The Care Economy in Post-Reform China: Feminist Research on Unpaid and Paid Work and Well-Being

ABSTRACT

As China embarked on the path of economic and social reforms, social provisions from the Maoist era were dismantled, and care responsibilities shifted back from the state to the household. Rural–urban migration, a steep decline in fertility, and increasing longevity have led to changes in the age structure of the population both overall and by region. Using seven different surveys, the eleven contributions in this volume study the distributive consequences of post-reform care policies and the impact of unpaid care responsibilities on women’s and men’s opportunities and gender inequality. Overall, reduced care services have created care deficits for disadvantaged groups, including low-income rural elderly and children. The shifted care burden has also limited women’s ability to participate fully in the market economy and has contributed to rising gender inequalities in labor force participation, off-farm employment, earnings, pensions, and mental health outcomes.     

Men,Women, Money,and Morality: The Development of China's Sexual Economy

This paper focuses on men and women engaged in China's sexual economy, which is dominated by the exchange between wealthy and politically influential men and unmarried young women who trade their femininity and sexuality for material wealth and financial security from these men. Drawing on analyses of the popular 2009 television serial, Woju (Dwelling Narrowness), coupled with recent ethnographic studies, the paper shows how this sexual economy thrives in the increasingly competitive and commercial urban landscape of present-day China. The study then examines the impact of commodification and materialism on men and women. The paper places these gender dynamics within the context of socioeconomic changes during the last thirty years and investigates how gender inequality became assimilated into both official and popular discourses of Chinese life, thereby facilitating the ascendancy and power of the sexual economy.     

Unpaid Care Work's Interference with Paid Work and the Gender Earnings Gap in China

This paper examines the effects of unpaid care work on the earnings of men and women in China by using data from the 2008 China Time Use Survey, the country's first, large-scale time-use survey. The study introduces three indicators to measure the degree to which unpaid care work may “interfere” with paid work, either by directly disrupting it or by being intertwined with it. The regression estimates show that while the amount of time spent on unpaid care work negatively affects the earnings of both men and women, the interference of unpaid work with paid work lowers earnings more for women than for men. Quantitatively, the gender differences in the time spent on unpaid care work and its interference with paid work account for 28 percent of the gender earnings gap in China.     

Gender Patterns and Value of Unpaid Care Work: Findings From China's First Large‐Scale Time Use Survey

Using data from the 2008 China Time Use Survey, this paper examines the gender patterns of time allocation over paid work, unpaid care work, and non‐work activity and estimates the monetary value of unpaid care work. A seemingly unrelated regression (SUR) technique is applied to explore the tradeoff between the three types of activity. The estimates show that, holding constant individual characteristics and regional effects, the total work time of women is higher than that of men by 7 hours per week in the rural sector and by 10.5 hours per week in the urban sector. The monetary value of unpaid care work is estimated by five methods. Depending on the method used, the value assigned to unpaid care work varies from 25 to 32 percent of China's GDP, from 52 to 66 percent of final consumption, and from 63 to 80 percent of the gross products of tertiary industry.     

The Route Matters: Poverty and Inequality among Lone-Mother Households in Russia

Using the case of Russia, this paper takes issue with the stereotype of lone mothers as the poorest women in society, with the most disadvantaged children. Analysis of the Russian Longitudinal Monitoring Survey suggests there is enormous diversity in the material circumstances and livelihoods of lone mothers. Complementing the diversity of lone mothers' experiences is the finding that women who live with male partners, but who are responsible economically for their households, face problems much like those of lone mothers. The structural inequities that result from combining paid labor with unpaid care and childrearing have particularly adverse consequences for lone mothers and for women who bear the brunt of maintaining their households. While this analysis emphasizes the different aspects of the falsely homogenizing category “lone mother,” it also recognizes the structural disadvantages shared by lone mothers and other women in Russia today.     

