Losing children and mental well-being: evidence from China

This article explores the impact of losing a child, especially losing all children (including losing the only child), on the mental health, happiness and loneliness of parents. The Chinese government has implemented strict restrictions on the number of births for each family since the 1970s, resulting in the creation of millions of only-child families. Using the 2011 baseline data from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study, we find that the bereavement of a child is associated with lower levels of mental health and happiness and higher levels of loneliness for the parents, even after we adjust for demographic and socioeconomic characteristics. The effects are significantly stronger for losing all the children. Results have strong implications for the population-control, elderly-care and mental-care policies especially in China and developing countries, where the social security system is not yet sound.     

居住模式对老人福利的影响：基于代际关系的视角--来自我国老人膳食质量的证据

在我国老龄化程度不断加深的过程中,老人的居住模式选择及其福利问题变得越来越重要。我国传统的与子女合住的居住模式真的能改善老人福利吗？文章以我国老人的膳食质量为例,基于我国独特的“双向反馈”代际关系,从“亲代需求”和“子代需求”两个方面来讨论亲子合住居住模式对老人福利的影响,并利用2009年与2011年中国居民健康与营养调查(CH NS )的数据加以实证检验。研究表明：(1)与子女合住的居住模式非但没有改善反而降低了老人的平衡膳食得分,尤其在低龄老人、农村老人和女性老人中更为明显。(2)从影响渠道来看,亲子合住居住模式家庭中老人为满足子女的抚幼需求而无私地投入时间和精力,但老人的照料需求却没有得到很好的满足,代际关系重心向下偏移是造成老人膳食质量下降的主要原因。文章为不同居住模式下老人福利干预政策的制定和社会养老服务体系的建设提供了实证依据。     

Learning from processing trade: Firm evidence from China

Processing export plays a significant role in international trade. In this paper, focusing on firm-level dynamics, we show that firms learn from their processing export experience to improve their subsequent ordinary export outcomes. Using transaction-level trade data and firm-level production data, we show that firms’ ordinary export performance, at both extensive and intensive margins, is enhanced by their own processing experience. Firms also export products with improved quality after engaging in processing exports of similar products. Furthermore, we investigate potential channels through which firms learn from processing experience. We find that firms potentially learn from processing experience to enhance production efficiency, to better understand how to improve product appeal to cater to specific markets, and to gain better and easier access to inputs. Moreover, we find that exporters benefit more from processing experience for larger markets with fiercer competition. Similarly, stronger learning effects are also observed when processing experience is associated with products that embody less diffused knowledge and are more differentiated. Also, firms learn more from processing experience when they are more actively engaged in processing imports. Lastly, we verify the economic significance and quantify the importance of these potential channels.     

Institutional arrangements and price rebalancing: empirical evidence from the United States and Europe

This paper explores the rebalancing of prices for voice service in the United States (US) and the European Union (EU) from conceptual and empirical perspectives. We determine the overall cost and structure of a standardized basket of residential and business services. Our data indicate that during the 1994–2000 period the degree of rate rebalancing was significantly higher in the EU than in the US. While the developments at the level of EU Member States are more heterogeneous and the process of rate rebalancing is not completed, these findings correspond to the predictions derived from our comparative institutional analysis.     

新疆城乡最低生活保障制度运行分析

贫困是制约发展、影响稳定的重大社会问题,也是在短时间内无法改变的社会现实。低保制度的实行在新疆的经济建设发展过程中显得尤为重要,在很大程度上使一些困难群体减轻了贫困,促进了新疆的社会稳定和各民族间的团结。对新疆城乡低保制度运行现状进行分析,指出了其存在低保资金缺乏、管理体制不健全、缺乏与其他社会保障制度及福利项目的衔接等问题。在此基础上提出了拓宽资金来源渠道、不断完善低保管理制度、低保制度和相关的社会保障和社会福利制度相配合、扶持和发展慈善事业以及加快慈善事业的立法等对策建议。     

我国旅游资源产权安排:一个新的分析框架

随着旅游产业的发展,旅游资源的外延逐渐扩大,旅游资源产权问题越发复杂.如果依然笼统地实行僵化的旅游资源管理模式,不但会使资源的利用效率降低,而且会对资源本身造成极大的危害.本文基于产权的角度,在对旅游资源重新进行分类的基础上,构建新的旅游资源产权体系,进而根据不同产权的有效性条件,提出了调整旅游资源的具体管理、运行制度的思路.     

Testing the balanced growth hypothesis: evidence from China

We investigate whether China’s experience during 1952–2004 supports the balanced growth entailment of the neoclassical growth model. Estimation of long-run relations among output, consumption and investment for the full period reject the balanced growth hypothesis for both the national and regional economies. When the economic reforms of the late 1970s are modelled as a structural break by the methods of Johansen et al. (Economet J 3(2):216–249, 2000) and Perron (Econometrica 57(6):1361–1401, 1989), we find some evidence of balanced growth in the pre-break period but in the post-break period the ‘great ratios’ are trend-stationary, precluding fully balanced growth, though permitting a common (stochastic) productivity trend.      

