The impact of Province-Managing-County fiscal reform on primary education in China

Using longitudinal Chinese county-level data from 2005 to 2007, we examine the causal effect of the Province-Managing-County fiscal reform on primary education spending by combining propensity score matching with the difference-in-difference method and allowing for the concurrent County Strengthening and Power Expansion reform. While the fiscal reform significantly increases per pupil expenditure on elementary education, there is little evidence showing that this fiscal reform narrows the urban-rural expenditure gap within counties. This Province-Managing-County reform, on the other hand, aggravates regional educational spending disparity in elementary schools based on the observation that the reform has caused a higher increase of per pupil educational spending in the affluent Eastern Region than the increase in Central and West China.     

农村教育对中国经济的影响

21世纪的竞争焦点是人才资源，而决定人才数量和质量的关键在于教育。对于有着9亿农村人口的中国来说，农村教育状况关系整个国家的未来。改革开放以来，在农村改革和经济发展的推动下，我国农村教育状况有了很大的改善，但随着财政体制和农村经济状况的变化，农村教育也面临着严峻的形势和严重的困难。本文从农村教育对中国经济发展的作用，当前农村教育面临的问题及克服困难的建议等方面对中国农村教育略做探索。     

The effect of education on health and health behaviors: Evidence from the college enrollment expansion in China

By exploiting the massive college enrollment expansion in China beginning in 1999, we investigate the effect of higher education on health and health behaviors. Using data from the China Family Panel Studies in 2018 and employing an instrumental variable approach, we find that higher education has a significant effect on health and health behaviors. Each additional year of education increases the probability of reporting good health and having good memory by 1.9 and 3.1 percentage points (pp), respectively. Moreover, it decreases the probability of being overweight, smoking, and drinking by 1.3, 2.3, and 1.2 pp., respectively. By comparing the effect size with the findings in previous literature, we conclude that the effect of education on health is greater at higher levels of education. Further analysis suggests that education may affect health and health behaviors through two channels: the resources acquired by individuals and the prices faced by them.     

Spatial inequality in education and health care in China

While increasing income inequality in China has been commented on and studied extensively, relatively little analysis is available on inequality in other dimensions of human development. Using data from different sources, this paper presents some basic facts on the evolution of spatial inequalities in education and healthcare in China over the long run. In the era of economic reforms, as the foundations of education and healthcare provision have changed, so has the distribution of illiteracy and infant mortality. Across provinces and within provinces, between rural and urban areas and within rural and urban areas, social inequalities have increased substantially since the reforms began.     

实施QDII机制对我国的影响

本文简要介绍了QDII机制的由来及涵义,探讨了实行QDII机制对我国宏观经济的意义所在及其负面影响,针对目前我国现状提出我国实施QDII机制的必要性,并总结出我国实施QDII机制应注意的一些问题和实施办法。     

The impact of education on income inequality and intergenerational mobility

This paper analyses the effects of innate ability, compulsory education (grades 1–9), and non-compulsory education (grades 10–12 and higher education) on inequality and intergenerational mobility of income, by constructing a four-period overlapping-generation model. We find that innate ability and family investment in early education play important roles in explaining income inequality and intergenerational income mobility. Though children from the wealthiest families are only 1.36 times ‘smarter’ that those from the poorest, the gap in human capital expands to 2.35 at the end of compulsory education and to 2.89 at the end of non-compulsory education. One important reason for the increase is that poor families invest relatively less in children's early education than do wealthy families; therefore, their children attend lower-quality schools, which results in them being much less likely to participate in higher education. By simulating policy experiments for different types of government education expenditure, we find that direct subsidies to poor parents are the most efficient and effective policy for mitigating poor families' budget constraints with regard to early-education investment in their children.     

The impact of diabetes insurance mandates on infant health

Among the factors thought to contribute to lagging improvements in infant health in recent years are increasing obesity and diabetes prevalence among women of childbearing age. This article uses a difference‐in‐difference‐in‐difference empirical strategy to investigate the impact of mandated insurance coverage for diabetes on adverse pregnancy outcomes. Among educated women, who have high rates of coverage through private insurance that is subject to insurance mandates, diabetes mandates are associated with a reduction in low birth weight and premature birth prevalence. These gains are concentrated among older women and are larger for African‐Americans. There is a weaker effect on the prevalence of high birth weight, potentially because of the deleterious effects of an increased probability of pregnancy weight gain in excess of 35 pounds among diabetic women in states with mandates.     

The impact of housing reform on durables consumption in China

The privatization of public housing in the 1990s in China had a considerable impact on the wealth of urban households. This paper analyzes the effects of the wealth change on household consumption of nine durable goods in urban China, including air conditioner, computer, color TV, washing machine, refrigerator, camera, microwave, telephone, and VCD/DVD. Our results show that households affected by the housing reform had a significantly higher level of durables consumption than those unaffected by the program. In the short term, their probabilities of purchasing air conditioners and computers increase by 2%–10% and 2%–7% respectively. In the long term, the effect on air conditioner consumption increases over time during our study period but effect on computer does not increase monotonically. Further, the effects of the housing reform on the consumptions of more commonly owned durables, such as color TV, washing machine, refrigerator, and telephone have diminished over time.     

