农民宗教信仰问题研究进展及其述评

学术界借鉴马克思主义宗教观对农民信教的原因及特点进行了全面的研究。具体说来，学者们的视角主要集中在关于中国农民信教热潮原因及主要特点、关于中国农村宗教对和谐社会的影响、关于正确引导中国农民宗教信仰的对策措施等方面。没有农村宗教领域的和谐，就没有社会主义和谐社会的成功构建。因此，要实现构建社会主义和谐社会的战略构想，就必须要首先消解掉农村宗教领域的各种不和谐因子，并从多方面采取对策推动其健康发展。     

健康风险与农村居民信仰选择

改革开放后,中国农村很多地区都出现了“宗教信仰热”。本文基于河南嵩县的农户调研数据,利用Logit回归模型实证分析了影响农村居民信仰选择的重要因素。研究发现,年龄、性别、政治面貌、健康风险和个人社会保障水平都对农村居民的宗教信仰选择具有重要解释作用。在此基础上,研究重点关注了农村居民“因病信教”的内在逻辑,并指出政府长期从农村退出致使医疗等基本公共服务严重不足,已导致农民面临的健康风险明显增加,从而在很大程度助推了宗教信仰在农村的“复兴”。     

Enforcement,Socioeconomic Diversity,and Tax Filing Compliance in the United States

In this article, we examine the determinants of tax filing compliance in the United States. We use county‐level data on non‐filing rates for the tax year 2000, obtained directly from the Internal Revenue Service. We include explanatory variables identified in the “rational compliance” framework, including an enforcement index against identified non‐filers, the audit rate of filers, and the average penalty rate for both filers and non‐filers. We also examine the role of socioeconomic diversity on tax compliance, testing whether within‐county heterogeneity in household income, language, race, and religion can help explain variation in non‐filing rates. We find that non‐filing is increasing with heterogeneity by race, although not by income or language, and that non‐filing is decreasing with heterogeneity by religious membership. As for enforcement variables, we find that non‐filing rates tend to fall with the enforcement index. Other variables have somewhat mixed results.     

实验经济学视角下的宗教研究:信仰与行为

宗教对经济的影响已受到越来越广泛的重视。宗教通过价值观和信仰团体对经济个体的行为产生影响,进而影响经济。作者针对宗教对个体亲社会行为的影响,从宗教虔诚度测量方法的角度,对现有的文献的研究成果进行分类比较分析,讨论现有研究存在的问题以及未来可能的研究方向,以期为我国宗教社会科学的研究提供新的工具和分析视角。     

Does religion belief matter to self-employment of rural elderly? Evidence from China

There is a growing interest in understanding the economic consequences of religious belief. Using a unique dataset collected from thousands of villages, this research investigates the effect of religious beliefs on rural elderlies’ self-employment choice in China. The empirical results show that, self-employment is positively associated with religious beliefs after controlling for village characteristics, which implying that religion plays a significantly positive role in promoting self-employment of rural elderly. We also find that, the self-employment promoting effects are more significant in Christians and Buddhists. This result is consistent and robust after using instrumental variable approach, propensity score matching approach and controlling for the alternative hypothesis variables. Furthermore, elderly religious believers who are female, over 70 years old, living in a village where the secondary industry is dominant and soybeans/potatoes the main crops are more likely to became self-employees. Mechanism analysis shows economic rationality rather than value rationality that religious belief influence self-employment which confirms economic compensation channel. Given the few studies and limited dataset resources in the context of rural revitalization in China, this paper put effort to provides new evidences of the relationship between religious belief and self-employment.     

Does religious beliefs affect economic growth? Evidence from provincial-level panel data in China

More and more literature on economic growth and development has increasingly focused on long-run effects of geographic, historical, and cultural factors on productivity and income per capita. This paper investigates the effect of religious beliefs on economic growth using provincial panel data from 2001 to 2011 in China. It's very meaningful to study the role of religion playing in economic development since religion has influence on political preference, human capital and work ethic, especially in current China which is faced with income disparity, environmental pollution, and official corruption. Our results reveal that, among the different religions, Christianity has the most significant effect on economic growth. This conclusion is consistent among different estimators and robust with stability over time. However, no consistent or robust conclusions can be drawn for other religions. Different estimation methods give different signs or significance. Given the very few studies and limited data resources about China in this field, the paper as a tentative study provides a brand new viewpoint.     

