Donald Low

Mr Donald Low is Associate Dean (Research and Executive Education) at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy. Besides leading the School’s executive education efforts, he also heads its case study unit. His research interests at the School include economics in public policy, inequality and social spending, behavioural economics, public finance, organisational change, and governance and politics in Singapore.

Prior to his current appointment, Donald served fifteen years in the Singapore government. He held various senior position, including the director of fiscal policy at the Ministry of Finance and the director of the Strategic Policy Office at the Public Service Division. He also established the Centre for Public Economics at the Civil Service College of Singapore to advance economics literacy in the Singapore government.

Donald is the editor of Behavioural Economics and Policy Design: Examples from Singapore (2011), a pioneering book which details how the Singapore government has applied ideas from behavioural economics alongside standard economics in the design of public policies. His most recent book, Hard Choices: Challenging the Singapore Consensus (2014), raises searching questions about the long-term viability of many aspects of governance in Singapore, and argues that a far-reaching and radical rethinking of the country’s policies and institutions is necessary, even if it weakens the very consensus that enabled Singapore to succeed in its first 50 years.

http://lkyspp.nus.edu.sg/our-people/our-faculty/faculty-profile/donald-low