Can mobile phones improve gender equality and nutrition? Panel data evidence from farm households in Uganda

Since 2000, mobile phone technologies have been widely adopted in many developing countries. Existing research shows that use of mobile phones has improved smallholder farmers’ market access and income. Beyond income, mobile phones can possibly affect other dimensions of social welfare, such as gender equality and nutrition. Such broader social welfare effects have hardly been analyzed up till now. Here, we address this research gap, using panel data from smallholder farm households in Uganda. Regression results show that mobile phone use is positively associated with household income, women empowerment, food security, and dietary quality. These results also hold after controlling for possible confounding factors. In addition to the household-level analysis, we also look at who within the household actually uses mobile phones. Gender-disaggregation suggests that female mobile phone use has stronger positive associations with social welfare than if males alone use mobile phones. We cautiously conclude that equal access to mobile phones cannot only foster economic development, but can also contribute to gender equality, food security, and broader social development. Further research is required to corroborate the findings and analyze the underlying causal mechanisms.     

新疆南北疆沙产业发展差异性及对经济、环境影响研究

研究新疆沙产业区域发展差异性,分析沙产业发展与环境、经济的关系,对加深社会以及相关部门对沙产业的认识具有一定促进作用,也能够一定程度上促进沙产业本身的良性发展。文章选取环塔里木盆地-塔克拉玛干沙漠区域的和田地区与环准噶尔盆地-古尔班通古特沙漠区域的26个县市(兵团)作为主要研究对象,数据来源为实地调查、新疆统计年鉴及新疆各地2013年统计公报等,筛选出当地沙产业发展、经济发展及环境状况的10个具有代表性的指标;运用因子分析、聚类分析等多元统计方法,对调查区26个不同区域的沙产业发展进行了综合评价与分类比较;采用多元线性回归方法,分析了沙产业发展与环境、经济之间的相互关系。研究结果表明:在对经济影响方面,沙产业发展能够轻微改善环境,显著拉动经济;在沙产业发展格局方面,存在"北强南弱"、均衡性不足的问题;在分析沙产业前期发展现状方面,存在"挤出效应"、效益未充分体现的问题;在对比南北疆发展现状方面,存在北疆沙产业发展赶超南疆、后发优势明显的现象。并针对性提出具体的政策建议,即从应对区域发展均衡性不足方面,因地制宜,发展特色沙产业;从削弱"挤出效应"方面,加大科技创新投入,合理规划投资规模;从促进沙产业区域发展方面,扩大北疆后发优势,谋求南疆先发效应。通过该文的研究,能够一定程度消除社会对新疆沙产业发展的认识误区,同时对策建议是基于现实存在的问题而提出的,在解决相关问题上具有一定的现实意义。     

Milk sales and dietary diversity among the Maasai

In Maasai culture, responsibilities are traditionally divided between genders. Men are in charge of grazing and managing the livestock herds. Women take care of the family, administer food supplies, and are responsible for milking. For them, balancing home consumption of milk (for the family and for the calves), milk sale, and food purchase is a major task. In this article, we first investigate how different milk sales groups vary regarding the use of different food items and the respective quantities consumed by the enkaji, i.e., a Maasai subhousehold. Then, we address the commercialization decision and assess the effect of milk sales on the enkaji's food item use and food consumption. Using the data of Maasai enkajijik in the milk catchment area of a milk collection center in Ngerengere, Tanzania, we estimate the effects by employing propensity score matching procedures. Our findings suggest that milk sellers, especially those selling to the milk collection center, have a more diverse diet. In terms of per person consumption, the groups are markedly similar. Therefore, we conclude that income generated by milk sales is invested in diet diversification rather than in increasing the quantity of food consumed, hence the enkajijik appear not to make use of caloric terms of trade.     

Retaining a diverse workforce: the impact of gender‐focused human resource management

Demography theory suggests that high gender diversity leads to high turnover. As turnover is costly, we tested the following: a main effect prediction derived from demography theory, and a moderating effect prediction derived from the relational framework. Data on 198 publicly listed organisations were collected through a human resources decision‐maker survey and archival databases. The results indicate that higher gender diversity leads to lower turnover in organisations with many gender‐focused policies and practices. Findings suggest that organisations can lower their turnover rates by increasing their gender diversity and by implementing gender‐focused policies and practices.     