The impact of teacher credentials on student achievement in China

Teacher quality is an important factor in improving student achievement. As such, policymakers have constructed a number of different credentials to identify high quality teachers. Unfortunately, few of the credentials used in developing countries have been validated (in terms of whether teachers holding such credentials actually improve student achievement). In this study, we employ a student-fixed effects model to estimate the impact of teacher credentials on student achievement in the context of the biggest education system in the world: China. We find that having a teacher with the highest rank (a credential based on annual assessments by local administrators) has positive impacts on student achievement relative to having a teacher who has not achieved the highest rank. We further find that teacher rank has heterogeneous impacts, benefiting economically poor students more than non-poor students. However, whether a teacher attends college or holds teaching awards does not appear to provide additional information on teacher quality (in terms of improving student achievement).     

The impact of structural adjustment on housing prices in China

Studies of the factors that influence housing prices have focused on housing characteristics, governmental policies, environmental goods, macroeconomic and social fundamentals, and so on. However, the effect of industrial structural adjustment on housing prices is worthy of further investigation. In China, it would be helpful to measure this effect to coordinate housing policy and the ‘Made in China 2025’ strategy, which aims to accelerate industrial restructuring. We selected a spatial panel data model to quantify the effects of the industrial rationalisation and sophistication attributable to spatial dependence in housing prices. Estimation results show that structural adjustment has a statistically significant effect on housing prices that varies widely across regions. In descending order, the impact of industrial structure sophistication decreases in eastern, central, western, and northeastern China. This finding suggests that the government should match housing with local industry, prevent excessive real estate development in conventional agricultural areas, and pay close attention to changes in housing prices caused by increasing industrial restructuring.     

The impact of message framing on uptake of vision health services for rural students in China: A randomized control trial

Improving the uptake of public health services and technology is a critical problem for developing nations. Using the example of student vision health care seeking behavior in rural China, this research investigates whether the framing effect in behavioral economics is useful in promoting uptake of public health services under a subsidy intervention. Using randomized controlled trials, 35 rural schools in two counties in Shaanxi province were randomly assigned to different intervention groups, each of which delivered information to students and parents with different message framing. The study found that: (1) Both the gain and loss message framing can significantly improve the vision center visit rate and eyeglasses ownership of rural students with visual impairment and the uptake of public health services. (2) There was no significant difference in the intervention effect of the two message framing. (3) Message framing are more effective for students with high perceived value of eyeglasses voucher, and message framing improves the overall vision health services uptake by increasing the visit rate of students with high perceived value. The findings may serve as a theoretical foundation for future public health service strategies aimed at increasing the contribution of non-economic interventions to economic interventions, thereby promoting the usage of public health services by employing applicable behavioral economics theories.     

Impacts of education policies on intergenerational education mobility in China

This paper used the CHIP 2013 dataset to investigate the effects of two important education policies in China on intergenerational education mobility, including the Compulsory Education Law implemented in 1986 and college expansion policy (CEP) started from 1999. In general, our results reflect a relatively optimistic picture in urban China, but a less favorable pattern in rural areas. For the urban sample, both the Compulsory Education Law (CEL) and college expansion policy increase the probability of upward mobility at lower parental education level, and the college expansion policy further increases the intergenerational education mobility in urban China. In contrast, each of the two policies indeed reduces the intergenerational education mobility for the rural sample, and the effects found on upward mobility in urban China are non-existent for the rural sample. The unfavorable results in rural China can be attributed to poor enforcement of the policy or the lack of demand-side education reforms.     

Invisible enemy: The health impact of ozone

China has exerted great efforts in the past decades to fight against particulate matters and has achieved initial results, but ozone pollution has increased significantly. Using a unique diagnostic data of a peninsula city in China, this study evaluates the health effect of ozone pollution on emergency room admission and medical expenditure. We present strong evidence that ozone has a significant negative impact on health. Specifically, one standard deviation increase in ozone pollution will result in an additional 3.30, 2.25, and 4.94 weekly emergency room admissions in respiratory, ophthalmology, and internal medicine. Our analysis of medical expenditure implies that one standard deviation increase of ozone pollution generates a 5.89 million yuan increase of annual medical expenditure for a representative city. We further show that land wind, sunny weather, and dense roads significantly moderate the adverse health effects of ozone. Our findings offer a timely reminder for policymakers to pay attention to “invisible” ozone pollution while managing particulate pollution.     

