Roots of Tomorrow＇s Digital Divide： Documenting Computer Use and Internet Access in China＇s Elementary Schools Today

This paper explores China＇s digital divide, with a focus on differences in access to computers, learning software, and the Internet at school and at home among different groups of elementary school children in China. The digital divide is examined in four different dimensions： （i） between students in urban public schools and students in rural public schools; （ii） between students in rural public schools and students in private migrant schools; （iii） between migrant students in urban public schools and migrant students in private migrant schools; and （iv） between students in Han-dominated rural areas and students in areas inhabited by ethnic minorities. Using data from a set of large-scale surveys in schools in different parts of the country, we find a wide gap between computer and Internet access of students in rural areas and those in urban public schools. The gap widens further when comparing urban students to students from minority areas. The divide is also large between urban and rural schools when examining the quality of computer instruction and access to learning software. Migration does not appear to eliminate the digital divide, unless migrant families are able to enroll their children in urban public schools. The digital divide in elementary schools may have implications for future employment, education and income inequality in China.     

Poverty Reduction and Effects of Pro-poor Policies in Rural China

The present paper describes changes in poverty reduction in recent decades and the effects of income growth and inequality on poverty reduction in rural China. The paper also examines the main poverty alleviation policies implemented in rural areas over the past l 0 years and assesses the effectiveness and efficiency of these policies from the perspective of targeting accuracy. It is found that China has achieved significant progress in rural poverty reduction in recent decades, although the speed of poverty reduction has varied from one period to another. The largest contribution to rural poverty reduction has been economic growth, which has been increasingly offset by the inequality effect on poverty reduction. In addition, poverty alIeviation policies are effective, but not efficient.     

Solution to the Dilemma of the Migrant Labor Shortage and the Rural Labor Surplus in China

Since 2003, China＇s labor market has been facing two coexisting crises： a rural labor surplus and a severe shortage of migrant labor Using data from the 2000 China Health and Nutrition Survey questionnaire, which covers 288 villages in 36 counties, this paper attempts to find a solution to this dilemma. Specifically, a multinomial logit model, a Mincer- type model and a probit model are applied to examine the effect of educational level on the employment choices for rural laborers, and on the wages and the employment status of migrants. Based on the results of our analysis, we propose the implementation of policy aimed at increasing the educational level of rural dwellers, in conjunction with other policies to eliminate all artificial barriers, to facilitate the migration of rural laborers.     

People＇s Mobility and Guanxi Networks： A Case Study

The increase in the movement of people from rural to urban areas since the mid-1980s represents the largest labor migration ever experienced in China. Because migration is a process of selection, it is imperative that the major dynamics determining the selection are studied. What are the critical characteristics of migrants that help them to realize their mobility from rural areas to urban areas？ While educational attainment, gender, age, marital status and personal skills are important variables in the selection process, the present paper examines how social networks （guanxi connections） play a significant role in the process of migration selection in China. A case study from one of the northern villages in rural China is used to explore how social networks have shaped and given meaning to migration. The present paper elaborates on how people＇s social mobility has coincided with and been reinforced by people＇s physical mobility.     

Impact of a Senior High School Tuition Relief Program on Poor Junior High School Students in Rural China

A significant gap remains between rural and urban students in the rate of admission to senior high school. One reason for this gap might be the high levels of tuition and fees for senior high school By reducing students＇ expectations of attending high school, high levels of tuition and fees could be reducing student aeademic performance in junior high schools. In this paper we evaluate the impacts of a senior high tuition relief program on the test scores of poor rural seventh grade students in China. We surveyed three counties in Shaanxi Province and exploited the fact that, while the counties are adjacent to one another and share similar characteristics, only one of the three implemented a tuition relief program. Using several alternative estimation strategies, including difference-in-differences, propensity score matching and difference-in-differences matching, we find that the tuition program has a statistically significant and positive impact on the mathematics scores of seventh grade students. More importantly, this program is shown to have a statistically significant and positive effect on the poorest students in the treatment group compared to their wealthier peers.     

Retesting the Separability of China＇s Rural Households

This article retests the separability of China’s rural households in light of growing doubt about the sustainability of high economic growth in China.If a household’s production decisions are "separable "from the household’s consumption decisions,generally this suggests there is no surplus labor.Many scholars aver that China’s surplus rural labor has spurred rapid economic growth,but concerns have arisen as to whether China still has surplus labor available.We investigate this issue using rural household panel data from 1993 to 2009.The regression results confirm that households in rural China have progressed from being non-separable to separable.The estimation results for both the entire country and regions reject the separability hypothesis before 2004 but fail to reject the hypothesis after 2004(with the exception of the central region).These results suggest that China ’s surplus labor supply is dwindling,especially in the eastern and the western regions.The sustainability of China’s high economic growth is questionable in the absence of a large reservoir of surplus rural labor.     