Brothers and Breadwinners: Legislating Living Wages in the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938

Attention to the implicit and explicit wage theories articulated by economic actors and embedded in public policy reveals the underlying social norms and values in specific historical and industrial contexts. The Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 (FLSA), the first federal minimum wage legislation in the United States, legitimated and institutionalized the idea that living standards and workers' needs matter in setting wages. They matter not simply in generating labor supply, but as the basis for government intervention in market mechanisms. Rather than viewing market mechanisms and government regulations dichotomously, economic actors debating the FLSA treated both market mechanisms and socially defined living standards as legitimate elements of wage-setting. Wage regulations also, by necessity, must grapple with issues of identity, that is, which workers (especially as defined by class, gender, and race?–?ethnicity) are deserving of particular living standards. Debates over the language in the FLSA reveal the contested nature of masculinity during the period of economic crisis in the 1930s. Advocates responded by defining a multiplicity of living wages corresponding with different living standards, as well as a multiplicity of strategies for achieving them.     

基于国际旅游岛的城市人居环境分析

文章运用温湿指数和风效指数对海南气候条件进行分析后认为,海南的气候舒适度是构成海南人居环境的重要因素,而酸雨现象如果得不到根治,将使海南丧失得天独厚的自然条件。文章还通过对海南社会条件中经济发展水平、房屋销售情况及小区居住环境的分析,指出海南国际旅游岛的建设应坚持可持续发展观,树立环境保护意识,既要通过经济发展提高居民的物质生活水平,又要构筑以人为本、人性化的聚居社区,让所有居住者产生心理的归属感。     

The effects of education in early-stage agriculture: some evidence from China

The stochastic production frontier approach is used to study the effects of education on agricultural efficiency for a cross-section of 'early-stage' farms from Guanghan County, Sichuan Province, China. Education for farm families in rural China is multifaceted with a combination of formal education, intragenerational transfer of knowledge within the home, and agricultural extension services. Since our survey data span two different years with markedly different policy environments, we are able to examine not only which aspects of education affect agricultural efficiency, but also whether or not the policy environment matters. We find limited evidence that in a policy environment that is conducive to agriculture, formal education provides positive returns in agriculture. Furthermore, general education may provide greater returns than the more targeted extension services.     

Financial deregulation,credit allocation across sectors,and economic growth: evidence from China

This paper investigates whether financial deregulation causes economic growth through financial development. Financial development is measured by two channels: (1) changes in the allocation of credit across sectors, and (2) changes in savings and investment rates. We measure financial deregulation in China at the provincial level from 1981 to 1998. Our results suggest that financial reform causes economic growth in China. Further, its effect largely comes through the reallocation of credit across sectors, rather than changes in savings and investment rates.     

Capital structure choice and ownership: evidence from electronics enterprises in China

Empirical studies on capital structure mostly focus on listed companies and also on countries other than China. In this paper, we employ a panel dataset for 4,716 large and medium-sized enterprises in the Chinese electronics industry during the period 2005–2007 in order to investigate the determinants of their capital structure choice. Using the debt ratio as the dependent variable, we find that firm size and potential growth have a positive effect on the debt ratio whereas profitability has a negative effect. We show that decisions on the debt ratio are based on mixed factors that the various theories suggest. The unlisted Chinese companies which are unable to access to the securities market are prone to acquire bank loans as sources for funds which provides room for the modification of pecking order theory based on listed companies. As to ownership structure, we find that those Chinese electronics enterprises with higher portions of foreign equity tend to have lower debt ratios.     

住宅产业综合测度方法研究--基于恩格尔系数与人均住房面积模型分析

文章首先回顾了国内外衡量房地产业发展的相关类别指标,指出其优缺点,并在此基础上以日本住宅产业发展情况为参照,建立恩格尔系数与人均住房面积分析模型,试图弥补上述指标之不足,以期通过恩格尔系数与人均住房面积的综合分析来衡量一国或一地区住宅产业发展水平的目的,实证结果显示恩格尔系数与人均住房面积之间存在稳定的数量关系.最后,文章通过该模型对上海住宅房地产市场进行分析,揭示上海市恩格尔系数与人均住房面积的关系,从而有效指导上海房地产市场运行的实践.     

Determinants of vertical integration in export processing: Theory and evidence from China

This paper examines the determinants of vertical integration versus outsourcing in export processing, by exploiting the coexistence of two export processing regimes in China, which designate by law who owns and controls the imported components. Based on a variant of the Antràs-Helpman (2004) model, we show theoretically that control over imported components for assembly can affect firm integration decisions. Our empirical results show that when Chinese plants control the use of components, the export share of foreign-owned plants is positively correlated with the intensity of inputs provided by the headquarter (capital, skill, and R&D). These results are consistent with the property-rights theory of intra-firm trade. However, when foreign firms own and control the components, there is no evidence of a positive relationship between the intensity of headquarters' inputs and the prevalence of vertical integration. The results are consistent with our model that considers control over imported components as an alternative to asset ownership to alleviate hold-up by export-processing plants.     

