Research & Projects

This book provides the annual update of Asia Competitiveness Institute (ACI) indices and rankings of the cost of living for ordinary residents and expatriates as well as wages and purchasing power for ordinary residents, covering 105 cities around the world over the period of 2005–2016. These indices reflect the notable differences in the cost of living for expatriates and ordinary residents as expatriates tend to have different consumption patterns than that of their local counterparts. This is important because the cost of living of expatriates is often mistaken for that of ordinary residents. This book is the fourth edition in the series.

In addition to providing the annual updates of the cost of living, wages, and purchasing power indices, this book also has a special chapter covering two topics of interest. The first compares the discrepancies between the cost of living indices and rankings between ordinary residents and expatriates in different regions. The second provides a case study on Singapore's HDB resale market and the role that the public sector can play in housing markets.

This book provides a valuable compendium of annual indices and rankings of cost of living for expatriates and cost of living, wages and purchasing power for ordinary residents in 105 world's major cities over the period 2005-2015. Now in its third edition, the ACI's study reflects salient differences in costs of living for expatriate and ordinary urban dwellers which arise from variations in their lifestyles and consumption preferences. This is of critical significance as cost of living for the former is usually conflated as that for the latter by the general public.

ISBN: 978-981-3275-22-5 (hardcover)
ISBN: 978-981-3275-24-9 (ebook) 

As cities continue to play an increasingly significant role in driving economic growth in many countries, competition among cities have shifted from the national level to the global arena. In this context, international benchmarks for cities are vital for businesses and individuals to make informed decisions. In particular, cost of living, wages and purchasing power are of great interest to employees, employers, multinational corporations and policy-makers as basic indicators tracking urban living standards.

This publication by the Asia Competitiveness Institute (ACI) provides annual indices and rankings for cost of living for expatriates as well as indices and rankings for cost of living, wages and purchasing power for ordinary residents in 103 global cities since 2005. The ACI's study reflects salient differences in costs of living for expatriate and ordinary urban dwellers which arise from variations in their lifestyles and consumption preferences. This is of critical significance as cost of living for the former is usually conflated as that for the latter by the general public. In this book, we also delve into the analysis of the nexus between liveability, cost of living and purchasing power. We outline the trends and patterns of these benchmarks and explore if there are trade-offs between liveability and affordability. The ACI's study has received considerable interest from reputable media outlets such as the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) and the Edge Malaysia.

ISBN: 978-981-3227-20-0 (hardcover)
ISBN: 978-981-3227-22-4 (ebook)

In today’s increasingly volatile macroeconomic environment, fluctuations in prices, employment and thus consumption have important implications for people’s livelihoods. Cost of living, wages and hence purchasing power therefore become key benchmarks to track and monitor basic living standard for cities. They matter not only to employers and employees but even more so for governments and policy-makers. Nonetheless, there is yet a reliable and consistent index for comparing the cost of living across different major cities to guide policy analysis. This publication by the Asia Competitiveness Institute (ACI) provides annual indices and rankings of cost of living for expatriates and ordinary residents, as well as annual indices and rankings of wages and purchasing power for ordinary residents since 2005 for 103 major cities across six continents including Asia, Australasia, Africa, Europe, North and South America. The pioneering research effort by ACI on ordinary residents is the first ever comprehensive study of this kind available today. As for expatriates, cost of living studies, though widely available, are usually done less rigorously as compared to the ACI approach. In this book, we also present an analysis on the effects of exchange rates on cost of living and a comparison of cost of living across geographical regions.

ISBN: 978-981-4583-56-5 (hardcover)
ISBN: 978-981-4583-57-2 (softcover)
ISBN: 978-981-4583-59-6 (ebook)

Cost of living is an important consideration for the decision making of expatriates as well as investment decisions of businesses. As competition between cities for talent and capital becomes global instead of national, the need for timely and internationally comparable information on global cities’ cost of living increases. While commercial research houses frequently publish cost of living surveys, these reports can be lacking in terms of scientific rigour. In this context, this paper contributes to the literature by formulating a comprehensive and rigorous methodology to compare the cost of living for expatriates in 103 world’s major cities.

Malaysia and Singapore had parted for more than five decades. Much of the existing literature concerned about the bilateral ties between two economies focusing on the political economy perspective. This paper adopted annual competitiveness analysis for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in order to provide insights on the economic development and prospect of Malaysia and Singapore at the national level. In addition, this paper also makes a pioneering attempt in conducting a comprehensive comparative analysis between Malaysia and Singapore at city level. Both monetary and non-monetary indicators are taken into account in assessing Kuala Lumpur, the capital of Malaysia and Singapore as a city state. The indices of cost of living, wages, and purchasing power of the ordinary residents as well as global cities liveability index shed light on the basic living standard in the cities.

It is important to factor in the effect that exchange rates have on cost of living rankings while computing cost of living indices, as conversion of local prices into a common currency is imperative for any ranking of cities in different parts of the world. Considering that such computations are going to be affected by exchange rate levels in the different cities, this paper empirically analyses the cases of Singapore and Hong Kong to understand the impact of exchange rates on their cost of living rankings. Our simulation analysis for these two global Asian cities shows that exchange rate fluctuations have a significant impact on the cost of living rankings for both expatriates and ordinary residents. In addition, our study indicates that cities in the developed Western countries are more expensive for ordinary residents than cities in less developed countries elsewhere, especially in Asia. We attribute this to structural differences in labour cost between these two sets of countries.