Inequality and the Urban-rural Divide in China： Effects of Regressive Taxation

Using three comparable national representative household surveys for China in 1988, 1995 and 2002, the present paper reveals the regressivity and urban bias of China＇s direct tax and welfare system in this period It shows that a regressive taxation system and skewed allocation of subsidies increases the urban-rural income gap and enhances overall inequality. Modeling these relationships indicates that the relatively poorer rural population has a net tax liability, whereas those in the richer urban areas receive net subsidies. This pattern is common in China, although the extent of the bias varies. This skewed system of tax and welfare payments is a major cause of the persisting urban-rural income gap and contributes to the overall income inequality in China. The abolishment of the agriculture tax in 2006 has had a positive impact on rural people ＇s livelihoods.     

Urban-Rural Divide and Policy Orientation: Peasants Flowing into Cities vs Capital Flowing Down to Rural Areas

IntroductionThe prolonged pursuit of a macroeconomic policy biased toward cities and industrial sectors has enlarged the differences between urban and rural areas. This is expressed in the gap in investment, which results in the gap in output, income, consumption and education. Such a wide gap has cut off the flow of goods and capital between the urban and rural markets, depriving agriculture and rural areas of their self-development capabilities. Peasants have     

中国劳动力市场绩效与挑战

I. IntroductionChinas labor market has undergone significant changes in the past 20years. A more market-oriented labor market has emerged with growing importance of the urban private sector, asstate-owned enterprises (SOEs) have downsized. At the same time, rural employment growthhas slowed, and migrants have sought jobs in the more dynamic coastal provinces. Despitethe progress in reforms, a sizable surplus of labor still exists in the rural sector (about150million) and SOEs (about 1011 mi…     

Research on the Seemingly Incompatible Phenomenon of China ——The Coexistence of the Shortage of Peasant Workers and the Difficulty in Employment

In order to answer the questions： ＂Why does the shortage of peasant workers occur in China while there is a serious surplus of labor force？ What is the influence it will bring about on the inland labor market especially on the exports of labor force in poor regions and the poverty-reduction policies of China？, this paper carries out lots of investigations both in major manufacturing centers such as Wenzhou, Suzhou, Dongguan and in big labor-exports provinces such as Hunan and Sichuan, on the basis of analysis on the supply and demand of labor force in China, the paper analyzes the regional distribution pattern of the labor market and its changes, and then thoroughly explores the cause of the seemingly incompatible phenomenon--the coexistence of the shortage of peasant workers and the difficulty in employment, finally, some suggestions are put forward on the poverty -reduction of China.     

Neighborhood Effects and Regional Poverty Traps in Rural China

The present paper investigates how neighborhood effects are connected to chronic poverty. We examine a large sample of groups of households and find that neighborhood effects are significant in a majority of groups, especially in the poorest groups. People living in poor communities tend to suffer from poverty over time. It is of theoretical and empirical importance to explore how neighborhood effects are interrelated with chronic poverty and the channels through which this occurs. Unlike other econometric analyses, we establish a multilevel econometric model to show that： （i） it is difficult for an individual living in a neighborhood with a high proportion of agricultural labor, low education levels, and poor transport and telecommunication infrastructure to escape from poverty traps; （ii） neighborhood effects dominate in poor communities; and （iii） although poverty is affected by group-level factors, individual factors still play a dominant role in regards to escaping poverty when income surpasses a threshold level Therefore, policy priority should be given to providing social protection and public services, especially in poor rural areas.     

农村义务教育辍学原因与农户家庭基本情况的关联分析

The main purpose of this paper is concerned about children‘s discontining study in rural areas or dropout phenomena in rural children‘s education, and their relationships with the economic condition of the rural households. The conclusion is that family income, parents‘ education level and structure of family operations have cross-impact on the education of a country child. To reduce the dropout rate of rural children, a key measure is to increase farmer‘s income, but income increase alone is not sufficient. It is argued that reducing dropout is a relatively long-term process that cannot be solved with shot-term government policy adjustment. To increase the rate of junior middle school education in rural areas, an overall economic and social development in rural areas is necessary.     

