A premier university in Asia, the Singapore Management University (SMU) is internationally recognised for its world class research and distinguished teaching. Established in 2000, SMU’s mission is to generate leading edge research with global impact and to produce broad-based, creative and entrepreneurial leaders for the knowledge-based economy. It is known to be a pioneer in Singapore for its interactive and technologically-enabled pedagogy of seminar-style teaching in small class sizes which remains its unique hallmark.

The mission of the School of Economics is to accelerate the growth of SMU by creating a world-class centre of research and teaching in economics. Economic research forms a key factor in the development of SMU as a foremost academic institution in generating cutting-edge research with global impact and producing broad-based, creative and entrepreneurial leaders for the knowledge-based economy. One area of current research that several of the school's faculty members are actively engaged in concerns the economics of ageing. This research is conducted under the auspices of SMU's Centre for Research on the Economics of Ageing, which leads a $10 million multidisciplinary project on Singapore’s ageing population secured under MOE’s Tier 3 competitive grant programme.