论新时代绿色共享经济发展的瓶颈和路径

随着经济全球化和信息技术的发展,绿色共享经济作为一种新经济模式逐步兴起,成了市场经济发展的新的驱动力。绿色共享经济增加了供给和服务,为经济增长做出了很大贡献,也推动人们的生活向着更文明更生态的方式转变。绿色共享经济适应了生态文明的需要,能够推动经济增长模式转变,促进人与自然的和谐。绿色共享经济体现着人与自然、人与社会、人与人的关系,体现着现代文明理念,需要进一步发展绿色生态循环经济,开发生态技术,建立现代性的经济模式。     

我国循环经济执法保障:现状、需求与对策

我国在循环经济执法过程中存在法律法规执法不具有现实操作性、执法主体林立多头、执法权力没有法律保障等问题。面对完善循环经济法律法规体系、强制权力、公众参与的循环经济执法需求,文章分析了循环经济执法现状与需求存在差距的原因,提出了加大循环经济宣传力度、提高全社会参与意识,提高执法队伍的思想素质和业务素质,明确执法部门权限、改革执法体制等对策建议。     

基业长青的企业本质: 一种基于广义虚拟经济视角的解释

制度经济学的企业理论在探寻企业的本质时,将企业抽象为市场的对应物,抹杀了现实中不同企业之间存在的差别(异质性),难以理解企业之间的竞争及企业是如何成长.战略管理学则倾向于重视这种差别,并以此为基点从理论上阐释了企业是如何获取并持久保持竞争优势以促进企业成长,但忽视了企业的同质性.本文则从广义虚拟经济二元价值容介态的视角...     

中国西部地区人口、环境、资源与经济可持续发展对策

如何协调中国西部人口、资源、环境与经济发展的关系,缓解资源总供给与总需求的矛盾,以促进西部社会经济的可持续发展,已成为西部建立和谐社会的关键。文章根据西部人口与生态环境现实状况以及人口、环境、资源与经济协调发展的重要性,提出了西部地区人口、生态、资源与经济协调发展的主要对策。     

On the Persistence of Labour Market Insecurity and Slow Growth in the US: Reckoning with the Waltonist Growth Regime

In this article I systematically incorporate empirical work on rising income inequality and wage stagnation into a regulation theoretic framework for analysing macroeconomic growth. The rise of job polarisation and income inequality coincides with a long period of macroeconomic stagnation, both continuing through to the present (with the exception of a brief period of strong growth and declining inequality in the second half of the 1990s). The corporate scramble to restore profit rates after the crisis of Fordism has transformed the institutional configuration of the political economy. In particular, institutions supporting upward mobility and middle-class incomes in the economy have been eroded by the twin forces of internationalisation (leading to the re-emergence of wage-based competition) and employment externalisation (outsourcing, downsizing, antiunionism, etc). The current growth regime, which may be characterised as Waltonist, based on the Wal-Mart model of buyer-driven global supply chains focused on cutthroat wage-based competition and deunionisation, is not transitional but rather embedded in apparently long-term institutional settlements that amount to a dysfunctional regime.     

县域经济在国民经济中的现实地位变迁:理论与实证

明确县域经济在国民经济中的地位是研究县域经济发展问题的基础性课题。已有的研究文献未能区分县域经济的理论地位和现实地位,且多以县域经济自身的重要性论证县域经济的地位,不尽合乎研究规范,因而说服力不强。文章按规范要求采用比较分析范式研究了县域经济在我国国民经济中的现实地位及其变迁,认为:国家经济发展战略从垂直和水平两个方向给定了县域经济相对于其他行政性区域经济体在一国国民经济中的现实地位,且改革开放后,我国经济发展战略的调整降低了我国县域经济的现实地位。1988年至2002年的实证观察证实了文章的这一基本判断。这将为全面讨论县域经济发展问题提供理论基础。     

The Limitations of International Relations Regarding MNCs and the Digital Economy: Evidence from Brazil

