an expectation of future productivity gains to be reaped in the ICT-using sector. We also analyze the contrasting effects on asset prices and hours worked of shocks to government spending on the output of the ICT-using sector as opposed to the ICT-producing sector.

Reservation:

Admission is free.  Please reply to Christina, e-mail: achristina@ntu.edu.sg or Tel: 6790-5689 to confirm your attendance.