Alfred M Wu
Biographic Data
| ID | 270274 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Alfred M Wu |
| GIVEN NAMES | Alfred M |
| FAMILY NAME | Wu |
| SIGNATURE | WU A M |
| AFFILIATIONS | National University of Singapore |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-2689-6285 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 31 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 165 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 31 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2012 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 6 |
Policy Capacity Matters Differently Over Time: The Emergence and Persistence of Participatory Budgeting in China
The persistence of participatory budgeting (PB) in selected Chinese localities challenges the conventional wisdom that deliberative democratic practices can only take root in liberal political environments. Yet, existing literature has not sufficiently elucidated the factors underpinning the rise and sustained operation of PB in this seemingly incongruous environment. This study addresses this gap by analysing the policy capacities critical to PB…
AI Policy Models in China and the United States: A Multi-Level Comparative Analysis of Policy Convergence and Divergence
Public administration and development in (historical) perspective
Since 1949, the journal Public Administration and Development has gone through changes in name and scope, in author demographics and background, and in readership and the topics covered. The professional‐oriented articles in the first years of the journal have evolved to become more academic theory‐oriented articles in recent years. Drawing on mixed methods, the authors conducted in‐depth analyses using data from the journal to highlight changes …
Reflections on 75 years of Public Administration and Development
Public Administration and Development has a unique position in the public administration discipline covering the intersections between the fields of public administration and development studies. As the leading journal on public administration in developing countries with an international perspective, and the second oldest British public administration journal (after Public Administration 1), the history of the journal can tell us something about…
Inequality of Opportunity in Health Among Urban, Rural, and Migrant Children: Evidence from China
Rural-urban migrants, though facing unique social and institutional constraints, remain a largely overlooked population in research on health inequality in China. This study applies the inequality of opportunity (IOp) framework to investigate health inequality among children in China. Instead of comparing only urban and rural children, we include rural-urban migrants. Drawing upon three waves of a nation-wide survey, we find that migrant children…
The Political Effects of Economic Inequality: Evidence from Hong Kong
Economic inequality can have significant political-social impacts, leading to social unrest and other negative consequences. With a high level of economic inequality and a remarkably contentious society, Hong Kong offers an intriguing case for investigating the political consequence of economic inequality. Based on an original random sampling survey in 2017, this study examines the political effects of perceived economic inequality in Hong Kong f…
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Why Hong Kong People Rebel: The Role of Economic Frustration, Political Discontent and National Identity in Non-Institutional Political Participation
Immigration and public attitudes towards social assistance: Evidence from Hong Kong
10.1080/17487870.2020.1760102
Social Development with Public Value: An International Comparison
Social development around the world has been stunted by the lack of a comprehensive understanding and definition of public value. Public value theory can provide guidance, and inform a universal standard for social development. However, it is difficult to define and measure public value due to its philosophical complexity. Public values are driven by various economic, political, and social forces, and can be created by many stakeholders including…
International tax competition and foreign direct investment in the Asia–Pacific region: A panel data analysis
Purpose The purpose of this study is to investigate how a country's competitive tax policy influences its inward foreign direct investments (FDI) in the Asia–Pacific region, even when given particular constraints (e.g., population, public governance, skilled labor, and so on) exist. Design/methodology/approach The paper uses the system GMM estimation approach to test the hypothesis. Data on FDI, corporate income tax, and various confounding facto…
State or Civil Society – What Matters in Fighting Covid-19? A Comparative Analysis of Hong Kong and Singapore
10.1080/13876988.2021.1978819
Intergenerational Conflict or Solidarity in Hong Kong? A Survey of Public Attitudes Toward Social Spending
This study aims to investigate age-related differences in social spending preference in an Asian context, drawing on a random survey of more than 1000 adults in Hong Kong in 2013. Contrary to popular belief, older adults in Hong Kong hold a negative view toward welfare spending, especially when it is directed toward the poor population. In contrast, descriptive statistics reveal that younger people tend to support increased spending on welfare as…
Anti-Corruption Policy: China’s Tiger Hunt and India’s Demonetization
This paper examines the different styles of anti-corruption strategy, particularly at the local level in China and India. In China there has been a central push with a role of anti-corruption agencies that have law-enforcement power. In India there has been a focus on institutional building together with a visible role of the civil society. China has had a top-down approach while India has more of a bottom-up approach combined with top-down initi…
