Digital Financial Inclusion and Consumption Smoothing in China

In this paper, we investigate the effect of digital financial inclusion (DFI) on household consumption smoothing in China. We use four waves of the biennial China Family Panel Studies from 2010 to 2016, during which time DFI has significantly developed alongside financial technology across China. We split household income shocks into permanent and transitory components, and evaluate if DFI may help households to buffer against these shocks. We find that households are not able to insure against permanent shocks to income, but they can smooth approximately 70 percent of transitory shocks to income. We also find that DFI has diminished households’ ability to insure against transitory income shocks. This is partly because online purchase may lead to the oversensitivity of consumption to income. In addition, we find that contrary to DFI, traditional financial sector development contributes to better household consumption smoothing against transitory income shocks.     

The Rise of Digital Financialisation: The Case of India

ABSTRACT

Traditional notions of financialisation require updating to study the reorganisation of finance around digital infrastructures. We introduce the concept of digital financialisation, defined as the often-coerced merging of two hitherto separate aspects of citizens’ lives – interactions using digital technologies and financial transactions – into a new hybrid realm. This realm is undergirded by an infrastructure that harvests citizens’ data, which companies can monetise and governments can use for political surveillance. In developing countries, the state plays a key role in creating surveillance infrastructures, often using coercive means in the name of financial inclusion, as the demonetisation and Aadhaar projects in India show. Unlike the industry-finance conflict in ‘analogue’ financialisation, digital financialisation involves domestic and cross-border conflicts between tech and finance companies for control of the hybrid realm. The state mediates these conflicts. In India, it deploys a narrative of technocultural nationalism to cultivate its domestic political constituencies and downplay its reliance on foreign technology.     

Local development and business creation. The role of local development workers in project management

The participation of social inclusion workers in project management is to a large extent aimed at setting up businesses and mainly entails working with businessmen and women and entrepreneurs. Policies formulated to this end involve four lines of action: improving infrastructure; managing local businesses; supporting and managing the creation of micro-businesses and small and medium-sized enterprises; and carrying out socio-economic studies which aid the economic and social development of a particular local community. This study includes an analysis of the characteristics of the service provided by local development workers with regard to the development areas concerned, the nature of the work carried out and the groups involved, the characteristics of the service offered to entrepreneurs and groups of entrepreneurs and the characteristics of the projects managed. Field work was carried out during the 2004 which entailed the use of a questionnaire intended for all local development workers included in our own directory.     

障碍、贫困与老年残疾人社会融合研究

利用全国残疾人第二次抽样调查相关数据资料,分析了影响中国老年残疾人口社会融合的两大主要因素。研究表明,老年残疾人口存在身体移动、理解与交流、与人相处、生活活动、社会参与及生活自理等一系列活动和参与障碍;另一方面,不在业水平较高与收入来源相对有限使老年残疾人口大多处于贫困状态;活动和参与障碍以及收入贫困限制了老年残疾人口的社会融合,迫切需要完善的老年残疾人社会保障体系促进其融入正常的主流社会生活。     

Posterior model probabilities via path-based pairwise priors

We focus on Bayesian model selection for the variable selection problem in large model spaces. The challenge is to search the huge model space adequately, while accurately approximating model posterior probabilities for the visited models. The issue of choice of prior distributions for the visited models is also important.     

辽宁省新生代农民工城市适应问题研究

"新生代农民工城市适应问题研究"课题组以在沈阳、大连、丹东、本溪、朝阳、铁岭6个样板城市中工作、生活的350名新生代农民工为调查对象,从新生代农民工在流入地的状况、对流出地的看法两个方面进行调查,在对问卷进行了统计分析的基础上,对辽宁省新生代农民工社会融入的整体状况进行了描述。     

Information content of index inclusions： Evidence from China

This paper examines whether index inclusion has information content and the downward-sloping demand curve hypothesis in China. We investigate the stock price and volume effects when stocks are included in two major stock indexes, the Shanghai Stock Exchange 30 Index （SH30） and the Shenzhen Component 40 Index （SZ40）. Furthermore, we also study the performance changes after index inclusion. We find significant price and volume increases for the stocks selected by the SH30 when the index was created and announced. Thus, the original inclusion may not be an information-free event. For subsequent index inclusions, we observe significant abnormal returns but not abnormal trade volume around the announcement date. However, the stock returns quickly reversed at the post-announcement period. Moreover, the financial performance of index included firms does not improve. The evidence does not support the price pressure hypothesis in China.     

从农村参与走向城市参与:农民工政治融入实证研究——基于昆明市2084份样本的问卷调查

农民工的城市融入已发展到政治参与及制度改革的关键时期。基于2012年对昆明市2084个农民工政治参与问卷调研数据,采取对数回归方法分析农民工政治融入的影响因素。农民工的政治参与开始从农村向城市转移,但城市参与度低于农村参与度,政治融入水平偏低;新生代、建筑业农民工的城市参与不足,精英农民工的政治融入需求凸显,亟待开辟制度化的参与途径提升其政治地位;对农民工的政治融入具有显著影响的是政治资本、社会资本与文化资本,而经济资本几乎没有影响。农民工政治融入的困境在于城市正式组织发展的滞后所带来的资本匮乏及参与不足。     

The role of inclusive work environment practices in promoting LGBT employee job satisfaction and commitment

ABSTRACT

One of the most enduring issues facing public administration and public policy is discrimination against and exclusion of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) employees in the public workplace. Research on how inclusion management influences LGBT public servants’ work outcomes is limited. The US Office of Personnel Management (OPM) synthesized a construct of integrated inclusive work environment consisting of five practices thought to be important for public employee work outcomes. Social exchange theory is used in this paper to theorize about the effects of these different inclusive work environment practices on LGBT employee job satisfaction and organizational (affective) commitment. An inclusive work environment approach was found to have a positive effect on LGBT employee job satisfaction and affective commitment in federal government staff in the USA. However, individual inclusive work environment practices varied in their effects on LGBT employee job satisfaction and affective commitment.