Singapore Government Reviewing Study on Civil Servants' Home Purchases Near Planned MRT Stations

The Public Service Division (PSD) is reviewing the data and methodology of a working paper alleging that Singapore civil servants disproportionately purchased homes near planned MRT stations before they were publicly announced. The PSD stated that it takes integrity concerns extremely seriously and will refer the matter to the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau (CPIB) if a material basis is found. The study, titled "Do Social Norms Substitute for Enforcement? Evidence from Public Officials' Home Purchases in Singapore," was published by the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), a private nonprofit research organization based in Massachusetts. The authors, who include academics from Columbia University, Stanford University, and the University of Hong Kong, used private property transactions and the Singapore Government Directory Interactive to identify buyers. They alleged that purchase intensity was higher for civil servants than for matched controls, particularly one to two years before public announcements. The paper further claims that these purchases were concentrated among mid-level officials and those in agencies involved in rail-line planning. The authors suggest these patterns indicate access to non-public information that generated meaningful private gains. The NBER notes that the paper is a working paper circulated for discussion and comment purposes; it has not been peer-reviewed or subject to the review by the NBER Board of Directors. One report noted that the authors thanked several individuals for discussions, including economist Li Shengwu and academics from the National University of Singapore.