福建农村居民消费行为的地区差异和结构分析--基于AIDS模型的实证研究

通过建立福建农村居民AIDS模型,研究了福建农村居民消费结构问题。研究显示:农村居民在食品消费、医疗保健、交通与通讯等消费上因地区收入差异而显著不同,在居住消费上表现出与收入水平的关系呈中性;农村居民在教育、文化娱乐及服务类的消费趋向上地区间差别不大,说明农民对教育的重视程度正在提高;农村居民在衣着、家庭设备用品及服务上的价格弹性基本上为异常的正值,反映出农村居民注重人居生活质量的突出特点。     

黄石地区长途客车司机艾滋病调查问卷分析

为了解黄石地区长途客车司机HIV感染情况及其对艾滋病知识的知晓情况,提出对该地区高危人群MDS综合防治措施,对黄石市长途客车司机进行宣传教育,在宣传教育前后对199名司机进行了艾滋病知识的问卷调查,并对其中113名同意者使用血清学检查方法检测HIV感染,并对数据进行统计分析。在宣传教育前199名司机中能正确回答预防艾滋病知识的占11．56％,在宣传教育后能正确回答预防艾滋病知识的占19．27％（P〈0．05）,113份HIV检测结果均为阴性。结果表明黄石地区长途客车司机对艾滋病防治知识知晓率较低,是艾滋病感染的高危人群,宣传教育和行为干预将有利于防止本地区艾滋病的传播。     

Demand for fish in Asia: a cross‐country analysis*

Fish demand patterns in nine Asian countries were investigated using a multistage budgeting framework allowing a disaggregated approach to analysing fish consumption. This paper highlights the heterogeneity of fisheries products in terms of species, sources and cultural responses of consumers, factors that are important in fish demand under the Asian setting. Specifically, fish demand by income groups were compared to determine how the low‐ and high‐income households respond to price and income changes. Results showed that the estimated price and income elasticities of all fish types included in the study were relatively more elastic among the poorer households.     

Women's Empowerment and HIV Prevention in Rural Malawi

This study examines the impact of women's empowerment on attitudes toward HIV prevention using the Malawi Diffusion and Ideational Change Project (MDICP), a panel dataset of over 1,200 married women in rural Malawi from 1998 to 2008. Results indicate that an increase in women's bargaining power promotes adequate HIV prevention strategies, namely condom use within marriage and HIV-related spousal communication. Own income, language skills, and awareness of options outside marriage also play an important role. By estimating a constant for each individual in the sample, the analysis controls for the impact individual-specific, nonmeasurable characteristics have on attitudes toward prevention. It captures the impact of HIV campaigns and increases in HIV prevalence over time on prevention behavior by using (regional) time trends. The findings are highly comparable across different econometric specifications and suggest substantial gains from placing greater emphasis on women's empowerment to effectively combat the spread of HIV, particularly in developing countries.     

Implications of high food prices for poverty in Pakistan

The study estimates the impacts of rising world food prices on poverty in rural and urban areas of Pakistan. Household income and expenditure data for 2004/2005 is used to estimate compensated and uncompensated price and expenditure elasticities using the linear approximation of the almost ideal demand system. Taking the unexpected component of higher domestic food prices in 2007/2008, own and cross price compensated elasticities are used to derive the changes in the quantity consumed, food expenditure and impacts on poverty assuming the food crisis happened in 2004/2005. The results indicate that poverty increased by 34.8%, severely affecting the urban areas where poverty increased by 44.6% as compared to 32.5% in rural areas. The estimates show that 2.3 million people are unable to reach even one‐half of poverty line expenditures while another 13.7 million are just below and 23.9 million are just above the poverty line. In the short run, it is important to ensure food availability to these people. In the long run, the policy environment of subsidizing urban food consumers by keeping wheat prices lower than the international price, needs to be reconsidered to provide the right incentives to increase food availability.     

Theory to practice: HIV/AIDS policies in operation within British retailing

Despite recent scientific advancements, Human Immune Deficiency Virus (HIV)/ Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) remains a serious health issue for those involved in employee management. The introduction of the Disability Discrimination Act (1995) has meant that increased numbers of HIV/AIDS infected workers are able to remain in employment, fully protected by this legislation. Because of the nature and characteristics of retail employment, it is suggested that retailers have an increased likelihood of encountering employees and/or customers with the disease, compared with most other industries. This paper examines one particular aspect of the challenge facing retailers, notably that of the ‘operationalization’ of their HIV/AIDS policies into practices, especially in terms of company selection rocesses, education and training, employee relations and employee assistance programmes. Data were collected from a number of leading retail companies, ¹ from which, important observations can be made with regard to retailers' attitudes towards employee welfare in general, and in relation to HIV/AIDS in particular. The research results indicate potential discrimination in terms of employee selection involving a significant number of major retailers, and little comprehensive education/training on HIV/AIDS occurring, despite evidence of disruptive behaviour by staff. In addition, the findings provide evidence that even major companies find it difficult to balance issues of employee welfare against the financial concerns of the organization, in terms of assisting affected employees.     

从艾滋病对和谐社会的威胁看地方政府的责任

艾滋病这一重大社会问题对建设社会主义和谐社会构成现实和潜在的威胁。但目前地方各级党政领导干部中相当一部分同志对艾滋病防控缺乏责任感，相关知识比较缺乏，对艾滋病感染者和病人存在歧视性问题。面对现实，地方政府有责任采取措施加以解决。     

Testing Symmetry and Homogeneity in the Almost Ideal Demand System with Co‐integrated Data using Fully Modified Estimation and the Bootstrap

Conventional seemingly unrelated estimation of the almost ideal demand system is shown to lead to small sample bias and distortions in the size of a Wald test for symmetry and homogeneity when the data are co‐integrated. A fully modified estimator is developed in an attempt to remedy these problems. It is shown that this estimator reduces the small sample bias but fails to eliminate the size distortion. Bootstrapping is shown to be ineffective as a method of removing small sample bias in both the conventional and fully modified estimators. Bootstrapping is effective, however, as a method of removing size distortion and performs equally well in this respect with both estimators.     

Urban Households’ Cooking Oil and Fat Consumption Patterns in Turkey: Quality Vs. Quantity

This article investigates households’ cooking oil and fat consumption patterns in Turkey using data from household budget surveys. The almost ideal demand system was employed to analyze demand parameters and elasticities for major five types of oil. Prices were adjusted for quality and the demographic translation method was used to incorporate to demographic variables. Finally, the two stage generalized demand model was used to take into account censory of the dependent variable. Results showed that higher-income and higher-educated consumers consume more quality and healthy oil such as olive oil than lower-income and less educated consumers. According to income elasticities, lower-income consumers are more sensitive to income changes compare to higher-income consumers. Moreover, lower-income consumers are more prices sensitive to olive oil and corn oil than are higher-income consumers.