Earnings mobility in Spain: the role of job mobility and contractual arrangements

This paper analyses the relationship between earnings mobility, job mobility and changes in the contractual arrangement in Spain using a sample of Spanish workers aged 16–60 years extracted from the European Community Household Panel Survey (ECHP 1995–2001). Overall, earnings mobility remains mostly unchanged over time, although clear differences, both in terms of levels and trends, can be perceived among different types of workers. Results show that, in general, job mobility contributes to increase earnings mobility. Switching into permanent contract are associated with the highest probability of upgrading among those workers who remain with the same employer. In contrast, the highest risk of downgrading among stayers appears when changing from permanent to temporary. An analysis on low pay/no low pay transitions reveals that job mobility always increases the probability of moving from low pay to better-paid jobs among females. For males, in contrast, this occurs only when they were initially employed on a temporary basis. Furthermore, for females it is found that either switching into permanent contract while staying with the same employer, or changing employer while being employed on a permanent basis yield a higher chance of upgrading than staying with the same employer with a permanent contract.      

贵州农村不同类型家庭外出务工对家庭收入和生活的影响

分析贵州不同类型家庭外出务工对家庭的影响,发现夫妻共同外出务工家庭多以进工厂的方式外出打工,他们收入要高于户主单独外出务工家庭收入,而夫妻共同外出打工对留守老人与儿童的负面影响要大于户主单独外出务工的家庭。     

Application capability of e-business, e-business success, and organizational performance: Empirical evidence from China

Previous research efforts suggested that firms' overall e-business success tends to deliver greater organizational performance. However, few researchers examined how a firm leverages e-business investment to gain greater e-business success. Even fewer researchers investigated the different impacts of different levels of e-business success on organizational performance. This paper addresses two questions: (1) what capabilities influence a firms' ability to build e-business success and enjoy greater organizational performance, where firm-level e-business success is measured by e-business service capability and IT-enabled collaborative advantage; and (2) whether the two ways of measuring e-business success result in different impacts on organizational performance? We propose that a firm's application capability of e-business involving systems development and systems usage is positively related to a firm's overall e-business success, thus having a positive impact on organizational performance. We use survey data from 152 Chinese manufacturing firms and their B2B e-business systems participants to test our theoretical hypotheses and proposed model. The findings suggest that both systems development and systems usage have significant and positive impacts on e-business service capability, which in turn leads to greater IT-enabled collaborative advantage. This finding could be translated into the important role of a firm's application capability of e-business on e-business success. It is concluded that the application capability of e-business acts as one of the main mechanisms through which the e-business investment leads to greater e-business success. We also find that IT-enabled collaborative advantage, compared with e-business service capability, has a more significant and greater impact on organizational performance. This study extends prior e-business success research by opening up the ‘black box’ between a firm's e-business investment and its e-business success, and by distinguishing the relative impacts of e-business service capability versus IT-enabled collaborative advantage on organizational performance. Another contribution of this study is that the effect of context factors (firm size, industry, and system duration) in developing country on our proposed model.     

The effects of haze pollution on stock performances: evidence from China

Haze pollution has become the most important environmental issue in China in recent years. Using the data of PM_2.5 concentration and stocks of listed companies located in Beijing between 2010 and 2014, this article investigates the effects of haze pollution on stock performances. Empirical results indicate that haze pollution has significant negative effects on stock returns and significant positive effects on stock volatilities, through the channel of investors’ mood. Furthermore, the effects of haze pollution on stock returns emerge gradually and the effects of haze pollution on stock volatilities weaken gradually over time during a trading day.     

Intergovernmental fiscal transfers and local tax efforts: evidence from provinces in China

This paper explores the incentive effects of total central fiscal transfers and its components – tax rebates and equalization grants – on provincial tax efforts in China. Our theoretical model predicts negative impacts on provincial tax efforts from both total fiscal transfers and equalization grants, while the effects of tax rebates are theoretically unclear. Using Chinese provincial panel data from 1995 to 2007, our empirical study provides significant evidence on the theoretical implications.     

公共财政视角下的城乡最低生活保障制度

城乡最低生活保障制度是国家和社会为保障城乡贫困人口的基本生活而建立的一种社会救济制度。目前,中国的城乡低保制度存在着资金筹集主体缺位,基层政府财政亏损严重,管理难度大等现象及一些具体的制度运行问题。应切实加大中央财政的转移支付力度,加强低保制度的规范化、法制化,实现城乡低保制度一体化。建立综合性的社会救助体系。实现低保工作系统化。