Lau Siew Yee
Development studies is a multi-disciplinary field of study focusing on social, economic, political, technological and other aspects of societal changes, particularly in developing countries. We always want to know possible solutions to societal issues such as what policies work for a country achieving its development goals. There are still many puzzling facts of policy impacts on people – be they children, women, workers, smallholders, micro business owners, or poor households – who are the target groups of development programmes. For effective spending of development resources, evidence-based policy making has become increasingly popular.
Most questions in development studies are causal in nature. For example, does health insurance make people healthier? What is the impact of schooling on wages? Does smaller class size improve students’ academic performance? Popular methods for evaluating development policies include, among others, randomised controlled trials, regressions with matching, instrumental variable approaches, regression discontinuity designs, and difference-in-differences approaches.
My primary research interest is in the area of evaluating economic and social impacts of development policies on micro- and small firms, farmers, and young adults. These questions are of my interest: Does education increase the growth of micro- and small firms? Do tax incentives improve SMEs’ performance? Does financial education make young adults’ money smart? Does wage growth induce mechanisation of small farms? To answer the question, I employ quasi-experimental methods and observational data to estimate the causal effect on social and economic outcomes of an intervention.