THE PARTICIPATION DIVIDE: Content creation and sharing in the digital age

This paper looks at the prevalence of creative activity and sharing in an age when the barriers to disseminating material have been considerably lowered compared with earlier times. The authors use unique data to explore the extent to which young adults create video, music, writing and artistic photography, as well as the prevalence of sharing such material online. Findings suggest that despite new opportunities to engage in such distribution of content, relatively few people are taking advantage of these recent developments. Moreover, neither creation nor sharing is randomly distributed among a diverse group of young adults. Consistent with existing literature, creative activity is related to a person's socioeconomic status as measured by parental schooling. The novel act of sharing online, however, is considerably different by gender with men much more likely to engage in it. However, once internet user skill is controlled for, men and women are equally likely to post their materials on the Web.     

THE SOCIAL IMPACT OF BROADBAND HOUSEHOLD INTERNET ACCESS

Broadband changes everything. Or so we are told. But does it? There is only one way to find out - follow people who move from narrowband to broadband internet access and see what changes. This paper reports exactly this kind of analysis using data from a two wave European panel study (e-Living) and the lagged endogenous regression approach to see if switching to broadband increases the time spent online, the use of online communication services, the breadth of internet activities and the amount of online spend, and whether it decreases the time spent watching TV and the level of social leisure activities. The results suggest, in the main, that switching to broadband made little difference for this group of early broadband adopters who were already heavy internet users. There was no evidence of an online spend or social leisure substitution effect although there was evidence of a reduction in time spent watching television, and an increase in email in use, time spent online and breadth of internet use. In all cases however it was the previous levels of behaviour that were the most significant and switching to broadband was, in general, one of the least strong effects.     

对我国贫富差距扩大现象的思考

贫富差距扩大已成为一种不容忽视的社会现象。本文在分析形成贫富差距扩大现象的原因及其影响的基础上 ,提出政府应加强在国民收入再分配领域的调节作用 ,综合运用经济、法律和行政手段 ,缩小贫富差距的初步设想     

可以容忍的不平等：过渡与差别--柯亨思想的一种政治哲学考量

柯亨认为，马克思主义追求的社会主义理想是消除资本主义的阶级剥削，代之以经济平等和彻底的民主，但是，从历史和现实看，我们都距离马克恩的理想有很大距离。即使作为当前的合理目标是最好的选择，市场社会主义至多仍然是次优的选择。鉴于历史发展的进程要求，即过渡特征，我们必须对结果意义上的各种不平等采取包容政策。但在社会主义机会平等的条件下，收入差异在仅仅反映了不同的收入、闲暇差异时才是可以接受的。社会主义平等并非“机械的平等”或“结果的相同”。     

Making ends meet: perceptions of poverty in Sweden

During the era after the Second World War, Sweden has built a welfare system based on labor market participation and income maintenance. Low unemployment and decent wages are supposed to guarantee people a labor market income or income maintenance, which in turn should provide a proper standard for everyone. However, a rapid increase in unemployment and economic problems have made the future of the Swedish welfare state more uncertain than ever. These circumstances have, among other things, led to the suggestion that Sweden should abandon the income maintenance policy and create a social policy system with the more limited ambition of guaranteeing everyone a minimum income. In that case, one central question must be answered: what constitutes a decent minimum income in today's Sweden? Where should we draw the poverty line under which people will not be forced to live? These questions are central in the current debate. The consensual poverty line method is used in this article to derive a poverty line relevant for today's Sweden. The results shows that more than every fifth household has an income below the consensual poverty line. That is, they have an income that most Swedes would argue is too low to make ends meet. The level of the consensual poverty line was compared with the National Board of Health and Welfare's guidelines for social assistance. The consensual poverty line was shown to be more generous to small households and the norm for social assistance was more generous to larger households. Finally, the expenditure for guaranteeing all Swedish household a minimum income equal to the consensual poverty line was estimated: more than SEK 25 billion per year. The results in the article casts serious doubt on the ability of the Swedish welfare state to secure a decent income to all citizens.     

水资源跨流域配置的经济学分析

由于我国水资源空间分布不均匀的突出特点 ,大型跨流域调水工程已经成为我国国民经济可持续发展的重要支撑。文章从水资源的经济特点出发 ,结合南水北调中线工程 ,对水资源跨流域配置的市场供求、成本收益等资源经济学问题进行了分析 ,并对社会主义市场经济条件下水资源跨流域配置的利益分配机制进行了探讨     

Who Gets What From Government? Distributional Consequences of Child‐Care Assistance Policies

Given the fragmented structure of child‐care assistance in the United States, it has been difficult to obtain accurate estimates of which families are assisted, through which mechanisms, and at what level. Making use of survey data from New York City, we analyze the distribution of several forms of public child‐care assistance. Results suggest that about 40% of all families with young children receive some form of child‐care assistance. Considering all forms of assistance, the distribution of child‐care help is targeted in both expected and some unexpected ways. Implications of these results are discussed in the context of U.S. child‐care policies governing access and benefit levels.     

The Division of Household Labor in Germany and Israel

We compare the patterns of household division of labor in Germany and Israel—two countries that share key elements of the corporatist welfare regime but differ in their gender regimes—and evaluate several hypotheses using data from the 2002 International Social Survey Program. Although time constraints and relative resources affect the division of household labor and women’s housework in both societies, we find that in Germany the gender order of household labor is more rigid, whereas in Israel the spouses’ linked labor market status exerts distinctive effects. We also find significant relationships between gender ideology and the division of household labor. We discuss the theoretical advantages of approaching the comparative study of gender inequality from the vantage point of family and gender regimes.     

论我国古代技术创新主体

我国古代技术创新的核心主体是工匠,其承担着技术发明、创新和推广的重要职责。随着技术创新活动的历史演进,在工匠技术创新活动的基础上并以工匠活动为中心相继出现了家庭手工业作坊、私营手工业作坊、手工工场等从事技术创新活动的主体,这些主体在一定程度上克服了工匠主体活动的局限性。工匠主体与这些主体之间并不是简单地以一种单一主体去取代另一种主体,使前一种主体在古代技术创新的舞台中隐退。在我国古代社会的不同历史阶段,这些主体以交叉并存的方式存在。     

Married women's resource position and household food expenditures in Cebu,Philippines

This study analyzes how married women use their access to and control over economic resources to increase household spending on food. Using data from Cebu, Philippines, where child malnutrition is high, this study finds that the more income women earn and control, the more households spend on food. Women's control over their income is particularly important for increasing food expenditures in the poorest households. In richer households, women who earn little of their own income also use spouse income transfers to increase food expenditures. The findings from this study suggest that in a developing country setting, improving women's economic status so that they earn and control more household resources can increase household spending on goods that benefit children.