Fertility,Taxation and Family Policy*

Historically, there is clear evidence of an inverse relationship between female labour supply and fertility. However, the relationship across countries is now positive. Countries like Germany and Italy, with the lowest fertility, also have the lowest female participation rates. This paper analyses the extent to which this can be explained by public policy, in particular taxation and the system of child support. The results suggest that countries which have individual rather than joint taxation, and which support families through child care facilities rather than child payments, are likely to have both higher female labour supply and higher fertility.     

对高职大学生就业问题的思考

高等教育大众化,对职业技术学院提出了严峻的挑战,大学生就业已成为刻不容缓的问题。建立新的评价机制,提供高质量的毕业生;引导学生转变就业观念;构筑新的就业桥梁是较好解决当今大学生就业问题的途径。     

Socioeconomic Determinants of Child Health: Empirical Evidence from Indonesia

This paper characterizes the socioeconomic determinants of child health using height‐for‐age z‐score (HAZ), a long‐run measure of chronic nutritional deficiency. We construct a panel data that follows children between ages 3 and 59 months in 1993 through the 1997 and 2000 waves of the Indonesian Family Life Survey. We use this data to identify the various child‐level, household‐level and community‐level factors that affect children's health. Our findings indicate that household income has a large and statistically significant role in explaining improvements in HAZ. We also find a strong positive association between parental height and HAZ. At the community level, we find that provision of electricity and the availability of paved roads are positively associated with improvements in HAZ. Finally, in comparison to community‐level factors, household‐level characteristics play a large role in explaining the variation in HAZ. These findings suggest that policies that address the demand‐side constraints have greater potential to improve children's health outcomes in the future.     

农村独生子女的学校教育优势—基于江苏、四川两省的调查数据

利用江苏、四川两省1206名农村子女的抽样问卷调查资料,以农村非独生子女为比较对象,描述农村独生子女的学校教育特征,并从微观层面提出解释。农村独生子女的学校教育优势明显:文化水平更高、上重点学校的可能性更大、享有更多的家庭教育投入;独生子女身份、性别等个人因素,尤其是父母的文化水平、家庭的经济条件等家庭因素,能为农村独生子女的学校教育优势提供一定的解释。     

Determinants of Indonesian rural secondary school enrolment: gender,neighbourhood and school characteristics

In recent years the school enrolment rates of children aged 13–15 and 16–18 years have increased sharply in Indonesia, not only in urban but also in rural areas. Using various data sets spanning the years from 1993 to 2007, this paper investigates changes in factors associated with the enrolment of secondary school aged children in rural areas. It sheds light on the roles of gender and of neighbourhood and school characteristics, which have rarely been examined in the Indonesian context. The study finds that the disappearance of a gender gap in secondary enrolments between 1993 and 2007 contributed significantly to the rise in the overall enrolment rate. The findings also show that children living in wealthier communities and communities with a high proportion of enrolled children are more likely to attend school. Finally, various school characteristics are shown not to be strongly or consistently correlated with school enrolment.     

生儿育女的福利效应:子女数量及其性别对父母幸福感的影响

孩子被认为能够为父母带来效用但实证结果却充满争议。中国的计划生育带来的生育数量限制是否带来了相应的福利代价?而生育孩子的性别构成是否对父母们的幸福感产生重要影响?基于中国综合社会调查微观数据的研究表明,是否为独生子女父母并不是影响幸福感的显著因素,但是女孩相比于男孩更有助于提高父母们的幸福感。这个结果在全样本、农村以及城市人口、不同受教育程度、中年人群中都是一样的。但孩子的数量和性别对年轻及老年父母的幸福感均没有显著影响。这些结果和养育成本、人们的生育意愿和生育行为变化以及男女的不同性别角色等都是有关的。     

优势视角下失独老人的养老困境及相应对策

失去独生子女的父母的养老问题逐渐成为一个日趋急迫的社会问题,也是老龄工作中的新问题。用优势视角基本理念分析失独老人的养老问题,研究他们年老时存在的精神、经济、生活等一系列养老困境及原因。个人、团体、社会应共同帮助他们抚平精神创伤,改变外部环境中的不利因素,使其融入社会,实现个人优势与其生活环境的整合,以逐步帮助他们走出困境,安享晚年。     

Prenatal care: Mechanisms and impacts on infant health and health care utilization

We estimate that prenatal care has positive impacts on health measured at birth, shifts the distribution of future health care utilization away from inpatient care, and find that some of these impacts likely come from an informational mechanism. We also find well child visits are used in a complementary fashion with emergency department care in the production of infant health, suggesting that factors beyond barriers to access may drive the demand for emergency care. Finally, we find differential impacts of prenatal care across racial groups with evidence that the information mechanism may be particularly important for black mothers.