农村土地流转状况及对策——基于安徽省2278份问卷的研究

安徽省作为全国农村土地改革的排头兵,率先发起了农村家庭联产承包责任制。在第三次土地改革的浪潮中,研究安徽省农村土地流转问题是对农村经济社会发展的积极探索。通过实地考察,以农户为调研对象,发现了农业收入在家庭收入结构中所占比重少、农户受教育水平低、政策宣传不到位、土地规整度不完善等问题,从而提出了实行农地股份合作制、改革福利化农业补贴政策、推进农地适度规模经营的建议。     

Cooperative patronage: The National Smallholder Farmers' Association of Malawi in Kasungu District

This paper estimates the determinants of farmers' decisions to join a rural producer organisation, the National Smallholder Farmers' Association of Malawi (NASFAM), in Kasungu District. Data for the study were collected in June and August 2003 using household-level questionnaires and stratified random sampling, where strata were membership status and gender. Probit analysis of 250 farmers shows that off-farm sources of income, distance of the farmer's household from Kasungu District centre, age of the farmer, tobacco farming, education, household level land holding and gender determined the decision to join NASFAM. These results suggest that farmers should be informed of the potential benefits of participating in rural development efforts, and that rural communication and information infrastructure should be improved so as to reduce the costs of information access and transactions in general, if participation in organisations such as NASFAM is to be enhanced.     

The caterpillar fungus boom on the Tibetan Plateau: Curse or blessing?

In the last two decades, the Tibetan regions of China have been experiencing a remarkable economic boom fueled by the caterpillar fungus, known in the West as the “Viagra of the Himalayas” or “Tibetan Gold.” This article examines the impacts of the caterpillar fungus boom on Tibetan pastoralists' current-day livelihood and the prospects of their future economic development. Our study is based on a household survey conducted in 2016 covering 58 villages across the Tibetan autonomous land area. Results show that the new stream of cash income from gathering and trading caterpillar fungus has had a strong short-term welfare-improving effect. Household consumption, healthcare spending, and religious charity have risen sharply with caterpillar fungus income. Unfortunately, the fungus boom has not brought about productive investment or human capital accumulation that is conducive to long-term growth. Rather, the resource windfall has created disincentives for school attendance, nonfarm labor participation, and productivity improvements in pastoralism. The resource boom-induced disinvestments, if persistent, will likely further limit the capabilities of rural Tibetans to compete in the urban labor market, reinforcing the emerging trend of socioeconomic marginalization. We contextualize these findings in terms of Tibetans' cultural and economic rationale, pointing out new directions for future research and policymaking.     

Non‐farm Income Diversification in Rural Ghana: Patterns and Determinants

Abstract: Evidence abounds in the rural livelihoods literature that rural households do not only receive a significant proportion of their incomes from non‐farm sources, but also it is a significant source of employment for rural folks. This paper examines the pattern and determinants of non‐farm income diversification in rural Ghana. Results show that off‐farm income constituted 43 percent of rural household income in 2005/6. Female‐headed households tend to have larger off‐farm income shares compared to male‐headed households. Non‐farm income shares followed the same gender pattern albeit less pronounced. Unlike in Latin America and Asia, in rural Ghana, non‐farm self‐employment income is more important than non‐farm wage‐employment income. Regression results show that the gender composition of households, age, education, and access to credit, electricity and markets are important determinants of multiple non‐farm activities and non‐farm income. The findings call for strategies that can help rural households maximize the benefits from income diversification.     

农村消费需求对经济增长贡献的实证分析——以1985—2008年河南省数据为例

文章利用扩展线性支出系统模型,以1985—2008年河南省数据为例,分析了农村居民边际消费倾向和农村居民家庭消费需求收入弹性,测算了农村消费需求时经济增长的贡献率与拉动率。研究结果表明：河南省农村消费对经济的贡献率很小,大部分是依靠城镇消费和政府投资来拉动经济增长;河南省农村市场不论是生活消费品还是生产资料的需求潜力巨大,开拓未来河南省农村消费市场大有可为。     

信仰与捐赠:宗教让人更加慷慨了吗?

文章拟从慈善捐赠的角度分析宗教信仰对个体经济行为的影响。文章基于CGSS2012全国微观调查数据，使用线性回归模型、受限因变量回归模型以及工具变量法，发现宗教信仰在个体捐赠决策中扮演着重要角色。研究结果表明，相对于无宗教信仰者，有宗教信仰者进行货币性捐赠的概率以及额度更大，这种慷慨不仅表现在宗教捐赠，还表现在世俗捐赠。此外，文章还发现不同宗教信仰者之间的货币性捐赠也差异迥然，总的来看，相对于低救赎性宗教信仰，高救赎性宗教信仰对捐赠行为的促进作用更为明显。     

How Can Chinese Farmers' Property Income Be Improved? A Population–Land Coupling Urbanization Mechanism

Balancing urban and rural development is an important political goal in China. The failure of rural land privatization has led to a low level of rural economic development and a vast property income gap between citizens and farmers. This paper illustrates the reasons for property income inequality from the perspective of the land tenure system and the dualistic household registration system. After evaluating the segmentation of the rural land market and the rigid nature of rural land assets, a population–land coupling urbanization mechanism is proposed. The paper argues that China's land property system has externalized a high degree of geospatial and social urban and rural intertwinement. Major reform of the rural land property rights system is required to correct the situation (further development of the social security system and stable urbanization) and to increase property income potential for farmers.     

