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| 1 |
ID:
163335
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| Summary/Abstract |
In this paper, we attempt to evaluate the effectiveness of reading programs at improving the reading skills and academic achievement of primary school students in rural China. Using survey data on 4108 students, we find that students exhibited low levels of reading achievement, independent reading quantity, and reading confidence in the absence of any treatment. However, our results also suggest that properly designed treatments may improve the reading and academic outcomes of students. Specifically, we found that increased access to independent reading materials coupled with effective teacher training led to significant improvements in student reading skills, math test scores, and Chinese test scores. We believe that these improvements are due to changes in reading instruction and the attitudes of teachers toward reading. These findings indicate that encouraging higher reading quantity and providing high-quality reading instruction are important components for programs that seek to improve student outcomes in developing country settings.
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| 2 |
ID:
163341
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| Summary/Abstract |
There is now high level international commitment to the goal of universal health coverage. But how can countries make this a reality in the face of a limited budget and an aging population? Since 2008, China has been rolling out an ambitious reform program, which aims to achieve affordable health insurance coverage for all Chinese citizens. Under this reform program, Chinese living in rural areas are eligible to enroll in a subsidized scheme called the New Cooperative Medical System (NCMS). Using a three stage game model involving a government, a private fund manager and population, we explore the impact of population aging on NCMS. Our model highlights the role of government regulation and subsidy in ensuring operation efficiency of the system. We show that at optimality the government sets the operating framework for the fund manager to constrain the potential for monopoly profits. The Government subsidizes the scheme to prevent an adverse selection death spiral. However, the effectiveness of the subsidy in achieving this goal is moderated by the age structure of the population. Our model gives insights into the strengths of the NCMS framework and also can be used to support decisions about resource allocation and understand how scheme dynamics may unfold as the Chinese population ages further.
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| 3 |
ID:
163336
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| Summary/Abstract |
This paper assesses the determinants of the enrolment in the New Rural Cooperative Medical Scheme (NRCMS), a heavily subsidized voluntary health insurance scheme in rural China. The analyses focus on the relationship between insurance purchase and health facility choice based on data drawn from the China Health and Nutrition Survey (CHNS). The results show that households from villages that reported use of village clinics are more likely to be insured compared with households from villages that reported use of county hospitals. The results indicate that the perception of quality of care is an important factor affecting people's enrolment decisions. The NRCMS is expected to help patients obtain better quality health services from higher-tier of the healthcare system that are unaffordable otherwise. However, given the prevailing fee-for-service payment mechanism for health care, the insurance may also drive up the healthcare cost and direct patients to use more expensive and unnecessary hospital care.
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| 4 |
ID:
163340
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| Summary/Abstract |
This study takes advantage of a “natural experiment” to show how institutionalization shapes economic outcomes in China. Beijing introduced the mandatory retirement age for provincial leaders in the 1980s, but the rule was not enforced across all provinces until 2000. I use this window to construct a difference-in-differences design and show how the enforcement of mandatory retirement rule leads to better economic outcomes. Provincial leaders eligible for promotion are now motivated to perform better on growth in order to succeed under the performance-based promotion system. But this institution is not perfect, as it results in poorer performances among lame-duck leaders near the retirement age. I also find that leaders with central connection tend to have worse performances. This suggests that when politicians have connection with the center, they hold the key to promotion already, so they do not need to worry about the Chinese-style yardstick competition.
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| 5 |
ID:
163337
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| Summary/Abstract |
In the late 1990s, the Chinese government initiated dramatic reform in its state-sector enterprises, which caused millions of workers to lose their jobs. Using data obtained from the China Health and Nutrition Survey, we employ fixed-effect methods to explore the effects of displacement on the dismissed workers' health status. Our results show that these displaced workers are more likely to report having poor health and suffer from chronic conditions, such as hypertension and stroke. The effect on chronic conditions appears only in the long run. In addition, we find that the displaced workers are less likely to be covered by health insurance, less likely to see a doctor when they are ill, and more likely to engage in unhealthy behavior such as smoking, which may help explain the poor health outcomes of these individuals. Moreover, we show that the health effects are heterogeneous among different groups of individuals.
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| 6 |
ID:
163339
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| Summary/Abstract |
Using the Chinese Household Finance Survey data set, the study shows that concern with relative income significantly stimulates poor households to apply for bank credit. The effect of income comparisons on credit applications can be explained by either a “keeping up with the Joneses” effect, in which the poor seek financing for costly consumption to emulate the wealthy's consumption style and thus suffer persistent poverty, or else a “tunnel” effect, in which the poor are inspired by the wealthy's economic success and enlightened to use credit for investment. Although this study provides no empirical evidence of a “keeping up” effect, it reveals that credit applicants invest significantly more in human capital than non-applicants, and it demonstrates that the “tunnel” effect is the primary incentive for relatively poor households to participate in the credit market. Poor households are capable of using finance to escape from poverty.
