Construction, Validation and Application of the Measurement of Social Cohesion in 47 European Countries and Regions

This paper aims to present a theoretically based, multidimensional and comparable measurement of social cohesion, applicable in 47 European countries/regions using the most recent micro-level data of the European Value Study (EVS) from 2008 that build upon the previous research conducted on the EVS data from 1999 covering 33 countries. The analysis is conducted in five steps. In the first part, we create a set of measurable intermediate indicators that correspond to the social cohesion dimensions suggested by the theory. In the second part, we verify whether these indicators empirically corroborate the multidimensional structure of the concept proposed by the theory. The third part examines whether the obtained intermediate indicators of social cohesion form the same constructs across countries and whether they can yield a cross-country equivalent measure of social cohesion. In the fourth step, composite scores of all dimensions of social cohesion are calculated for all analysed countries/regions. The last step shows a practical application of the obtained indices and compares levels of social cohesion in six broader geographical regions of Europe to demonstrate the applicability of the measurement in comparative research.     

East Asian Newly Industrializing Countries: Economic Growth and Quality of Life

The world is much impressed by the rapid economic development of four Asian Tigers – Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan. However, it has often been taken for granted by many people that their social development is equally satisfactory. In order to investigate whether this belief is true or not, this paper looks at the levels of social development these countries have attained. Various measures of their quality of life will be assessed. Specifically, poverty, income distribution and environmental degradation are discussed. Despite their economic success, this study has found that most tigers are plagued by problems of poverty, increasing income disparities and environmental degradation. Further, social expenditures of these countries have been too limited to eliminate or impact on these problems.     

Construct Validation and Application of a Common Measure of Social Cohesion in 33 European Countries

The aim of the paper is to assess the construct validation of a multidimensional measure of social cohesion which is well theoretically grounded and has an equivalent/comparable interpretation across all European countries. Up-to-now published research on social cohesion is deficient in either one or both of these important aspects. This paper attempts to cover this gap. The task is accomplished in two steps. In the first step, we conceptualize social cohesion, flowing mainly from Bernard and Chan’s definitions of social cohesion. Based on this theoretical framework we operationalize social cohesion and derive a set of intermediate indicators in the data. By return we verify whether these indicators empirically reflect/corroborate the multidimensional structure of the concept proposed by the theory. In the second step, we examine whether the obtained intermediate indicators of social cohesion form the same constructs across countries and whether they can yield a cross country equivalent measure of social cohesion. To test the validity of the theory we use multidimensional scaling and confirmatory factor analysis. Both models are able to verify the equivalence of the structural results between groups (i.e. countries). Confirmatory factor analysis produces further meaningful measures of these constructs. The analyses are based on the data from the 1999 European Values Study (EVS). The outcomes of the analyses reveal that, firstly, the existence of the multifaceted construct of social cohesion suggested by the theory has been corroborated by empirical analysis of the EVS data (i.e. social cohesion consists of components of formal and substantial relationships and political and socio-cultural domains). Secondly, the proposed constructs measuring social cohesion are equivalent across all analysed countries and thus allow the calculation of internationally comparable national scores of social cohesion. Application of the aggregate measures at the country level will illustrate the interest of the approach for further research.     

空间相互作用与城市经济增长--来自长三角的证据

基于以往研究对空间相互作用方向性考虑不足的事实,文章以长三角133个县市为例,构建了融合新经济地理学与中心地理论的理论框架,将表征空间需求关联的总体市场潜能细分为来自同层级、高等级、低等级三个方向,利用空间计量模型估计了总体及不同方向的空间相互作用对长三角地区人均GDP增长与人口增长的效应。结果显示：在控制空间依赖导致的间接溢出效应等因素后,并未发现存在要素价格绝对调整或要素数量绝对调整的证据,总体市场潜能的提高同时促进了城市人均GDP增长与人口增长;就不同方向的空间相互作用而言,大城市的自身发展有利于中等城市的人均GDP增长,大城市之间、大城市对下级城市、小城市对上级城市形成了人口增长的良性互动格局,而中等城市之间以及中等城市对大城市的人口增长则表现为回流效应。     

Expectations About Future Economic Prospects and Satisfaction with Democracy: Evidence from European Countries during the COVID-19 Crisis

Social Indicators Research - Recent studies highlight that economic expectations are a crucial determinant of citizens’ satisfaction with democracy (SWD). This article relies on a...     