Public sector innovation, e-government, and anticorruption in China and India: Insights from civil servants
Both China and India are adopting information and communication technologies to facilitate openness and transparency in their governments, and hence reduce corruption. Distinctive from their traditional anticorruption approaches, is the innovative e-government approach an effective solution to corruption in these two large developing countries? This paper addresses the question through comparative in-depth interviews with 44 mid- or senior-level …
The impact of fiscal decentralization on urban agglomeration: Evidence from China
10.1080/07352166.2018.1484254
Decentralised governance and empowerment of county governments in China: Betting on the Weak or the Strong
Decentralised economic development initiatives empowering local governments have gained currency in both developed and developing contexts. The empowerment of county governments in China is a case in point. This study uses difference-in-differences (DID) and the fixed-effects model with panel data (1997–2008) in counties in Zhejiang Province to empirically investigate the different impacts of the empowerment reform on county economies and fiscal …
Public Attitudes towards Income Redistribution: Evidence from Hong Kong
The drivers of public support for redistributive policy have stimulated academic debate around the world. The majority of studies use cross‐country surveys conducted in the Organisation for Economic Co‐operation and Development countries to contribute to the debate on whether self‐interest or social values have more influence on public attitudes towards redistribution. Drawing on a phone survey conducted in 2013, this study advances the discussio…
Higher education, changing labour market and social mobility in the era of massification in China
This article attempts to investigate the relationship between the massification of higher education, labour market and social mobility in contemporary China. Though only a short period of time has elapsed from elite to mass education, China’s higher education has been characterised as a wide, pervasive massification process. Similar to other East Asian countries/economies like South Korea, Taiwan and Hong Kong, the expansion of higher education i…
The dynamics of the city-managing-county model in China: Implications for rural–urban interaction
This paper aims to shed fresh light on rural–urban interaction and urbanization in a non-Western authoritarian context. It describes the change in post-Mao China from very vertical and separate government hierarchies for rural and urban areas, which inhibited rural–urban interactions, to a city-managing-county model, with rural counties around a city coming under the jurisdiction of the city government. Drawing on field research and statistical d…
Perceived retirement savings adequacy in Hong Kong: An interdisciplinary financial planning model
Using an interdisciplinary model of financial planning, we investigated the factors contributing to perceived adequacy of retirement savings among Hong Kong workers by replicating a previous study of American and Dutch workers. The model was also tested for age differences in the way in which the variables operated within the model. These questions were examined using data from a phone survey conducted with 999 Hong Kong workers in 2012. We exami…
Poverty Reduction in Urban China: The Impact of Cash Transfers
The extent to which social protection programmes in general, and targeted programmes in particular, actually alleviate poverty has been a central issue in development debates for decades. The objective of this article is to contribute to the debate by empirically examining the poverty-alleviation effects of one of the largest targeted programmes in the world: the Minimum Living Standard Assistance (MLSA) or Dibao in China. Using newly available d…
Pranab K. Bardhan, Awakening Giants, Feet of Clay: Assessing the Economic Rise of China and India
Urbanization, Land Development, and Land Financing: Evidence from Chinese Cities
China’s urbanization is significant worldwide. This process is characterized by underurbanization of population and fast urban land expansion. The driving forces behind this expansion and their rationale are not fully understood and empirically tested. This study fills this gap by analyzing panel data from 1999–2009 for all 286 prefecture-level cities in China. The findings reveal that land financing, using different measures, significantly contr…
How Does Decentralized Governance Work? Evidence from China
Decentralized governance is often viewed as an effective way to improve public services and government accountability. Many also document the negative dimensions of fiscal decentralization, especially in transition economies; thus, the combination of decentralization and centralized control has gained currency in some countries in recent years. Based on first-hand data and other documentary sources, and using civil service remuneration as an exam…
Urbanization, Land Development, and Land Financing: Evidence from Chinese Cities
China’s urbanization is significant worldwide. This process is characterized by underurbanization of population and fast urban land expansion. The driving forces behind this expansion and their rationale are not fully understood and empirically tested. This study fills this gap by analyzing panel data from 1999–2009 for all 286 prefecture-level cities in China. The findings reveal that land financing, using different measures, significantly contr…
