Upgrades for votes : strategic use of public housing improvement programme in Singapore

Abstract

Are HDB blocks in PAP-controlled constituencies more likely to receive upgrades than those in opposition-held ones? Does the vote share of the ruling party affect the likelihood of upgrades? To answer this question, we constructed a dataset of all types of upgrades to all HDB flats from 1960 to 2018 and the constituencies they belong to using archival data and maps. Using this novel dataset, we answer the question in the affirmative: HDB blocks in PAP-held constituencies are 7–9 percentage points more likely to receive an upgrade than those in opposition-held ones. We also find that this effect considerably weakens after the 2006 election, possibly in response to concerns that the upgrade programmes were being used for strategically.