URBAN ISSUES AND SUSTAINABILITY IN THE WORLD OF BIG DATA

Abstract

This thesis enhances our understanding on selected urban issues in our economy namely energy conservation and its sustainability as well as the existing gender wage gap through two essays respectively. We thus analyze these urban issues using big data, which complements these studies. In Chapter 2 we analyses a mass media intervention program on electricity conservation for households in Singapore. We report a 0.4% savings in electricity through this intervention program. The effect of this program was persistent through the post intervention period. In Chapter 3 we analyze the gender wage gap in the Singapore taxi industry. We report a 4.5% difference in the earnings between the male and the female taxi drivers in Singapore. The prevalent wage gap is due to the preferential driving mode by female taxi drivers.