ABSTRACT

Multinationals (MNCs) have been considered a relevant research topic for International Relations since the emergence of the field of International Political Economy in the 1970s. Nowadays, MNCs are undergoing deep changes in their business models and global strategies due to the digital economy. This has considerable implications for the international system. For instance, the rise of information and communication technology (ICT) MNCs to the top of market value lists globally. Nonetheless, IR scholars have been slow in grasping the importance of ICT MNCs and the digital economy. In this paper, I justify this statement by evaluating the inclusion of MNCs and ICT MNCs in Brazilian IR scholarship. The method used is a bibliometric mapping of the scientific production of Brazilian IR scholars, supported by a systematic literature review. The results showcase that, in spite of the impact of digitalization on Brazil's economy and politics, IR scholars have conducted few studies on MNCs and practically no studies on ICT MNCs. This case illustrates the emergence of new dynamics in global value chains triggered by digitalization. It also illustrates the challenges for developing countries such as Brazil to engage in global production networks within the highly competitive ICT sector.     

金融生态环境嬗变与区域经济金融发展——基于四川省井研县的实证分析

本文以井研县近10年来的金融生态环境变化和经济金融发展情况为基础，探讨了金融生态环境变化对经济金融发展的影响，并总结了该县金融生态环境建设的初步效果和经验。     

民间资本供求与民营企业融资:对陕西的实证分析

本文建立在调研和有关资料基础上对陕西现实及潜在的民间资本供求进行测算分析,从总量和结构等方面实证了民间资本供给充足、而民营经济对民间资本的需求欲望非常强烈这一结论,要解除民间资本供求的市场失灵现象,就必须构建以"民资、民用、民管"为原则的内生性融资机制,建立社区民间金融管理组织和社区民间金融市场,选择内生性融资方式,创新其融资产品,实现民间资本供给与民营经济对其需求的有效对接.     

Feminist Ecological Economics and Sustainability

Synopsis New developments in feminist ecological economics and ecofeminist economics are contributing to the search for theories and policy approaches to move economies toward sustainability. This paper summarizes work by ecofeminists and feminist ecological economists which is relevant to the sustainability challenge and its implications for the discipline of economics. Both democracy and lower material throughputs are generally seen as basic principles of economic sustainability. Feminist theorists and feminist ecological economists offer many important insights into the conundrum of how to make a democratic and equity-enhancing transition to an economy based on less material throughput. These flow from feminist research on unpaid work and caring labor, provisioning, development, valuation, social reproduction, non-monetized exchange relationships, local economies, redistribution, citizenship, equity-enhancing political institutions, and labor time, as well as creative modeling approaches and activism-based theorizing.      

Sources of crime in the state of Veracruz: The role of female labor force participation and wage inequality

Abstract

In recent years, crime has become a serious concern in Mexico as its increase has detrimentally affected government institutions and economic growth. There is considerable speculation among policy analysts about the causes of the increase in crime. Whereas some analysts attribute the increase to a rise in income inequality, others believe internal migration and a loss of morals are the roots of criminal behavior. This research shows that at least for the Mexican state of Veracruz, wage inequality and labor force participation have an important impact on crime. When gender is considered, however, the impact is more complicated than it seems. An increase in women's labor force participation decreases the overall number of alleged violent offenders. However, the number of alleged rapists and grievous bodily harm offenders increases as women's wage distribution improves. The results shed light on the gender dimensions of the economics of crime.     

The labour income share and the relative price of investment in the US: an empirical investigation

Several studies argue that the recent decline in the secular trend of the labour income share is mostly driven by capital-embodied technological progress which is typically identified with trend reductions in the relative price of investment. In this paper, I use data from the United States to assess the nature of the relationship between trends in the labour share and the relative price of investment. Results from co-integration tests reveal that the share and the relative price of investment are most likely not co-integrated. However, co-variation tests indicate that both time series share a common stochastic component, and additional tests of structural breaks point at the presence of a common change in the mean or trend of both series. These results suggest that capital-embodied or investment-specific technological progress may have played an important role in the decline of the secular trend of the labour share.