Job satisfaction in aging workforces: an analysis of the USA,Japan and Germany

In light of the dramatically aging workforces in many industrialized countries, age diversity management will become a major challenge in human resource management. To successfully handle an age-diverse workforce, it is crucial to understand how employees of different ages can be motivated. This paper analyzes age's moderating role in the relationship between situational job characteristics and job satisfaction. To control for the potential influence of the cultural and institutional context, we use data from the USA, Japan and Germany. Findings show that older employees' job satisfaction is driven by different factors than younger employees: older employees put more emphasis on good relationships with colleagues, while income, advancement opportunities, job security and having an interesting job are less important. However, these effects are mostly nation-dependent, which underlines the importance of conducting cross-cultural or cross-national aging research.     

Managing the foreign investment portfolio: How industry and governance diversity influence firm performance

Foreign investment has been seen as an important strategy for learning about new technologies and markets. However, the link between the characteristic of a foreign investment portfolio and firm performance has not been examined in detail. Using panel data from 199 Taiwanese firms, this study examines how the foreign investment portfolio in terms of industry and governance diversity influences firm performance. This study finds that governance diversity has an inverse U-shaped relationship to firm performance, whereas industry diversity does not. In addition, this study also finds that their relationships are affected by R&D capability and industry profitability. The empirical findings of our study are useful for firms that invest in emerging economies.     

能源安全测度的新维度:能源多样性

作为经济发展的源动力,能源及其安全测度问题一直是政府和学者研究的热门话题。将多样性引入到能源系统和能源安全研究中,探讨了能源安全和多样性之间的关系;界定了能源多样性的内容,包括国内能源供应的多样性和能源进口的多样性;利用香农-威纳多样性指数和Pielou均衡度指数,计算和分析了美国和中国近5年来的能源供应及进口情况,进而对其能源安全进行了对比研究。在2009—2013年,美国的能源多样性水平比中国高。结果表明能源多样性在一定程度上可以作为衡量能源安全的维度,中国能源多样性水平表明应致力于改变煤炭的主导局面,改善能源供应结构,拓宽和均衡能源进口渠道。     

Impact of commuting by workers on household dietary diversity in rural India

Drawing insights from the literature on transformation of rural non-farm employment, pathways from agriculture to nutrition, and linkages between migration and nutritional status of household, we seek to understand differences in dietary diversity across three mutually exclusive types of rural Indian households: where all members work in rural areas, at least one member commutes to urban areas, at least one member has no fixed place of work. Our analysis is based on a nationally representative data set from India for the year 2009–10 and we use propensity score matching methods. We find that as compared to households with no commuters, households with rural–urban commuters have higher dietary diversity; whereas households with no fixed place workers have lower dietary diversity. We also find differences in dietary diversity across households which differ by their primary source of income.     

Does hospitality diversity education make a difference in undergraduate students’ emotional intelligence

Soft skills are typically referred to as the attributes exhibited or contained by an individual that display his/her ability to interact with others. Two types of soft skills that are often discussed within the hospitality industry are diversity awareness and emotional intelligence. Diversity may be explained or defined as a state of unlikeness, the conditions of being different, and all things that make us different. Areas where differences may exist include race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, socio-economic status, age, physical abilities, religious beliefs, political affiliation and emotional reaction. Emotional intelligence (EI) has been defined as the ability to perceive, understand, regulate, and harness emotions in the self and others. How one deals with emotion is one characteristic that varies from culture to culture. Research has shown that EI may be a contributing factor in a moment of truth being considered a failure or success. The purpose of this study was to examine if undergraduate student EI scores change after completing a diversity issues course. Students completed the Assessing Emotions Scale on the first class day. At the conclusion of the 15-week course covering approximately 20 diversity issues concepts students completed the same EI assessment. Paired sampled t-testing was conducted to determine whether mean differences existed when comparing post and pre-course scores. Results of this study suggest that certain components of EI are significantly changed after taking the diversity issues course.