Public Assistance,Economic Prospect,and Happiness in Urban China

Social Indicators Research - This article investigates the association between urban China’s primary public assistance program—the Minimum Livelihood Guarantee (MLG, or Dibao)—and...     

Relative Income,Relative Assets,and Happiness in Urban China

Does more money always mean that people are happier with their lives? To test the social comparison hypothesis as applied to happiness, this study uses survey data from the 2002 Chinese Household Income Project to examine the association between household economic resources and happiness in urban China. Household economic resources are measured as both income and assets (e.g., net worth and net worth minus home equity). In addition, the analyses include measures of relative income and relative assets. Results of ordinary least square regression analysis show a positive association of absolute income with the happiness score whereas relative income is negatively associated with happiness. Although household assets are a significant and positive predictor of self-assessments of happiness, measures of relative household assets do not correlate with happiness. Study findings suggest the level of happiness among urban populations could be increased through policies that promote pro-poor growth and equal distribution of economic resources. In addition, introducing asset-building policies as supplements to other social assistance programs may promote happiness.     

Resume of Ren Chuanwen

Ren Chuanwen was born in Feng Cheng of Jiangxi Province in February 1963. He graduated from the Oil Painting Department of Jilin College of Arts in 1990. He completed his study in Advance Research Class of Oil Painting Department of Central Academy     

城镇就业、失业和劳动参与:现状、问题和对策

文章运用全国第五次人口普查数据,分析了城镇劳动供给的基本现状和特征;并通过研究失业率、就业率和劳动参与率的变化,剖析了目前城镇劳动供给中存在的问题和可能存在的社会后果。     

Urban growth in China: past, prospect, and its impacts

Rapid growth and globalization of the domestic economy have dramatically accelerated urbanization in China, resulting in significant environmental impacts and challenges for sustainable development. Using a multistate model accounting for distributional aspects of age, sex, education, and migration in rural and urban regions, we estimate the magnitude of urbanization in China through 2030 and examine some major associated sustainability issues. Results indicate that: (1) for a range of assumptions, China’s urban population will nearly double from 2000 to 2030; (2) the labor force will constitute a larger share of total population in urban areas than rural due to internal migration of younger workers—this appears particularly true for the mega-urban metropolises of Beijing and Shanghai; (3) rural populations will experience more aging than urban; and (4) level of education among China’s rural labor force will remain low, which could pressure China’s industrial structural transition from an agricultural to a service-based economy.     

Personal Well-being in Urban China

This article reports the findings of a survey administering the personal well-being index (PWI) in six Chinese cities (N = 3,390) to ascertain the personal well-being of China’s urban population. The specific aims of the study were: (a) ascertain whether Chinese urban residents are satisfied with their lives; (b) validate the PWI using an urban sample that is representative of the urban population and larger in size than that which has been utilized in existing studies for Mainland China; (c) compare the results to existing studies for Hong Kong, Macau, rural China and single city studies which have administered the PWI in Guangdong and Shandong; (d) examine whether the responses to the PWI from participants falls within the narrow range predicted by the ‘Theory of Subjective Wellbeing Homeostasis’ and provide further evidence on whether this framework is applicable to Chinese samples; and (e) examine which participant characteristics predict personal well-being, examine whether own income and/or relative income predicts personal well-being and compare these results with previous studies for China and other countries. The data indicated a moderate level of personal well-being (PWI score = 67.1). The PWI demonstrated good psychometric properties in terms of its reliability and validity, consistent with previous published studies. The PWI was within the normative range for non-western countries and was within the narrow band predicted by the ‘Theory of Subjective Wellbeing Homeostasis’. Similar variables were found to predict personal well-being to those found in previous studies for China and elsewhere.     

