Banking and inequality: US state evidence

The question of how financial development affects economic inequality is a subject of much debate. This paper adds to this literature by examining whether banking deregulation affects income inequality using state-level data from the United States from the late 20th century. Specifically, we test the hypothesis that the deregulation of interstate branch-banking restrictions had an effect on income inequality as measured by the Gini Coefficient and Thiel Index. We conduct our tests using fixed-effects OLS models and System GMM dynamic panel analysis. Our results suggest that branching deregulation has resulted in increased income inequality in the United States.     

重复的三重变奏：机械复制、数码重复与数字克隆

重复是思想史上的一个经久不衰的主题。只不过，在古典版本之中，重复更多地带有积极和肯定的含义，且将差异纳入自身作为内在环节。但到了机械复制的时代，差异的环节不仅日渐消失，而且重复也日渐成为一种时代的症候和焦虑。现代哲学试图以“生命”和“体验”来对抗机械复制，但当机械复制进一步演变为数码重复这个极端形式之后，这些尝试似乎也日渐失效。由此就有必要如拉鲁埃勒的非哲学那般，首先回归到数码之数字本性，以“一”作为本原和原理来探寻“反数码”的可能性，以及重构主体性的真正位置。当然，拉鲁埃勒关于“一”之为一的思辨仍然还有不足之处，比如“思”之效力到底应该如何实现就是一个难点。我们尝试从代码和思辨实在论的角度进行批判性回应。     

Second‐pillar pensions in Central and Eastern Europe: Payment constraints and exit options

During 1998–2007, a majority of Central and Eastern European (CEE) governments enacted laws obligating workers to save for retirement in privately managed individual accounts. The governments funded these accounts with a portion of public pension revenues, thus creating or increasing deficits in public systems. After the onset of the global financial and economic crisis (2008), most CEE governments reduced these funding diversions and scaled back the accounts. Now, a decade after the crisis, this article examines the benefits that the accounts are beginning to pay retiring workers. In general, these benefits are shown to be disadvantageous compared with public pensions. Some pay lump sums in lieu of regular monthly benefits, most fail to adjust pensions regularly for inflation, and some pay women less than men with equal account balances. In several countries, pensioners with individual accounts receive lower benefits than those without them. To enable retiring workers to avoid these disadvantages, several CEE governments have allowed them to refund their account balances and receive full public pensions. Yet while this strategy diffuses worker dissatisfaction, it also places strains on public pension finance. To assist second‐pillar account holders without weakening public pensions, governments should consider making private pension savings voluntary and financing these schemes independently of public pensions – i.e. by worker and employer contributions and, possibly, direct state support.     

What Does It Mean To Be Patriotic? Policing Patriotism in Sports and Social Studies Education

Authors discuss the relationship between social studies education and patriotism. The authors share two lesson plans (one elementary and one secondary) that examine the racialized and politicized experiences of three professional athletes, Gabby Douglas, Colin Kaepernick, and Megan Rapinoe. Drawing on tenets of critical race media literacy and conceptual understandings of critical patriotism, this article presents two model lesson plans designed to assist teachers in guiding students toward an understanding of patriotism that is critical in nature through promoting informed action inside and outside the classroom.     

Fish for Dinner? Balancing Risks,Benefits, and Values in Formulating Food Consumption Advice

Many and complex factors underlie seemingly simple decisions about what to eat. This is particularly so for foods such as fish, which present consumers with both risks and benefits. Advice about what type of and how much fish to consume is abundant, but that advice is often confusing or contradictory, reflecting the differing mandates and orientations of those advising. We survey a range of issues that can and should be incorporated into dietary advice, and offer tools for health agencies tasked with providing it. We argue that risks and benefits should not be limited to direct physical health. Rather, socioeconomic and community factors, unintended or indirect effects, and nonhuman‐health outcomes such as animal welfare and planetary health should also be considered and weighed. We provide examples of existing fish consumption guidance to highlight the conflicting messages that emerge when different sources of advice with singular aims of avoiding risk, gaining nutritional benefit, or sustaining fish populations are juxtaposed. We then offer tools borrowed from health and other fields to guide health agencies toward developing more comprehensive advice and targeting that advice for specific populations.     

