Financial Awareness: Inflation Expectations and Portfolio Management

Synopsis

Memories of the Global Financial Crisis of 2007-2008 continue to linger in our minds and influence our actions. The shadow of the great recession is felt in an unprecedented and excellent accommodative monetary policy both in the developed and the developing world. Is this accommodation a double edged sword? While record low interest rates precipitated the phenomenal increase in the stock and other asset markets around the world in 2015, the effect could also be felt on the pocketbooks and wallets of fixed income earners who fear their cherished nest-egg denuded by future inflation or currency devaluation. The first baby step to normalization in US monetary policy as seen in the recent “lift-off” from the near zero US Federal Reserve interest rate is fraught with uncertainty amidst tepid global growth. Despite efforts by the Chinese government to stem the correction in its stock market, persistent weakness in oil and other commodity prices had the stock markets reeling around the world. Is this volatility in markets and in purchasing power, and even negative nominal rate regimes, the “new normal”? Can these concerns be addressed through fund management? Can technology and financial innovation be the answer to the current financial malaise? We are indeed living in interesting times filled with risks and opportunities. In this year of the Fire Monkey and beyond, we welcome you to be part of the discussion with our speakers and panelists in this journey of Financial Awakening.

About the Speaker

Dr. Ghosh is an Assistant Professor of Finance (Education) at the SMU Lee Kong Chian School of Business and the founding Program Director and architect of Master of Science in Financial Economics (MSFE), a pioneering multidisciplinary program in SMU. As a Principal Investigator, Dr Ghosh has pioneered and leading a project on constructing and maintaining SInDEx (SKBI), Singapore Index of Inflation Expectations (SInDEx).

His research interests are in corporate governance, mutual funds, innovation and tests of distributional comparisons and forecasting in Financial Econometrics. In Finance, his research is on mutual fund performance, impact of corporate governance on performance, private and public equity performance and impact on innovation. He has published refereed articles Econometric Theory and the Handbook of Applied Econometrics and Statistical Inference. His working papers are under review in Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Journal of Business and Economic Statistics etc. He also published a textbook in Introductory Statistics.

Date

17 Feb 2016 (Wednesday)

Venue

SMU School of Accountancy/Law building
Level 2, Ngee Ann Kongsi Auditorium
60 Stamford Road
Singapore 178900

Location map

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Organized by

Citi-SMU Financial Literacy Programme for Young Adults www.skbi.smu.edu.sg/citi-smu

Master of Science in Financial Economics www.smu.edu.sg/msfe

About SMU Lee Kong Chian School of Business

SMU commenced its curriculum in 2000 with the School of Business, which welcomed its pioneer cohort of students in August 2000. In 2004, the Lee Foundation contributed S$50 million to SMU in honour of the late Dr Lee Kong Chian, a well-known Southeast Asian businessman, philanthropist and community leader. In recognition of the Lee Foundation's generosity, SMU named in perpetuity the School of Business, the building and the university-wide scholars programme after Dr Lee Kong Chian.

 Today, Lee Kong Chian School of Business (LKCSB) is a dynamic Asian business school with about 3,500 students and over a hundred full-time faculty members with postgraduate degrees from renowned universities such as Cornell, Harvard, INSEAD, Oxford, Stanford and Yale. The school offers undergraduate, master's and doctoral programmes and is affiliated with a number of research centres such as Asia Private Equity Institute, the Centre for Marketing Excellence, the Sim Kee Boon Institute for Financial Economics and UOB-SMU Asian Enterprise Institute.

 In 2011, LKCSB received both the AACSB (Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business) accreditation and a five-year EQUIS (European Quality Improvement System) accreditation. For both accreditations, the School has the distinction of being one of the youngest schools in the world to be accredited. In June 2012, LKCSB also gained admission into the EMBA Council to join the ranks of other internationally-renowned business schools.  SMU LKCSB is currently ranked fourth in Asia and 49th worldwide in the University of Texas, Dallas rankings for research contributions for the period 2011 – 2015.  www.business.smu.edu.sg

About SMU School of Economics

The School of Economics and Social Sciences was established on 1 July 2002 to launch the Bachelor of Science undergraduate degree programme in Economics, and subsequently the Bachelor of Social Science undergraduate degree programme majoring in Psychology, Sociology, or Political Science.

In April 2007, the School of Economics and the School of Social Sciences were established as separate schools to better focus on the development of the undergraduate and graduate curricula and programmes, as well as faculty research in the respective disciplines.

Today, the School of Economics has a total of 44 full-time faculty with extensive experience from around the world. It has an enrolment of more than 1000 undergraduate and postgraduate students and offers the following degree programmes:

    Bachelor of Science in Economics

    Master of Science in Applied Economics,

    Master of Science in Financial Economics, and

    PhD in Economics.

The mission of the School of Economics is to accelerate the growth of SMU by creating a world-class centre of research and teaching in economics. Economic research forms a key factor in the development of SMU as a foremost academic institution in generating cutting-edge research with global impact and producing broad-based, creative and entrepreneurial leaders for the knowledge-based economy. One area of current research that several of the school's faculty members are actively engaged in concerns the economics of ageing. This research is conducted under the auspices of SMU's Centre for Research on the Economics of Ageing, which leads a $10 million multidisciplinary project on Singapore’s ageing population secured under MOE’s Tier 3 competitive grant programme.

About Citi-SMU Financial Literacy Programme for Young Adults

Launched in April 2012 by Citi Singapore and Singapore Management University with the support of the Citi Foundation, the Citi-SMU Financial Literacy Programme for Young Adults is Singapore’s first structured financial literacy program for young adults.

Through lectures, workshops and course curriculum, the program seeks to equip young adults between the ages of 17 and 30 with essential personal finance knowledge and skills applicable to their life stage to give them a firm foundation in managing their money and a financial head-start early in their lives. A train-the-trainer model is used in which selected students from SMU are trained to deliver the financial literacy outreach curriculum to the young adult community, with the focus on reaching the low to the moderate income.

Since its launch, the programme has engaged over 9000 young adults on a wide range of topics including basic money and credit management, financial and retirement planning, home and car ownership as well as principles of investment. For more information, visit our website: www.skbi.smu.edu.sg/citi-smu and our Facebook page: www.facebook.com/cs.flya.