Determinants of Expenditure Decentralization: Evidence from China
The impact of fiscal decentralization on urban agglomeration: Evidence from China
10.1080/07352166.2018.1484254
Central Mandates in Flux: Local Noncompliance in China
This article examines a particular type of central mandate in China, the mandate for nationwide across-the-board salary increases in the public sector. The making and implementation of this mandate epitomizes the changes and challenges in intergovernmental relations of a transition economy. Our findings show that although the central pay mandates were issued under a number of conditions that favored, or should have even guaranteed, their smooth i…
Public Attitudes towards Income Redistribution: Evidence from Hong Kong
The drivers of public support for redistributive policy have stimulated academic debate around the world. The majority of studies use cross‐country surveys conducted in the Organisation for Economic Co‐operation and Development countries to contribute to the debate on whether self‐interest or social values have more influence on public attitudes towards redistribution. Drawing on a phone survey conducted in 2013, this study advances the discussio…
Why Hong Kong People Rebel: The Role of Economic Frustration, Political Discontent and National Identity in Non-Institutional Political Participation
The Political Effects of Economic Inequality: Evidence from Hong Kong
Economic inequality can have significant political-social impacts, leading to social unrest and other negative consequences. With a high level of economic inequality and a remarkably contentious society, Hong Kong offers an intriguing case for investigating the political consequence of economic inequality. Based on an original random sampling survey in 2017, this study examines the political effects of perceived economic inequality in Hong Kong f…
Public sector innovation, e-government, and anticorruption in China and India: Insights from civil servants
Both China and India are adopting information and communication technologies to facilitate openness and transparency in their governments, and hence reduce corruption. Distinctive from their traditional anticorruption approaches, is the innovative e-government approach an effective solution to corruption in these two large developing countries? This paper addresses the question through comparative in-depth interviews with 44 mid- or senior-level …
Perceived retirement savings adequacy in Hong Kong: An interdisciplinary financial planning model
Using an interdisciplinary model of financial planning, we investigated the factors contributing to perceived adequacy of retirement savings among Hong Kong workers by replicating a previous study of American and Dutch workers. The model was also tested for age differences in the way in which the variables operated within the model. These questions were examined using data from a phone survey conducted with 999 Hong Kong workers in 2012. We exami…
The dynamics of the city-managing-county model in China: Implications for rural–urban interaction
This paper aims to shed fresh light on rural–urban interaction and urbanization in a non-Western authoritarian context. It describes the change in post-Mao China from very vertical and separate government hierarchies for rural and urban areas, which inhibited rural–urban interactions, to a city-managing-county model, with rural counties around a city coming under the jurisdiction of the city government. Drawing on field research and statistical d…
Poverty Reduction in Urban China: The Impact of Cash Transfers
The extent to which social protection programmes in general, and targeted programmes in particular, actually alleviate poverty has been a central issue in development debates for decades. The objective of this article is to contribute to the debate by empirically examining the poverty-alleviation effects of one of the largest targeted programmes in the world: the Minimum Living Standard Assistance (MLSA) or Dibao in China. Using newly available d…
How Does Decentralized Governance Work? Evidence from China
Decentralized governance is often viewed as an effective way to improve public services and government accountability. Many also document the negative dimensions of fiscal decentralization, especially in transition economies; thus, the combination of decentralization and centralized control has gained currency in some countries in recent years. Based on first-hand data and other documentary sources, and using civil service remuneration as an exam…
Intergenerational Conflict or Solidarity in Hong Kong? A Survey of Public Attitudes Toward Social Spending
This study aims to investigate age-related differences in social spending preference in an Asian context, drawing on a random survey of more than 1000 adults in Hong Kong in 2013. Contrary to popular belief, older adults in Hong Kong hold a negative view toward welfare spending, especially when it is directed toward the poor population. In contrast, descriptive statistics reveal that younger people tend to support increased spending on welfare as…
Decentralised governance and empowerment of county governments in China: Betting on the Weak or the Strong
Decentralised economic development initiatives empowering local governments have gained currency in both developed and developing contexts. The empowerment of county governments in China is a case in point. This study uses difference-in-differences (DID) and the fixed-effects model with panel data (1997–2008) in counties in Zhejiang Province to empirically investigate the different impacts of the empowerment reform on county economies and fiscal …