Biometric technology and beneficiary rights in social protection programmes

Over the past decade, the use of biometric technology in the identification and authentication of beneficiaries of social protection programmes has increased. However, there has been little debate among governments, donors and civil society organizations on the potential implications of this technology in relation to the inclusion of the most vulnerable sectors of the population, as well as for the protection of privacy and personal data. This article aims to fill that gap. First, the article reviews how biometric technology is used in various social protection programmes around the world. Then, it examines the potential risks and challenges of deploying biometric technology in social protection programmes. Finally, it assesses the requirements necessary to ensure that biometric technology is implemented in compliance with international law standards. The focus is on developing countries, where the use of biometric technology in identification systems has increased considerably in recent years. Among the key conclusions of the article is that the adoption of biometric technology, often encouraged by donors, needs to be preceded by democratic debate where all alternatives are discussed. The adoption of this technology should be accompanied by a context‐specific assessment of risks, and the adoption of an appropriate legal and institutional framework to protect rights and ensure that the most vulnerable and disadvantaged members of the population are not excluded.     

How fair are unemployment benefits? The experience of East Asia

Despite an increasing emphasis on active labour market measures, unemployment benefits still remain a focal point of employment protection. This article takes the cases of four East Asian economies – China, Japan, Republic of Korea, Taiwan (China) –, which are often characterized as having welfare states with a strong developmental and productivist orientation, to investigate whether, as is sometimes argued, unemployment benefits are restrictive and exclusionary. In doing so, it examines the logic behind the design of unemployment benefits and argues that they are in fact progressive in design and fair when they pay out. Nonetheless, low effective coverage and low benefit rates weaken their redistribution and compensation objectives.     

改进的初值和背景值优化的MGM(1,m)模型及应用

针对传统的MGM(1,m)模型存在模拟精度和预测精度不高的问题,文章给出了改进的初值和背景值优化的MGM(1,m)模型。在模型初值的选取上,选取使得模拟值的平均相对误差达到最小的向量X(1)(i)作为初值;在模型背景值的构造上,提出结合辛普森3/8公式的动态序列模型来求解背景值的方法。最后以两组指数型数据序列为例建立了传统MGM(1,2)模型及改进后的模型,并进行数据模拟和预测。结果表明,改进后的MGM(1,m)模型的模拟精度和预测精度均有显著地提高,从而验证了模型的有效性和可行性。     

阿本之争:艺术的整合与颠覆

随着现代性获得精准轮廓,机器之眼透视人文脚本,机械复制的浪潮刷新了艺术生产和接受的方式及其功能本身,围绕着这一场域下自律艺术的生存转向,本雅明敏锐地捕捉到技术的启蒙特质并深刻挖掘其背后蕴藏的革命潜力,意图通过艺术政治化实现对法西斯战争美学的批判及资本主义制度的颠覆;阿多诺从文化工业意识形态理论出发,指出机械复制技术完全为资本和交换逻辑所操控。虚假性满足、物化和拜物教的泛滥实现了资本主义自上而下对大众的欺骗与整合。本雅明与阿多诺的理论交锋奠定了其后西方马克思主义文化研究的视域和基点,并揭示出其革命与解放理论深度发展中所面临的困境及挑战。     

Extending access to contributory pensions: The case of Uruguay

Since the 1980s, many Latin American countries have tightened access to contributory pensions, with financial sustainability being a main concern. Studies suggest that a sizable share of contributors would not be able to comply with stricter access conditions, since observed contribution densities were low. While most Latin American countries lack complete work history records, the observed density of contributions offered strong evidence of short contribution histories, in particular for low‐income workers and women. In the last decade these facts drove a new wave of reforms, in the form of less demanding eligibility requirements to access pensions and the need for a gender perspective. Uruguay took part in both processes, increasing vesting period conditions in 1996, then lowering them and granting childcare credits in 2008. In this article, we analyse the effects that less strict eligibility requirements would have on pension entitlements in Uruguay, estimating complete contribution histories using administrative records. Work history records have been kept since April 1996 only, meaning there are still no complete work histories. The study finds that pension rights would increase, in particular for women. The main effect would be driven by the lower contribution requirement. In addition, childcare credits would further reduce the gender gap in terms of access to benefits. The case of Uruguay is relevant in the regional context, as most Latin American countries are ageing rapidly and can learn from the Uruguayan experience, a country with vital statistics closer to those of developed countries. Also, recent reforms in the region show shared concerns on pension rights and the gender gap.