The Influence of Social Models on Retirement Savings: Evidence for European Countries

Population ageing, together with the negative effects of the recent economic and financial crisis that some European countries are still facing, have threatened the sustainability of public pension systems. In this context, voluntary private pensions have emerged as the most feasible alternative to supplement the minimum provided by Social Security Systems; however, this financial product does not enjoy its expected popularity. A potential explanation of this reality might be due to the fact that European countries are far from being homogeneous, nor their pensions systems. Therefore, any policy geared toward improving financial retirement planning should take into account these potential differences. As a first approach to their analysis, this paper proposes the existence of four different ‘social models’ in Europe -namely, Continental, Mediterranean, Nordic and Transitional-. Overall, empirical evidence confirmed the significant influence of country’ ‘social model’ on the decision to invest in retirement accounts on a sample of 31,468 individuals in 2013. It was also proved that this decision is positively related to age, household income and wealth, higher levels of formal education, job situation, good health status, and long-term planning horizons; and negatively related to age squared, household size or financial risk aversion. In short, future policies and reforms regarding private pensions should not only take into account the existence of individual differences among Europeans, but also the existence of differences depending on institutional and cultural country factors.     

The Measurement of Economic, Social and Environmental Performance of Countries: A Novel Approach

This paper presents a new analytical framework for assessing spatial disparities among countries. It takes for granted that the analysis of a country’s performance cannot be limited solely to either economic or social factors. The aim of the paper is to combine relevant economic and ‘non-economic’ (mainly social) aspects of a country’s performance in an integrated logical framework. Based on this idea, a structural simultaneous equation model will be presented and estimated in order to explore the direction of the causal relationship between economic and non-economic aspects of a country’s performance. Furthermore, an exploration of the trajectory that each country has registered over time along a virtuous path will be offered. By means of a matrix persistency/transition analysis, the countries will be classified in clusters of good/bad performance. One of the most interesting conclusions concerns the inability of most countries to turn the higher educational skills of the population into greater economic performance over time. In addition, our analysis also shows that making an accurate picture record and formulating related policy aiming at environmental care is highly desirable. It is surprising that only a few countries have reached a favourable economic and environmental performance simultaneously.     

养老保险制度与经济增长的关系——基于新增长理论模型的思考

本文在回顾有关社会保障与经济增长理论的基础上,探讨了新增长理论模型如何从人力资本角度出发,分析养老保险对经济增长的影响,证明了设计合理的养老保险制度可以通过不断刺激人们增加人力资本投资来提高经济增长的速度,最后对模型的理论意义进行了思考。     

经济增长、医疗保健体系与国民健康——基于1991--2006年中国数据的分析

中国存在经济快速增长与国民医疗保健状况改善缓慢的矛盾,甚至出现了“看病贵”、“看病难”的公共难题。在梳理已有相关研究成果的基础上．选定5岁以下婴儿死亡率等代理变量来分析国民健康、经济增长和医疗保健体系建设的关系,发现三个变量存在一个协整,长期关系稳定,脉冲分析发现经济增长在长期对国民健康水平有显著的正向作用．但在初期却存在恶化国民健康的可能。个人付费为主的医疗保健体系对国民健康水平有显著的促进作用．但医疗保健体系的不完善一定程度上降低了卫生支出对健康的促进作用。稳健性检验进一步证明了结论的正确性．而且发现单纯依靠增加卫生资源消费并无法增进国民健康。在分析结论的基础上,本文提出了促进经济发展、保护环境、完善城乡公共卫生保健等建议。     