Fiscal Federalism: A refined theory and its application in the Chinese context
China's central–local relations have been marked by perpetual changes amidst economic restructuring. Fiscal decentralization on the expenditure side has been paralleled by centralization on the revenue side, accompanied by political centralization. Hence, our understanding of China's fiscal relations is not without controversy. This paper aims to make a theoretical contribution to the ongoing debate on ‘fiscal federalism’ by addressing crucial qu…
Determinants of government size: Evidence from China
Social Development with Public Value: An International Comparison
Social development around the world has been stunted by the lack of a comprehensive understanding and definition of public value. Public value theory can provide guidance, and inform a universal standard for social development. However, it is difficult to define and measure public value due to its philosophical complexity. Public values are driven by various economic, political, and social forces, and can be created by many stakeholders including…
Inequality of Opportunity in Health Among Urban, Rural, and Migrant Children: Evidence from China
Rural-urban migrants, though facing unique social and institutional constraints, remain a largely overlooked population in research on health inequality in China. This study applies the inequality of opportunity (IOp) framework to investigate health inequality among children in China. Instead of comparing only urban and rural children, we include rural-urban migrants. Drawing upon three waves of a nation-wide survey, we find that migrant children…
State or Civil Society – What Matters in Fighting Covid-19? A Comparative Analysis of Hong Kong and Singapore
10.1080/13876988.2021.1978819
The Equal Pay Policy in China: A Preliminary Assessment
Drawing on field research and statistical data, this article is an original contribution to the understanding of the public sector “equal pay” policy and, more broadly, income distribution in China. The making and development of the equal pay policy epitomize the complexity and challenges in promoting wealth distribution in China. Surging government revenue boosts public confidence in improving civil service pay in order to build a responsible go…
Determinants of government size: Evidence from China
Central Mandates in Flux: Local Noncompliance in China
This article examines a particular type of central mandate in China, the mandate for nationwide across-the-board salary increases in the public sector. The making and implementation of this mandate epitomizes the changes and challenges in intergovernmental relations of a transition economy. Our findings show that although the central pay mandates were issued under a number of conditions that favored, or should have even guaranteed, their smooth i…
How Does Decentralized Governance Work? Evidence from China
Decentralized governance is often viewed as an effective way to improve public services and government accountability. Many also document the negative dimensions of fiscal decentralization, especially in transition economies; thus, the combination of decentralization and centralized control has gained currency in some countries in recent years. Based on first-hand data and other documentary sources, and using civil service remuneration as an exam…
Fiscal Federalism: A refined theory and its application in the Chinese context
China's central–local relations have been marked by perpetual changes amidst economic restructuring. Fiscal decentralization on the expenditure side has been paralleled by centralization on the revenue side, accompanied by political centralization. Hence, our understanding of China's fiscal relations is not without controversy. This paper aims to make a theoretical contribution to the ongoing debate on ‘fiscal federalism’ by addressing crucial qu…
Determinants of Expenditure Decentralization: Evidence from China
Richard Schiere, China’s Development Challenges: Economic Vulnerability and Public Sector Reform
Poverty Reduction in Urban China: The Impact of Cash Transfers
The extent to which social protection programmes in general, and targeted programmes in particular, actually alleviate poverty has been a central issue in development debates for decades. The objective of this article is to contribute to the debate by empirically examining the poverty-alleviation effects of one of the largest targeted programmes in the world: the Minimum Living Standard Assistance (MLSA) or Dibao in China. Using newly available d…
Pranab K. Bardhan, Awakening Giants, Feet of Clay: Assessing the Economic Rise of China and India
Urbanization, Land Development, and Land Financing: Evidence from Chinese Cities
China’s urbanization is significant worldwide. This process is characterized by underurbanization of population and fast urban land expansion. The driving forces behind this expansion and their rationale are not fully understood and empirically tested. This study fills this gap by analyzing panel data from 1999–2009 for all 286 prefecture-level cities in China. The findings reveal that land financing, using different measures, significantly contr…
The dynamics of the city-managing-county model in China: Implications for rural–urban interaction
This paper aims to shed fresh light on rural–urban interaction and urbanization in a non-Western authoritarian context. It describes the change in post-Mao China from very vertical and separate government hierarchies for rural and urban areas, which inhibited rural–urban interactions, to a city-managing-county model, with rural counties around a city coming under the jurisdiction of the city government. Drawing on field research and statistical d…
