Find out more about ANZSOG’s Executive Master of Public Administration

Mr. Donald Low is Advisor to the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy (LKY), Executive Education. He was the Associate Dean (Executive Education & Research) and Associate Professor (Practice) at the LKY School from 2013 to 2018. His research interests include inequality and social spending, behavioural economics, economics and public policy, public finance, and governance and politics in Singapore. 

Prior to his current appointment, Donald served 15 years in the Singapore government in various senior positions. During that time, he established the Centre for Public Economics at the Civil Service College of Singapore. He was the Director of Fiscal Policy at the Ministry of Finance from 2004 to 2005, and the Director of the Strategic Policy Office in the Public Service Division from 2006 to 2007. Donald holds a double first in Politics, Philosophy and Economics from Oxford University, and a Masters in International Public Policy from The Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies. He is currently Vice President at the Economics Society of Singapore.

Mr Low 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.

ANZSOG programs

Mr Low teaches in the following ANZSOG courses:

Executive Master of Public Administration (EMPA)- Designing Public Policies and Programs

Executive Fellows Program

Selected publications

Vadaketh, S. T., & Low, D. (2014). Hard choices: Challenging the Singapore consensus. NUS Press.

Bhaskaran, M., Ho, S. C., Low, D., Tan, K. S., Vadaketh, S., & Yeoh, L. K. (2012). Inequality and the need for a new social compact. Singapore Perspectives Conference.

Low, D. (ed.) (2011). Behavioural economics and policy design: Examples from Singapore. Singapore: World Scientific.