中国居民医疗支出不公平性分析

基于2002年大样本家计调查资料,本文以家庭为单位分析了家庭收入与医疗支出的关系。就中国整体而言,收入相关的居民医疗支出集中指数为48%,而可支配收入的基尼系数是45%,这表明医疗支出具有累退倾向。对其进行分解分析,结果表明这种不公平性根源在于中国城市与农村居民医疗支出严重失衡,城市居民的平均医疗支出几乎是农村的6倍,换句话说,医疗支出方面的公共资金大都集中于发达的城市医疗部门。在中国农村内部和城市内部也存在医疗支出不公平性问题,这种层次的不公平性大多可以归结为中国的东部、中部和西部在平均医疗支出水平上的差异。因此,可以说居民医疗支出的不公平主要是由于地域上的差异造成的。众所周知,中国公共卫生投资缺乏公平性,如果中国政府有意改变这种情况,那么在区域之间重新分配国家补贴就势在必行。在公共卫生预算不变的情况下,应该采取措施引导医疗补贴流向农村地区,特别是西部地区,而流向中国城市地区,特别是东部城市地区的补贴应该减少。     

Appetizing learning in Swedish comprehensive schools: an attempt to employ food and tasting in a new form of experimental education

The word taste has several meanings: biopsychological, and cultural and social. Taste also influences food choice, though there is a widespread belief that tasty food is not synonymous with healthy eating patterns. In Sweden compulsory school daily meals are provided and Home Economics is a compulsory subject, while tasting lessons form an additional experimental form of education. The aim of this study has been to make a general evaluation of tasting lessons in four fifth‐year classes. The focus of the results is on pupils’ learning about, and interest in, food, and the opinions and reflections of teachers, catering staff and school heads. The participants were three professional focus groups comprising staff from four schools, and 48 pupils (eight groups with boys and girls in separate groups) from the same schools. Results showed that the children were prepared to be exposed to different foodstuffs, and the adults were prepared to be exposed to new educational methods. Two stages of children's learning have been described in connection with tasting: practice and experience, and verbalization and reflection.     

Capturing the Minds of a Lost and Lonely Generation

UNICEF states that in 88 countries studied ‘more than 13 million children currently under the age of 15 have lost both parents to Aids, most of them in sub-Saharan Africa’ (UNICEF 2002). The impact of this Aids pandemic cannot be overstated. Indeed the long-term impact of such statistics is scarcely imaginable and has not been experienced in the world to date. Sustainable, indigenous technology may be a way of providing a meaningful educational experience for such marginalised young people. However the concept of sustainable, indigenous technology is not always clearly defined. This paper seeks to discuss this concept in relation to education and in particular considers the impact of the HIV/AIDs pandemic in Tanzania. The paper will outline:

Analysis of U.S. theme park selection and international implications

ABSTRACT

Theme parks face stiff competition in local and international markets. Theme parks tend to create competitive advantages in the market by investing in different factors which influence visitors’ selection of a theme park. Theme parks attract visitors from all nationalities. The purpose of this study was to explore six influencing factors on U.S. theme park visitors’ choice that can be applicable in different geographic positioning parks. A choice-based conjoint (CBC) model was designed with respective levels for six considered influencing factors: type of park, price, distance from accommodation, children friendly, and online reviews. The findings revealed that online reviews were the most important relative factor followed closely by price and type of theme park. The other factors shared a lower relative importance. CBC analysis results generated the best and the worst profile for theme parks, which can serve as a guide theme park managers as they invest and plan strategically for success. Results of this study of U.S. parks but as theme parks are targeted toward similar populations the results could have implications internationally.     

Does Service Employees’ Appearance Affect the Healthiness of Food Choice?