Perceived retirement savings adequacy in Hong Kong: An interdisciplinary financial planning model
Using an interdisciplinary model of financial planning, we investigated the factors contributing to perceived adequacy of retirement savings among Hong Kong workers by replicating a previous study of American and Dutch workers. The model was also tested for age differences in the way in which the variables operated within the model. These questions were examined using data from a phone survey conducted with 999 Hong Kong workers in 2012. We exami…
Higher education, changing labour market and social mobility in the era of massification in China
This article attempts to investigate the relationship between the massification of higher education, labour market and social mobility in contemporary China. Though only a short period of time has elapsed from elite to mass education, China’s higher education has been characterised as a wide, pervasive massification process. Similar to other East Asian countries/economies like South Korea, Taiwan and Hong Kong, the expansion of higher education i…
Public Attitudes towards Income Redistribution: Evidence from Hong Kong
The drivers of public support for redistributive policy have stimulated academic debate around the world. The majority of studies use cross‐country surveys conducted in the Organisation for Economic Co‐operation and Development countries to contribute to the debate on whether self‐interest or social values have more influence on public attitudes towards redistribution. Drawing on a phone survey conducted in 2013, this study advances the discussio…
The impact of fiscal decentralization on urban agglomeration: Evidence from China
10.1080/07352166.2018.1484254
Decentralised governance and empowerment of county governments in China: Betting on the Weak or the Strong
Decentralised economic development initiatives empowering local governments have gained currency in both developed and developing contexts. The empowerment of county governments in China is a case in point. This study uses difference-in-differences (DID) and the fixed-effects model with panel data (1997–2008) in counties in Zhejiang Province to empirically investigate the different impacts of the empowerment reform on county economies and fiscal …
Anti-Corruption Policy: China’s Tiger Hunt and India’s Demonetization
This paper examines the different styles of anti-corruption strategy, particularly at the local level in China and India. In China there has been a central push with a role of anti-corruption agencies that have law-enforcement power. In India there has been a focus on institutional building together with a visible role of the civil society. China has had a top-down approach while India has more of a bottom-up approach combined with top-down initi…
Public sector innovation, e-government, and anticorruption in China and India: Insights from civil servants
Both China and India are adopting information and communication technologies to facilitate openness and transparency in their governments, and hence reduce corruption. Distinctive from their traditional anticorruption approaches, is the innovative e-government approach an effective solution to corruption in these two large developing countries? This paper addresses the question through comparative in-depth interviews with 44 mid- or senior-level …
International tax competition and foreign direct investment in the Asia–Pacific region: A panel data analysis
Purpose The purpose of this study is to investigate how a country's competitive tax policy influences its inward foreign direct investments (FDI) in the Asia–Pacific region, even when given particular constraints (e.g., population, public governance, skilled labor, and so on) exist. Design/methodology/approach The paper uses the system GMM estimation approach to test the hypothesis. Data on FDI, corporate income tax, and various confounding facto…
State or Civil Society – What Matters in Fighting Covid-19? A Comparative Analysis of Hong Kong and Singapore
10.1080/13876988.2021.1978819
Intergenerational Conflict or Solidarity in Hong Kong? A Survey of Public Attitudes Toward Social Spending
This study aims to investigate age-related differences in social spending preference in an Asian context, drawing on a random survey of more than 1000 adults in Hong Kong in 2013. Contrary to popular belief, older adults in Hong Kong hold a negative view toward welfare spending, especially when it is directed toward the poor population. In contrast, descriptive statistics reveal that younger people tend to support increased spending on welfare as…
Immigration and public attitudes towards social assistance: Evidence from Hong Kong
10.1080/17487870.2020.1760102
Social Development with Public Value: An International Comparison
Social development around the world has been stunted by the lack of a comprehensive understanding and definition of public value. Public value theory can provide guidance, and inform a universal standard for social development. However, it is difficult to define and measure public value due to its philosophical complexity. Public values are driven by various economic, political, and social forces, and can be created by many stakeholders including…
New developments at Public Administration and Development
There's a lot to think about when taking
Why Hong Kong People Rebel: The Role of Economic Frustration, Political Discontent and National Identity in Non-Institutional Political Participation
Political science (26 works) · Economics (22 works) · China (18 works) · Economic growth (13 works) · Local Government Finance and Decentralization (12 works) · Politics (12 works) · Law (11 works) · Public Administration (9 works) · Sociology (9 works) · Development economics (8 works)