贫困是否影响农村中老年人的精神健康——基于CHARLS数据的实证研究

农村老年人在经济上是最为弱势的群体,他们的贫困发生率远远高于城市老人。贫困不仅体现为物质上的剥夺,更会引起认知退化和抑郁等精神健康上的问题。文章使用中国健康与养老追踪调查数据,实证考察经济状况对农村中老年人精神健康的影响。多层线性模型估计结果表明：家庭人均年收入每提高一千元,反映认知状况的情景记忆显著提高0.132分、精神状态显著提高0.121分,而反映抑郁程度的CES-D则显著下降0.293分。进一步分析表明,收入对精神健康的促进作用对高收入者更大。考虑到农村更加严重的老龄化程度,通过减贫实现农村中老年人精神健康状况的改善将具有重要的现实意义。     

Determinants of Household Income Mobility in Rural China

This article uses multivariate regression and decomposition analyses to assess household income mobility determinants and their contributions to income mobility in rural China from 1989 to 2006. The findings indicate that households with lower initial income level, higher share of wage income, higher educational level of household members, larger number of non-agricultural employed household members and younger heads are more mobile. Moreover, besides initial income, change in the share of wage income, change in the share of non-agricultural employed household members, and change in average year of education of household members are the most important factors that account for income mobility. These findings necessitate more emphasis on policies that promote non-agricultural employment and education to enhance household income mobility in rural China.     

Rural Nonfarm Employment and Incomes in Chile

This article analyzes the evolution of rural nonfarm employment (RNFE) and income in Chile during 1990–96. The data used come from the National Socioeconomic Survey (CASEN), and from a household survey undertaken by the authors in two municipalities in 1999. The latter contrasted two zones, very different in terms of economic dynamism and rural poverty. We show that during the period, RNFE and incomes increased 10% and 18%, respectively, in 1996, reaching 39% of rural employment and 41% of rural incomes. The rate of multiactivity (the share of households participating in more than one sector) was only 20%, lower than expected, indicating a tendency toward economic specialization in rural income strategies. The determinants of such employment are mainly household characteristics, in particular variables related to human capital, such as the age and gender of the household head, and the schooling of the household members, although also important are access to credit and physical capital. The level of nonfarm income of rural households is determined mainly by the economic context, in particular the economic level and dynamism of the overall zone and the quality of the roads. It is proposed that policies to develop RNFE should be geared to zone characteristics, and should in general favor investments in education, in roads, and in access to credit. Moreover, households headed by women should be the object of special attention. To promote such policies, it will be necessary to address important gaps and weaknesses in the public institutional structure.     

我国农民收入增长缓慢的根本制约因素与对策

农村居民家庭人均纯收入按收入来源可划分为三个主要部分:家庭经营农业收入、家庭经营二、三产业收入与工资性收入。本文通过对这三部分收入分别进行讨论,认为制约农民收入增长缓慢的根本因素为:农民人均耕地资源有限,农民劳动生产率低;农村市场虽然巨大但是过于分散;农民人力资本投入低。最后,本文提出了增加农民收入的根本对策及一些短期对策。     

Agricultural Technology, Crop Income, and Poverty Alleviation in Uganda

This paper evaluates the ex post impact of adopting improved groundnut varieties on crop income and poverty in rural Uganda. The study utilizes cross-sectional data of 927 households, collected in 2006, from seven districts in Uganda. Using propensity score matching methods, we find that adopting improved groundnut varieties (technology) significantly increases crop income and reduces poverty. The positive and significant impact on crop income is consistent with the perceived role of new agricultural technologies in reducing rural poverty through increased farm household income. This study supports broader investment in agriculture research to address vital development challenges. Reaching the poor with better technologies however requires policy support for improving extension efforts, access to seeds and market outlets that simulate adoption.     

依法管理宗教事务的理论与实践

依法管理宗教事务是党的一项重要的宗教工作方针,由于其意思"直观且简单明了",因而在实践层面似乎成为其他各宗教政策的落脚点和替代举措;但该方针所连接的法治和宗教两类现象均极为复杂,其内涵至今争论不休,且二者关系也十分紧密。本文从立法、执法、司法和守法四个环节对该方针进行探讨。     

Comparing alternative measures of household income: Evidence from the Khayelitsha/Mitchell's plain survey

Household income is widely used for economic and sociological analysis, yet little emphasis has been placed on the optimal way to gather household income data. The Khayelitsha/Mitchell's Plain Survey provides a unique opportunity to explore alternative ways of measuring household income. This study compares the estimates obtained from a household module with those obtained from detailed income data collected in the adult module of the survey. Estimates derived from individual income data tend to be higher and have greater variation than those obtained from the household module. This difference between income estimates has a material impact on the secondary analysis of income data. The Gini coefficient, a simple measure of income-inequality, is used in this study to illustrate how household income measured at the household level underestimates household income inequality.