Derived from previous research on social influence on food consumption and social comparison theory, this article examines the effect of service employees’ appearance on consumers’ food choice using an experimental study, involving a video manipulation and eye‐tracking technique. The video shows a menu being proffered by a waitress whose degree of apparent healthiness varies (healthy, overweight, unhealthy lifestyle). The menu contains both healthy and unhealthy meal alternatives. The analysis of participants’ eye movements demonstrated that exposure to the overweight employee did not stimulate greater (i.e., earlier or longer) attention to unhealthy meal alternatives, whereas exposure to the employee who displayed an unhealthy lifestyle did. These findings have social and managerial implications: The postulated stigma according to which the presence of overweight others encourages unhealthy eating appears questionable. Service providers that might secretly hire according to body weight have no grounds to do so. In contrast, employees signaling an unhealthy lifestyle through their style choices prompt patrons to pay more attention to unhealthy meal alternatives. Food service providers might want to take this factor into consideration and actively manage the aspects that can be altered by simple measures.     

TYPES OF INCOME AND INEQUALITY IN CHINA AT THE END OF THE 1980s

Using a nationwide household income survey, different types of income in the People's Republic of China at the end of the 1980s is analysed. The results show that various income types play quite different roles in rural and urban areas. Subsistence income makes up about half of the total income in rural China. Money income makes up about two-thirds of total income in urban China and is the major contributor to inequality in the entire country. In kind income, of which highly subsidized housing is the single most important category, is highly concentrated in urban areas and contributes greatly to inequality.     

Changes in Russian poverty during transition as assessed from microdata from the city of Taganrog*

The literature lacks solid assessments of poverty in Russia under transition compared to the poverty conditions at the onset of transition. This motivates us to analyse survey data from the city of Taganrog collected in similar manners for 1989 and 2000. Under all assumptions applied, we find that the extent of poverty has increased. The results also show that a large proportion of households with members in work‐active ages have fallen into poverty. While poverty in 1989 was heavily concentrated among the elderly, Russian poverty in 2000 is to a large extent a problem for people of work‐active ages and their children. Russian poverty has changed from being predictable and perhaps stable to the opposite.     

Non-parametric estimation of operational risk losses adjusted for under-reporting

Not all claims are reported when a database for financial operational risk is created. The probability of reporting increases with the size of the operational risk loss, and converges towards one for big losses. Losses in operational risk have different causes, and usually follow a wide variety of distributional shapes. Therefore, a method for modelling operational risk based on one or two parametric models is deemed to fail. In this paper, we introduce a semi-parametric method for modelling operational risk that is capable of taking under-reporting into account and being guided by prior knowledge of the distributional shape.     

EDUCATIONAL ATTAINMENT DIFFERENCES BETWEEN POPULATION GROUPS IN SOUTH AFRICA AND THE TIMING AND NUMBER OF BIRTHS

From 1981 to 2005, the total fertility rate in South Africa has been reduced from an estimated level of 4.6 to 2.8 children per woman. The relative differences in the total fertility rate between population groups, however, remain large. Our empirical analysis of the determinants of the timing of births shows that better‐educated women schedule birth later and have fewer children. The differences in education between population groups account for a substantive part (up to 40%) of the differences in completed fertility between the population groups. Our findings suggest that educational reforms aimed at equal access to education, which benefit African women most, may not only improve the quality of life of women but also, through their impact on fertility behaviour, yield long‐run benefits, as they will have fewer children and more resources to invest in the next generation.     

Rank, income and income inequality in urban China

While some workers in China attain senior professional level and senior cadre level status (Chuzhang and above), others attain middle rank including middle rank of professional and cadre (Kezhang). This aspect of the Chinese labour force has attracted surprisingly little attention in the literature, a fact which this paper aims to rectify. We define various segments of the urban population in work-active ages and use data from the Chinese Income Project (CHIP) covering eastern, central and western China for 1995 and 2002. For 2002, persons of high rank make up 3% and persons of middle rank make up 14% of persons in work-active ages.Factors that affect a person's likelihood of having high or middle rank are investigated by estimating a multinomial probit model. We find that education, age and gender strongly affect the probability of being employed as a worker of high rank. There is relatively little income inequality among workers of high rank as well as among workers of middle rank. Mean income and household wealth per capita of highly-ranked workers developed more favorably than for other segments of the population studied, and personal income is more polarized by segment in 2002 than in 1995. Workers of high rank, and to a lesser degree, workers of middle rank, are among the winners in economic terms while the increasingly large category of non-workers is the losers. Rates of return to education have increased but income function analysis indicates that this provides only a partial explanation for the increased favorable income situation for workers of high and middle ranks.