Jamus Lim

Jamus Jerome Lim Chee Wui (Chinese: 林志蔚; pinyin: Lín Zhìweì; born 1976) is a Singaporean politician, economist and associate professor. A member of the Workers' Party (WP), Lim has been the Member of Parliament (MP) representing the Anchorvale division of Sengkang GRC since 2020.

He has been Deputy Head of Policy Research since 2020 and President of the Youth Wing since 2024 of the party's Central Executive Committee (CEC).

Early life and career

Lim attended Catholic High School, Raffles Institution and Raffles Junior College as part of his early education in Singapore. He was a service medic in the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) during his National Service (NS).

Lim graduated from the University of Southern Queensland in 1998 with a Bachelor of Business degree in economics. He then obtained a Master of Science degree in economics from the London School of Economics in 2000, and went on to the University of California, Santa Cruz, where he graduated in 2006 with a Master of Arts degree in politics and a PhD in international economics. In 2018, Lim graduated from Harvard Extension School with a Master of Liberal Arts degree in history.

Lim started his career at JP Morgan, before working at the World Bank for seven years, from 2007 to 2014, serving in its Development Prospects Group and specialising in long-term macroeconomic projections. He was an economist at the Institute for Southeast Asian Studies and the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority. In 2018, he joined the Singapore-based independent investment management firm Thirdrock. Lim is an associate professor of economics at ESSEC Business School in Singapore. On 23 July 2020, Lim was elected to the council of the Economic Society of Singapore (ESS).

Political career

Lim became a member of the Workers' Party (WP) in September 2019, having previously volunteered in the party's grassroots activities.

On 30 June 2020, he was announced as part of a four-member WP team contesting in the newly-formed Sengkang GRC with team members, He Ting Ru, Louis Chua and Raeesah Khan in the 2020 general election.

On 1 July 2020, Lim engaged in a televised political debate with Francis Yuen of the Progress Singapore Party, Chee Soon Juan of the Singapore Democratic Party and Minister Vivian Balakrishnan of the governing People's Action Party. His performance at the debate was well-received, with PN Balji of The New Paper writing that he was "smelling of roses" and Toh Wen Li of The Straits Times describing Lim as the "star candidate" of the Workers' Party.

On 10 July 2020, following the results of the 2020 general election, Lim and his team were elected into Parliament after securing 52.13% of the vote, defeating the governing People's Action Party in an upset victory that secured a second group representation constituency for the opposition.

On 3 September 2020, Lim gave his maiden speech in Parliament. He asserted that there was "insufficient compassion in our policymaking process" and proposed that Singapore could implement a "simple, across-the-board minimum wage".

On 27 December 2020, Lim was elected as Deputy Head of the Policy Research Team of the WP's Central Executive Committee (CEC).

On 11 July 2023, Speaker of Parliament Tan Chuan-Jin made a public apology to Lim after a clip of him using "unparliamentary language" during a 17 April parliamentary sitting was shared on Reddit; Tan had muttered "fucking populist" shortly after Lim's 20-minute speech on the establishment of an official poverty line. Lim accepted Tan's apology.

Personal life

In his younger days, Lim was a rugby player, drummer, and self-declared "Solitaire junkie". Lim is married to Chilean-American writer Eneida Patricia Alcalde. They have a daughter who was born in 2019.

Selected works and publications

• Yang, Tracy; Lim, Jamus Jerome (2004). "Crisis, contagion, and East Asian stock markets". Review of Pacific Basin Financial Markets and Policies. 7 (1): 119–151. doi:10.1142/S0219091504000068.
• Beardsley, Kyle; Lim, Jamus Jerome (2009). "Atoms for Peace, Redux: Energy Codependency for Sustained Cooperation on the Korean Peninsula". Peace Economics, Peace Science and Public Policy. 15 (1): 4. doi:10.2202/1554-8597.1129. S2CID 154607533.
• Lim, Jamus Jerome (2009). "Reinstating the Rational Voter". Economists' Voice. 6 (3): 1–2. doi:10.2202/1553-3832.1476. S2CID 153486971.
• Lim, Jamus Jerome; Janus, Thorsten (2009). "Sticks and Carrots: Two Incentive Mechanisms Supporting Intra-Group Cooperation". Economics Letters. 102 (3): 177–180. doi:10.1016/j.econlet.2008.12.012.
• Decker, Jessica Henson; Lim, Jamus Jerome (2009). "Democracy and trade: an empirical study". Economics of Governance. 10 (2): 165–186. doi:10.1007/s10101-008-0053-8. S2CID 44013869.
• Collins, Anne D.; Lim, Jamus Jerome (2010). "Recognition, Redistribution, and Liberty". Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization. 74 (3): 240–252. doi:10.1016/j.jebo.2010.03.005.
• Lim, Jamus Jerome; Saborowski, Christian (2012). "Export diversification in a transitioning economy". Economics of Transition. 20 (2): 339–367. doi:10.1111/j.1468-0351.2011.00430.x. S2CID 153512596.
• Haddad, Mona; Lim, Jamus Jerome; Pancaro, Cosimo; Saborowski, Christian (2013). "Trade openness reduces growth volatility when countries are well diversified". Journal of Monetary Economics. 46 (2): 765–790. doi:10.1111/caje.12031. hdl:10419/153924. S2CID 78052.
• Adams-Kane, Jonathon; Lim, Jamus Jerome (2016). "Institutional Quality Mediates the Effect of Human Capital on Economic Performance" (PDF). Review of Development Economics. 20 (2): 426–442. doi:10.1111/rode.12236. hdl:10986/18361. S2CID 54616164.
• Mohapatra, S; Lim, Jamus Jerome (2016). "The Effect of Quantitative Easing on Financial Flows to Developing Countries". Journal of International Money and Finance. 68 (1): 331–357. doi:10.1016/j.jimonfin.2016.02.009.
• Adams‐Kane, Jonathon; Caballero, Julian A; Lim, Jamus Jerome (2017). "Foreign bank behavior during financial crises" (PDF). Journal of Money, Credit and Banking. 49 (2–3): 351–392. doi:10.1111/jmcb.12382. hdl:10419/115470.
• Huidrom, Raju; Kose, Ayhan; Lim, Jamus Jerome; Ohnsorge, Franziska Lieselotte (2019). "Why do fiscal multipliers depend on fiscal positions?" (PDF). Canadian Journal of Economics. 114: 109–125. doi:10.1016/j.jmoneco.2019.03.004. S2CID 197770956.
• Lim, Jamus Jerome (2019). "Growth in the Shadow of Debt". Journal of Banking and Finance. 103 (1): 98–112. doi:10.1016/j.jbankfin.2019.04.002.
• Huidrom, Raju; Kose, M Ayhan; Lim, Jamus Jerome; Ohnsorge, Franziska L (2020). "Why do fiscal multipliers depend on fiscal positions?". Journal of Monetary Economics. 114: 109–125. doi:10.2139/ssrn.3360720. hdl:10986/31432.