Yale-NUS College students win NUS Outstanding Undergraduate Researcher (OUR) Prize

At Yale-NUS College, students have the unique opportunity to conduct academic research under the careful guidance of faculty. Recently, three students were awarded the NUS Outstanding Undergraduate Researcher (OUR) Prize for their research in law and economics.

Jiang Zhifeng (Class of 2023), a double degree law and liberal arts student, won the NUS OUR Prize in the Individual category. Through a historical examination of the evolution, invocation, and application of the legal principle that agreements must be kept or pacta sunt servanda, his research focuses on the relationship between this international law principle and informal empires.

On his research experience, Zhifeng expressed his gratitude to Professor of Humanities (History) Naoko Shimazu, from whom he learnt the steps of conducting historical research. He said, “I enjoyed the intellectual discussions I had with Professor Shimazu and the interdisciplinary experience of using methods from law and history.”

Muhammad Bin Khalid and Jonathan Fu (Class of 2023) also won the NUS OUR Prize in the Group category for their research topic, “The Blessings of Scarcity: The Institutional Underpinnings of Small States’ Prosperity”.  Their research examines the effect of state size on development and was conducted under the supervision of Assistant Professor of Social Sciences (Political Science) Steve Monroe.

Muhammad elaborated, “In our research, we examined the developmental trajectories of 83 states that gained independence after World War II, between 1946 and 1975. We noticed a trend where smaller states developed better than larger states. We believe that this is because population scarcity in the early years of independence pushed small states to open their markets up to foreign trade and employ larger public sectors. Integration into global markets created strong private sector institutions while large public sectors increased political stability, which then enabled small states to develop better.”

In their research, Muhammad and Jonathan conducted literature reviews to understand current research on their topic as well as utilised econometric techniques like Ordinary Least Squares regression and Instrumental Variable estimation. They expressed how their education in economics at Yale-NUS has taught them to apply their skills to academic research.

“The research process was a long and fruitful experience. We started by accumulating data, which took a while because a lot of datasets were incomplete while others were hard to find. Data collecting and cleaning is tedious! Afterwards, we analysed our data and came up with theories to explain our results before writing our paper. During this process, Muhammad and I exchanged ideas often and supported each other whenever we faced a challenge,” Jonathan explained.

Analysis conducted by Jonathan and Muhammad depicting how newly independent states that are smaller outperform their larger peers across multiple measures of long-term economic development. Image provided by Jonathan and Muhammad.

Due to good responses to their research, Jonathan and Muhammad were awarded a grant by the Dean of Students (DoS) office to present their findings at the 79th Annual Midwest Political Science Association (MPSA) Conference, one of the most prestigious political science conferences in the world. At the conference, they received valuable feedback on areas such as quantitative analysis, which they plan to use to improve their paper.

Jonathan credited their accomplishments to the guidance of Asst Prof Monroe. He said, “Working with Asst Prof Monroe was an eye-opening experience as to what a life in academia looks like. Prior to working with Asst Prof Monroe, I had only engaged with academic literature as a reader. Asst Prof Monroe taught us about how one can conduct research that contributes to and expands existing insights on a topic. Asst Prof Monroe also gave Muhammad and I the freedom to explore our research in ways we thought best instead of directing us. This helped us take a more active role and we have become more confident in conducting research independently. Muhammad and I both enjoyed the research experience immensely and we are now considering applying for graduate studies in economics.”

Seconding Jonathan, Muhammad explained how his research experience has enabled him to access new opportunities such as a summer research fellowship at the Yale Research Initiative on Innovation and Scale (Y-RISE). “I think the best thing about working with Asst Prof Monroe was how he treated us as fellow researchers instead of just students. This helped me to grow tremendously. Attending the MPSA conference also provided me with lots of valuable connections whom I could discuss interesting academic ideas with. This whole experience has given me a greater understanding of what a life in academia looks like – I feel very lucky to have had this experience and am excited for what the future holds for me!”