城市弃婴问题及其对策分析--以天津市为例

尽管到目前为止尚缺乏官方的统计数字,但弃婴数量在改革开放以来迅速增长却是不争的事实。民政部在20世纪80年代末对全国儿童福利院收养的孤儿与弃儿的数量统计结果为5000~6000人1,到本世纪初则已经达到了50590名2,人数几乎翻了10倍。2004年国务院办公厅《中国的社会保障状况和政策》白皮书中数据显示,目前中国共有192个专门儿童福利机构和近600个综合福利机构中的儿童部,共收养5.4万名孤残儿童3。遗弃行为严重损害了被遗弃儿童的生存权和发展权,同时成为社会发展的不和谐因素之一。遗弃行为剥夺了儿童所应该享有的来自父母的关心与照料,危…     

中国城市的地域范围和地域区分探析

城市地域范围和地域区分是城市研究的起点。但我国学术界在较长时间的讨论中,一直没有形成较为一致的意见。本文拟从"实质城市"地域的角度,并考虑到实际数据的可获得性,探讨了城市地域,包括它与外部——乡村的区分和它的内部构造——中心区、边缘区和郊区的区分方法。本文提出,可用建制市内全部"区"作为城市地域,而在城市地域内,根据各部分地域的人口密度、在业人口中从事二、三产业的比例,昼夜人口比和三产区位系数等指标来区分城市的中心区、边缘区和郊区。     

人力资本、产业结构和我国城镇劳动参与、就业形态

本文利用CHNS面板数据和随机效果probit模型,主要从人力资本和产业结构变化方面分析我国城镇劳动参与率和长期被雇佣率的决定因素。实证结果显示:首先,正规教育会提高劳动参与率;教育程度高的成年人口的劳动参与率较高;第三产业占GDP比重的上升降低劳动参与率;第二产业就业占比的上升会提高劳动参与率。其次,接受正规教育年数的上升会提高长期被雇佣率,而且提高的幅度越来越大;在其他条件都不变的情况下,教育程度越高长期被雇佣率越高;第二、三产业占GDP比重的上升会提高长期被雇佣率;第二、三产业就业占比的上升会降低长期被雇佣率。     

外来人口与我国城市低生育率

最近梁秋生和郭志刚二位教授围绕京津沪大城市超低生育率中外来人口的分母效应展开了讨论。他们得出了不同的结论。本文利用2000年人口普查千分之一抽样原始数据,对城市超低生育率中的外来人口分母效应作了进一步的检验和分析,认为外来人口的分母效应的大小,既与外来人口的规模,也与外来人口的生育水平有关。京津沪地区超低生育率中的外来人口分母效应并不存在,其原因是外来人口与本地人口的生育水平没有差别。对于全国城市地区,尽管外来人口的生育率显著地低于本地人口,但是由于外来人口规模不够巨大,它的分母效应也不太大。作为对比,广东省是最强烈体现外来人口分母效应的例证。不仅外来人口的生育率只及本地人口的一半,而且育龄妇女中外来人口占近30%,所以其分母效应非常明显。     

Demographics and Consumption Patterns in Urban China

This study examines differences among urban Chinese consumers and their consumption patterns in three major cities—Beijing, Shanghai and Tianjin—utilising data from a nationally representative sample survey conducted in 2005. Differences were found in these consumers’ age distribution, education level, household composition, birth and death rates, income, expenditure patterns and consumer durable ownership rates. Beijing and Shanghai, the two most affluent cities in China, exhibited the highest consumer durable ownership rates and the highest cost of living. While previous research has frequently segmented China in terms of a rural versus urban dichotomy or by geographic region, this study suggests that the urban Chinese do not constitute a homogeneous market. Further, it is suggested that both geographic region and income, which varies between rural and urban settings, are sound bases for segmenting this important market.     

Migrant Workers and Workplace Bullying in Urban China

Trends of subjective well-being (SWB) in transition countries are peculiar: they show substantial changes that are more strongly correlated with the trends of GDP than in other developed countries. This paper examines the role of the trends of GDP and of social trust in predicting the trends of well-being. We find that the strength of the relationship between social trust and SWB over the medium-term is comparable to that of GDP. We conclude that in the medium-term, even in countries where material concerns strongly affect well-being, social trust is a powerful predictor of the trends of SWB. However, in the short run the relationship between social trust and SWB does not hold and GDP stands out as the only significant correlate of SWB.     

