Government's Response to Recent Academic Papers on Social Mobility

Mr Louis Ng Kok Kwang asked the Minister for Social and Family Development (a) whether he has reviewed the papers "Social capital I: measurement and associations with economic mobility" and "Social capital II: determinants of economic connectedness" published in Nature on 1 August 2022; and (b) how has the Ministry factored the findings of these papers into the Ministry's policy-making on social mobility.

The Senior Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Social and Family Development (Mr Eric Chua) (for the Minister for Social and Family Development): Sir, ideas in published academic journals are part of the broader understanding of issues that inform the Ministry's policy making process.

If the Member has in mind any specific propositions from the cited papers that he feels is relevant in our policy context, he may wish to articulate them, so that his question can be addressed.

1.39 pm

Mr Deputy Speaker: Order. End of Question Time. The Clerk will now proceed to read the Order of the Day.

[ Pursuant to Standing Order No 22(3), written answers to questions not reached by the end of Question Time are reproduced in the Appendix, unless Members had asked for questions standing in their names to be postponed to a later Sitting day or withdrawn. ]