PSD reviewing paper that reports civil servants disproportionately bought homes near unannounced MRT stations公共服务署正在审查一份报告，该报告称公务员不成比例地在未公布的地铁站附近购买房屋。
The department will refer to the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau if there is material basis to do so. Read more at straitstimes.com.
The PSD said on Sept 14 that it is looking at the data and methodology within the academic working paper and will refer to the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau “if there is a material basis to do so”.
Published Sep 14, 2026, 11:52 PM
Updated Sep 14, 2026, 11:52 PM
SINGAPORE — The Public Service Division (PSD) is reviewing a research paper published by a US-based non-profit organisation that reported that civil servants disproportionately bought homes near MRT stations that had not yet been publicly announced.
“We take any integrity concerns extremely seriously,” said a spokesperson from the department, which sits under the Prime Minister’s Office, in response to queries from the media.
The National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), which is a private outfit headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts, published the working paper titled “Do Social Norms Substitute for Enforcement? Evidence from Public Officials’ Home Purchases in Singapore” in September.
The named authors of the paper are Tomasz Piskorski from Columbia University, Amit Seru and Chun Zhao from Stanford University, and Jian Zhang from the University of Hong Kong.
The authors said that they wanted to study whether pro-integrity social norms could substitute for formal enforcement in deterring misconduct by public officials.
The first line of their working paper stated that they “benefited immensely from discussions” with a list of individuals, including economist Li Shengwu, the estranged nephew of Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong.
Others thanked include several current and former academics at the National University of Singapore such as Sumit Agarwal, Jessica Pan, Ivan Png and Bernard Yeung.
The paper examines housing transactions around planned expansions of the MRT system, using what they describe as “universe-level housing transactions”.
The authors said they began their study by assembling private-property transactions from legal filings in Singapore and linked buyers to the Singapore Government Directory Interactive – an online database of public officers – to identify civil servants and trace their transaction histories.
They then focused on purchases near planned – but not yet publicly announced – MRT stations around announcement dates.
The authors found that purchase intensity near planned MRT stations was higher for civil servants compared with a control group of non-civil servants with similar demographic attributes and housing consumption behaviours.
The effect was concentrated one to two years before public announcements and among mid-level officials and agencies connected to rail planning, according to the paper.
The researchers said the pattern generated “meaningful private gains” and also appeared among relatives, which they said was consistent with information leakage.
The paper notes that as a working paper published by the NBER, it is “circulated for discussion and comment purposes”. It has not been peer-reviewed or been subject to the review by the NBER Board of Directors that accompanies official NBER publications.
Peer review is a scholarly process where fellow experts or academics independently assess a paper for its validity and quality, among other factors.
Residential property
社保署于9月14日表示，正在研究该学术工作论文中的数据和方法，如果“有实质性依据”，将提交贪污调查局处理。
发布于 2026 年 9 月 14 日晚上 11:52
更新于2026年9月14日晚上11:52
新加坡——公共服务署 (PSD) 正在审查一份由一家美国非营利组织发表的研究报告，该报告称，公务员购买的房屋大多位于尚未公开宣布的地铁站附近。
总理办公室下属的该部门发言人在回应媒体询问时表示：“我们极其重视任何诚信问题。”
总部位于马萨诸塞州剑桥市的私人机构——国家经济研究局 (NBER) 于 9 月发表了一篇题为“社会规范能否替代执法？来自新加坡公职人员购房行为的证据”的工作论文。
该论文的署名作者包括哥伦比亚大学的 Tomasz Piskorski、斯坦福大学的 Amit Seru 和 Chun Zhao，以及香港大学的 Jian Zhang。
作者表示，他们想研究促进廉洁的社会规范是否可以替代正式的执法措施来阻止公职人员的不当行为。
他们的工作论文第一行就指出，他们与包括经济学家李生武（李显龙总理疏远的侄子）在内的一系列人士进行了“深入的讨论”，从中“受益匪浅”。
其他受到感谢的人包括新加坡国立大学的几位现任和前任学者，如 Sumit Agarwal、Jessica Pan、Ivan Png 和 Bernard Yeung。
该论文研究了地铁系统计划扩建前后的住房交易，并采用了他们所谓的“宇宙级住房交易”方法。
作者表示，他们的研究始于收集新加坡法律文件中的私人财产交易信息，并将买家与新加坡政府互动名录（一个公务员在线数据库）联系起来，以识别公务员并追踪他们的交易历史。
然后，他们重点在计划中但尚未公开宣布的地铁站附近，以及宣布日期前后进行采购。
作者发现，与具有相似人口统计特征和住房消费行为的非公务员对照组相比，公务员在规划中的地铁站附近的购买强度更高。
报告指出，这种影响集中在公开宣布前一到两年，并且集中在与铁路规划相关的中层官员和机构中。
研究人员表示，这种模式产生了“有意义的私人收益”，而且也出现在亲属之间，他们认为这与信息泄露相符。
该论文指出，作为NBER发布的工作论文，它“仅供讨论和评论之用”。它尚未经过同行评审，也未像NBER正式出版物那样经过NBER董事会的审查。
同行评审是一个学术过程，其中其他专家或学者独立评估论文的有效性和质量以及其他因素。
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