Layoffs and Urban Poverty in the State-Owned Enterprise Communities in Shaanxi Province,China

This paper applies a mixed methods approach that combines qualitative and quantitative methods to examine urban poverty in China’s state-owned enterprise communities where laid-off workers concentrate. A sequential explanatory model using interviews, Participatory Poverty Assessments and a community household survey on textile and military industries in Shaanxi Province of north-western China shows that low-income households suffered multidimensional disadvantages. Qualitative techniques have helped to reveal the hidden aspects of poverty while statistical tools have captured holistic information on the communities. These approaches together (Q-squared) consider both the outsiders’ and insiders’ views on the laid-off poor and benefit the making of effective anti-poverty policies.     

中国城镇地区性别工资差距的分布变化:2002~2008

本文采用CHIP2002年和2008年数据,分析不同性别工资差距分解的结果以及工资增长率分解的结果,以此来研究影响性别工资差距变化的因素。本文利用Oaxaca-Blinder的分解方法来分解整个分布的工资差异,并且为消除潜在模型(非线性)带来的估计误差,采用重新赋予权重的方法和半参数估计的方法来进行敏感性分析。研究发现不同性别的工资差距的均值在2002²008年存在加大的趋势,对于工资分布顶端的劳动者,这一效应更加明显,对女性存在着明显的"玻璃天花板"效应;对于工资分布底端来说,不同性别的工资差距却在进一步缩小。对工资增长率的分解可以看出,男性的工资增长存在着明显的"马太效应",女性的工资增长呈现"U"型曲线。     

中国城市老年人的贫困问题

关注弱势群体的状况 ,对这一群体提供必要的帮助已经在全社会取得了共识。贫困老年人属于弱势群体中更加脆弱的人群 ,了解他们的基本状况是开展社会救助的基础。本文根据中国老龄科研中心 2 0 0 0年在全国 2 0个省、自治区和直辖市进行抽样调查的结果 ,在各地区贫困救助标准的基础上 ,运用国际上普遍采用的等值系数方法 ,测算了城市老年人的贫困率 ,并对城市贫困老年人的特征进行了描述 ,而且初步探讨了造成城市老年人贫困的原因。     

当代中国城市的人口与社区

文章回顾了近20年来中国从社区服务到社区建设的政策演变,着重探讨中国社会对城市人口的公共管理从“单位制”向“社区制”转变的结构性变化,以及城市人口和城市社区目前的现状,并就社区的本义,社区服务在社区建设中的地位和作用,以及社区民主与社区的职业化,讨论当前社区建设中的问题和对策。     

中国城镇流动人口的住房状况研究

许多发展中国家城市普遍存在乡城人口迁移和贫民窟扩张现象。尽管我国正快速城市化,城镇贫民窟现象并不普遍。2000年人口普查资料显示,城镇地区流动和迁移人口的住房状况并不比非流迁人口差;在某些房屋设施方面,流动人口甚至要好于城镇当地居民。本文运用2000年0.095%抽样数据研究中国城镇流动人口的住房状况,试图回答三个问题:(1)流动人口在城镇如何居住?(2)不同类型的流动人口居住方式是否不同?(3)为什么部分流动人口的住房状况优于城镇当地居民?     

中国城市人口增长的决定因素分析

文章从城市发展的基本理论出发,利用计量经济学模型,分析了中国20世纪90年代城市人口增长的决定因素。实证分析的结果表明:(1)中国城市的发展具有趋同性,即城市规模越大,人口增长率越低;(2)迁移的惯性对城市人口增长起促进作用;(3)对外开放能显著促进城市的发展,在经济还处于相对封闭状态的内陆地区,其作用尤为显著;(4)基础设施条件能显著影响城市人口增长的节奏。     

城市女性高龄老人问题的调查与思考

文章结合实地调查和相关资料对城市女性高龄老人的生活状况进行了分析。结果表明,中国城市女性高龄老人生活状况不容乐观,基本生活缺乏保障,存在着高风险,面临着生存危机。为改善女性高龄老人的生活状况,提高生活质量,必须构建以居家养老和社区养老相结合的养老体系。