NUS professors thanked in study on civil servants' home purchases near unannounced MRT stations say they were not involved - Mothership
They were acknowledged by authors of the study.
Some academics from the National University of Singapore (NUS) who were acknowledged in a working paper alleging that civil servants had engaged in "informed trading" of homes near unannounced MRT stations clarified that they were not involved in the paper’s research, and comments may have been made long ago at seminars.
A couple of them have asked the paper's authors to remove mentions of their names, CNA reported.
The working paper, titled "Do Social Norms Substitute For Enforcement? Evidence from Public Officials' Home Purchases in Singapore", was published by American non-profit National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER).
In it, the authors said they found a pattern of mid-level civil servants in Singapore "disproportionately" purchasing homes near unannounced MRT stations, one to two years before the stations’ locations were made public.
A spokesperson for the Public Service Division (PSD), an agency under the Prime Minister's Office, has said that PSD is aware of the paper and its findings.
The spokesperson also said that PSD is reviewing the paper and will refer to the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau if there is a "material basis to do so".
In the paper's preface, the authors — who are affiliated with Stanford University, Columbia University and the University of Hong Kong — thanked a list of individuals whom they said they had discussions with from which they "benefitted immensely".
Some of the individuals they thanked were participants at a seminar.
These included several professors from NUS as well as professors from Harvard like Li Shengwu and Jesse Shapiro.
When contacted by Mothership, Wenlan Qian, who is Director at NUS' Institute of Real Estate and Urban Studies, said that she is not involved in the paper in any capacity and directed questions to the paper's authors.
Another of the mentioned professors, Sumit Agarwal, similarly referred questions to the paper's authors, according to CNA.
Bernard Yeung, Emeritus Professor at NUS Business School, told Mothership that he was not involved in the working paper's research.
Yeung also explained that in the profession, academics listen to seminars and raise questions or comments.
"If our comments or questions are good, authors may thank us in their papers’ front page. They do not have to inform us if they do that," Yeung said.
He added that he does not remember his questions or comments.
David Reeb, an NUS professor, gave a similar explanation.
Reeb shared that he had published research on informed trading in the U.S. in the past, so the working paper's topic is within his area of research.
His inclusion in the working paper's acknowledgment suggests that he did ask a question or make a comment on the topic, but he can no longer remember what it was.
He suggested that this would have been a long time ago, likely around a decade, and before the Covid-19 pandemic.
Reeb clarified that he had no involvement in the data, analysis or writing of the NBER working paper.
Ivan Png, who is Distinguished Professor at NUS, told CNA that he knew neither the authors nor their paper until it made headlines.
Png also told CNA that he did not provide comments or data for the study and has reached out to the authors to have his name removed from the acknowledgements.
Another of the professors, Jessica Pan, who is NUS' Vice Provost of Graduate Education, shared with CNA that her name appeared by mistake and has similarly asked for mentions of her name to be removed.
Mothership has reached out to Ivan Png, Jessica Pan, Sumit Agarwal and the paper's authors for comments.
Mothership has also reached out to several other professors thanked by the paper's authors, including Li Shengwu, for comments.