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| 7 |
ID:
163326
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| Summary/Abstract |
This paper studies the relationship between population aging and structural change in terms of employment distribution in the non-agricultural sector. Based on cross-country panel data, it is revealed that a greater share of elderly workers in the labor force is associated with more service employment relative to that in the industrial sector. To rationalize this finding, a two-sector overlapping generations model is constructed. The model highlights two forces, namely the “scale effect (SE)” and the “composition effect (CE)”, that drive the correlation between the labor force age structure and the service-industry employment ratio. Calibrating main model parameters with China's micro level data, simulation results well fit the country's historical trajectory of structural change. According to population forecast data, the model predicts a substantial growth of services relative to the industrial sector in China up to 2050.
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| 8 |
ID:
163334
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| Summary/Abstract |
Using a recent national dataset from the China Family Panel Studies, this study provides new evidence regarding the subjective well-being puzzle across multiple indicators among rural, migrant and urban populations in contemporary China. The results show that rural people on average have higher levels of life satisfaction than do migrants or urban residents, despite their disadvantaged economic situations. The decomposition analyses reveal that subjective social status plays a substantial role in accounting for group disparities in life satisfaction, whereas objective social status and experiences of social mobility have less explanatory power. These findings suggest the importance of within-group comparison in shaping individuals' well-being in segregated societies such as China.
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| 9 |
ID:
163328
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| Summary/Abstract |
We show that the integration of Chinese labor into the global labor market has played a key role in the global labor share decline since the late 1970s. Several key institutional changes, including the “reform and opening-up” that began in the late 1970s and China's entry into the WTO in 2001, accelerated this process. We build a two-country dual economic model to explain how labor shares decline in labor-intensive and capital-intensive countries simultaneously. Our empirical results show that the integration of Chinese labor significantly affects the global labor share, mainly through the channel of international trade and especially processing trade business.
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| 10 |
ID:
163333
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| Summary/Abstract |
In theory, off-farm work, by raising household incomes, can have a direct impact on smartphone use among rural residents and the use of these smartphones in turn enhances incomes by facilitating online financial transactions, easing management tasks, strengthening social networks, providing technical services, and reducing exposure to risks. In light of this, this paper assesses the impact of participation in off-farm work on smartphone use, using an endogenous switching probit model and a survey of 493 rural households in China. The joint impacts of off-farm work participation and smartphone use on household income are also analyzed using a control function method. The results show that participation in off-farm work increases the probability of smartphone use significantly. Furthermore, we find that the household heads who engaged in off-farm activities and who were smartphone users earned 3430 Yuan and 2643 Yuan more per capita annual income, respectively, compared to their full-time farming and smartphone-free counterparts.
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| 11 |
ID:
163330
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| Summary/Abstract |
In the early 1990s, China opened its urban water sector to private investors to secure the country's growing urban water demand. In Chinese counties which accommodated around 195 million urban population in 2012, private sector participation (PSP) has progressed slowly but steadily among the county-level water utilities. Using a panel data set extracted from the annual surveys conducted by the National Bureau of Statistics of China (1998–2006), we exploit the changes in the PSP status of water utilities and apply a fixed-effects model to identify the causal effects of PSP on 12 performance indicators. We find that utilities with private investment enjoyed significant performance improvement in three areas: output, financial performance and profitability, and efficiency. Using supplementary data from population censuses and statistical yearbooks, we find that water quality is slightly lowered under PSP, while no significant effect is detected for the other service outcomes. The findings suggest that a greater role of PSP in the urban water supply sector of Chinese counties could be promoted.
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| 12 |
ID:
163331
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| Summary/Abstract |
Land-related conflicts have become a major cause of social unrest in China. It is common indeed for the institutional changes that accompany development to generate tensions and frictions, notably regarding land rights. Using survey data on land practices and governance in Chinese villages and prefecture-level statistics about investment in the real estate sector, we show that administrative reallocations of village land by local authorities increase with the level of real estate activity and that this effect is mitigated by the development of village-level democracy. These results are consistent with those of the handful of existing empirical studies on this topic. We thus provide empirical insight into the factors governing the evolution of land rights and land institutions in rural areas in China and the related conflicts, as well as, more generally, into the dynamics of institutional change.
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| 13 |
ID:
163338
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| Summary/Abstract |
In the 21st century, the Sino–Africa relations are characterized by increasing levels of trade and investment. Additionally, African governments consider China a vital stakeholder in their plans to transform their economies through technology. This study empirically examines whether China's exports of information and communication technology and high-technology goods and foreign direct investment outflows stimulate growth in Africa. The results demonstrate that China's engagement in trade could lead to a positive and negative shift of steady-state position of real gross domestic product and technological progress, respectively, in Africa. These results predict that China's engagement will contribute to economic growth in African countries through increasing capital per worker efficiency but cause stagnation in their technological progress. Finally, one of the choices that African countries could make as they create policies to increase their technological progress is discussed.
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