The effect of education expansion on intergenerational transmission of education: Evidence from China

More than 70 million people have attained a tertiary education due to China's higher education expansion (CHEE). Using data from the Chinese Household Income Project Survey, we examine how dose education expansion have an effect on the intergenerational transmission of education (ITE) by using the exogenous surge brought by CHEE. Our finding is that, after carefully addressing the interference induced by the Compulsory Education Laws and the selection bias caused by intergenerational co-residence, CHEE reduces ITE when educational achievement is measured by schooling years. However, when taking the quality of higher education into account, we find that CHEE does not have a significant effect on ITE, which suggests that the intergenerational inequality in higher education remains. Moreover, we identify the mechanism that the inequality in the quality of high school education extends to tertiary education to explains our findings. To account for the mixed findings in previous literatures, we further propose a general framework for understanding the effect of education expansion on ITE.     

农村教育对中国经济的影响

21世纪的竞争焦点是人才资源,而决定人才数量和质量的关键在于教育.对于有着9亿农村人口的中国来说,农村教育状况关系整个国家的未来.改革开放以来,在农村改革和经济发展的推动下,我国农村教育状况有了很大的改善,但随着财政体制和农村经济状况的变化.农村教育也面临着严峻的形势和严重的困难.本文从农村教育对中国经济发展的作用,当前农村教育面临的问题及克服困难的建议等方面对中国农村教育略做探索.     

The unreported income and its impact on Gini coefficient in China

ABSTRACT

Unreported income is an important factor that distorts China’s household income accounting and Gini coefficient calculation. On the basis of comparing NBS household survey data and data from China’s Cash Flow Statement, this paper estimates the size and structure of unreported income in China over recent years. Our study found that about 20% of household disposable income has not been covered by existing household surveys in recent years. In 2015, the omission rate was 19.5%. Operating income and property income have the highest omission rates. Considering that unreported income is primarily owned by high-income people, China’s falling Gini coefficient since 2009 may have resulted from the statistical omission of partial incomes of high-income group. If unreported income is re-included, China’s Gini coefficient would increase by 10 percentage points rather than decrease.     

基于CiteSpace软件对2014—2018年国内糖尿病健康教育研究热点分析

为了追踪糖尿病健康教育研究的热点前沿,探索该领域的最新进展,文章选用中国知网(CNKI)中的期刊数据,以"糖尿病"并含"健康教育"为主题,选取2014—2018年的文献进行检索。将检索出的文献数据进行人工筛选后,导入文献计量学工具CiteSpace进行可视化分析。分析结果显示:高产作者前5位由高到低分别为李琳、王惠丽、高俊香、胡细玲和赵秀君;高频机构中包含高校2所、医院12所、疾控中心1所、健康教育中心1所;重要的关键词有2型糖尿病、健康教育、高血压、妊娠糖尿病、治疗依从性、护理、糖尿病患者、遵医行为、糖尿病、血糖控制、生活质量等。糖尿病健康教育的相关研究在不断深入,呈现递进式发展,临床开始应用新兴的全程健康教育模式。     

The health of left-behind children in rural China

Child health is not only a key indicator of overall quality of public health, but also vital for the future economic development of a country. In recent years, with unprecedented urbanization of China, many children in rural areas have been left behind while their parents migrate to urban areas to seek employment opportunities. Thus, it is considerably important for us to understand the effects of lack of parental care on the health status of left-behind children. Using data from China Health and Nutrition Survey (CHNS), we find that the left-behind children in rural areas are significantly 20.0% more likely to get sick or develop chronic conditions than those living with their parents. We also find that girls are more vulnerable than boys and younger children are more vulnerable than older children to lack of parental care.     

The impact of the 2007 reforms in China on the quality of earnings

Prior to 2007, in order to encourage international investment, China operated two parallel financial reporting systems, one based on Chinese GAAP for domestic investors and the other based on IFRS for international investors. In 2007, after a series of reforms to harmonise Chinese GAAP with IFRS, this system was replaced by a single set of standards for both classes of investor. We evaluate the impact of this significant change on earnings quality for stocks quoted on the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges for the period 2003–2013. Using tests of earnings smoothing and early loss recognition, we identify three key features. Firstly, earnings quality improved consistently over the period. Secondly, prior to the reforms of 2007, IFRS earnings were of superior quality to Chinese GAAP earnings. A third and important finding is that earnings quality under Chinese GAAP after the 2007 reforms is comparable to that under pre-2007 IFRS.     

The impact of microcredit on women's empowerment: evidence from China

The impact of microcredit on women's empowerment remains controversial, as documented in the microfinance literature. While some studies claim that microcredit helps women increase their income earning abilities, leading to greater power to overcome cultural asymmetries, others contend that small loans allocated to women are usually controlled by their spouses, which results in more severe subordination of women and leaves them more vulnerable to the patriarchy system within the household and/or at society level. This paper evaluates the empowerment impact of microcredit on rural women in China. Logistic regression is employed for empirical analysis and data are collected through a rural household survey. The results confirm that microcredit has a significant impact on five dimensions of women's empowerment, ranging from economic security to awareness of social/legal issues.