Rural Electrification in China： History and Institution

I. Introduction Prior to 2002 there was a rural electricity administrative system at the county level andbelow, which was separated from the urban (or state) electricity system. In 1949 when the People’s Republic was founded, there were only 33 small hydropower stations in rural China, with a total installed capacity of 3.63 MW, and total electricity consumption in rural areas was 20 million kWh. Since 1949, rural electrification has made considerable progress and contributed a lot to the …     

China＇s Urban Employment and Urbanization Rate： A Re-estimation

The present paper argues that China＇s existing population and employment statistics are misleading, and have failed to include many of the migrant and labor force flows between urban and rural areas. The paper reconciles the differences between official census data and other survey statistics and attempts to recalculate China＇s urban population and employment figures. Our analyses indicate that official statistics of 2012 underestimate China ＇s urban employment by approximately 47 million while overestimating rural employment by 31 million. The adjusted urbanization rate exceeded 55 percent in 2012, almost 3 percentage points higher than the official statistics. Nevertheless, there remains much potential for rural-to-urban migration. More specifically, if the current bottlenecks in household registration, social security and public welfare systems can be removed or relaxed, China＇s urbanization rate could rise by another l O percentage points or even more over the next decade.     

Public Goods, Environmental Protection,and the Development Paradigm in Rural China

I. IntroductionIn order to industrialize, China has adopted a development strategy of Urban-RuralDivergence for a long time. A striking consequence of this is that a large amount of ruralresources have flown into urban areas through a variety of institutional arrangements.What came next are such public problems as the extreme imbalance between the urban andthe rural economy, extreme deficiencies of rural public goods, and the serious destructionof the ecological environment. Its fair to say …     

Do Poor Rural Households Produce Less Grain than Non-poor Rural Households

China＇s poor rural households produce substantially less grain compared with non-poor rural households. The present paper applies a decomposition approach and uses China＇s rural household survey data to investigate the causes of this grain output gap The paper first compares the grain output gap between poor and non-poor rural households, and then decomposes the gap into differences in yield and area sown, The results indicate that the gap in grain output mainly results from differences in the amount of inputs used in production. Differences in the number of labor days and the level of intermediate inputs account for 13.6 and 47.S percent of the gap, respectively. Poor rural households are also less efficient in their use of intermediate inputs, which contributes to 13.2percent of the gap. However, the efficiency of poor households＂ labor days reduces the gap by 7.2 percent, while agricultural physical capital, househoM head education and agricultural training have no substantial impact on the household grain output gap.     

University （undergraduate） logistics management education and training mode in China

In recent years, in order to meet the increasing needs of logistics-majored professionals, Chinese higher logistics management education （undergraduate） is developing rather fast and universities are recruiting a sharply increasing number of students for this program. Nevertheless, Chinese higher education mode has the problem of over-emphasizing on theories and knowledge teaching rather than students＇ practice experienceand all-around ability, which can hardly meet the market demand for high-quality logistics-majored professionals. As a result, a reform in the university logistics education and training mode should be placed on the agenda, which is very essential to improve university logistics education in China.     

对盈利质量的需求与中国资本市场的基本面分析

It was reported that Chinese fund managers are patiently planning for the long-term with expectations that China‘s market conditions will improve, recognizing that regulators continue to take steps to improve corporate transparency. This paper discusses the relevance of high quality publicly available earnings information, how accounting standards influence the quality of reported earnings, and how capital market participants act as monitoring forces for earnings quality. Using the U.S. market as a benchmark, this paper considers earnings quality characteristics and monitoring forces in the context of the Chinese market. My overarching premise is that high quality analysis of high quality accounting information is crucial for the efficient flow of resources through a capital market. Thus it is instrumental to the growth of China‘s financial market and its economy. To this end, the paper summarizes potential impediments to high quality earnings and high quality analysis in China.     

Factors Influencing FDI Location Choice in China＇s Inland Areas

Since 1978, the bulk of foreign direct investment （FDI） has gone to the south-eastern coastal areas in China, with only a small portion received inland. With the launch of the Western Development Strategy in 2000 and the Central China Rising Strategy in 2004, the choice of investment locations has expanded to inland areas. Based on panel data covering 98 inland cities from 1999 to 2005, this study identifies location preference variables for FDI invested in China＇s inland areas, and finds that well-established factors such as natural resources and low labor costs are not important factors in determining FDI locations within China＇s inland. Instead, policy incentives and industrial agglomeration are the most important factors. The findings of the present study have policy implications for both host country authorities and multinational corporations.     

Prediction of Labor Force＇s Supply and Demand in Urban Areas of China

In the recent years, with the promotion of reform and the exposing of some profound contradictions, the problem of unemployment is outstanding day by day and becomes an important problem in present China＇s economics. Based on the data offered by China Statistical Yearbook： 2003, the short-term supply and demand of labor force in urban areas of China is predicted in this paper.