Social Health Indicators and Economic Growth: Evidence from East Asia and Pacific,Middle East and North Africa,South Asia,and Sub-Saharan Africa

The objective of this study is to empirically investigate a two-way statistical relationship between the social health indicators and economic growth in the context of four major regions of the world i.e., East Asia and Pacific, Middle East and North Africa (MENA), South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa. To recognize the relationship between the two variables, a time series, co-integration and Granger causality tests have been employed. Aggregate secondary data pertaining to these four regions from 1975 to 2011 on economic growth and social health indicators i.e., infant mortality, child abuse, child poverty, unemployment, weekly wages, health insurance coverage, teenage suicide, teenage drug abuse, high school dropouts, poverty, out-of-pocket health costs, homicides, alcohol related traffic fatalities, food insecurity, income inequality, HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, basic health units and rural health centers has been used for analysis. This study evaluates four alternative but equally plausible hypotheses, each with different policy implications. These are: (1) social health indicators Granger cause economic growth, (2) economic growth Granger cause social health indicators (the conventional view), (3) There is a bi-directional causality between the two variables and (4) Both variables are causality independent (although highly correlated). The empirical results only moderately support the conventional view that economic growth has significant long run casual effect on social health indicators in East Asia and Pacific, MENA, South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa. The present study find evident of unidirectional causality running towards economic growth to social health indicators, although, there are some bidirectional causality also exists between the variables. The percentage of unidirectional causality between economic growth and social health indicators is larger than bidirectional or neutrality hypothesis.     

Growth Effects of Religion Dependent Social Capital: An Empirical Evidence

Social Indicators Research - There is an imperceptible laxity in literature in finding socio economic effects of social capital by integrating role of religion. However, international surveys data...     

Social Ills in Rich Countries: New Evidence on Levels,Causes, and Mediators

Social Indicators Research - The income inequality hypothesis claims that in rich societies inequality causes a range of health and social problems (henceforth: social ills), e.g. because economic...     

西方国家社会保障制度对经济发展的影响

西方国家的社会保障制度对经济发展产生了深远的影响。一方面 ,社会保障给经济发展创造了良好的环境 ,使劳动力再生产得以正常进行 ,促进了第三产业的发展 ,解决了一批人的就业问题 ,促进了经济向前发展 ;但另一方面 ,它增加了政府开支 ,导致越来越多的经济资源用于消费 ,影响了资本积累 ,出现积累基金与消费基金比例失调 ,使经济发展失去了动力 ,又阻碍了经济发展。社会保障制度的发展必须考虑经济增长的实际状况 ,使二者保持正常比例 ,才能使社会保障制度发挥应有的作用。     

Social and Territorial Cohesion in Spain: Relevance of the Socioeconomic Context

Social Indicators Research - Exclusion processes are shaped through the accumulation of social disadvantages in seven life dimensions: income, employment, education, health, housing, social and...     

Modelling Corruption Perceptions: Evidence from Eastern Europe and Central Asian Countries

Social Indicators Research - This work proposes a multidimensional framework that is based on a latent class model to identify various types of corruption and to outline their importance. A dataset...     

An Attitude Model of Environmental Action: Evidence from Developing and Developed Countries

Social Indicators Research - This paper analyzes the determinants of stated individual support towards environmental action. The analysis is realized by means of an original Partial Least Squares...     

Social Capital and Health in China: Evidence from the Chinese General Social Survey 2010

Social Indicators Research - Empirical evidence regarding the relationship between social capital and health in China is relatively limited. This study aims to examine the impact of different types...     

Patterns of Mobile Phone Use in Developing Countries: Evidence from Africa

According to traditional welfare economics welfare occurs at the point where a good is purchased and some amount of utility is assumed to derive therefrom. According to Sen and others however one needs to look in addition to what use is made of the good after purchase. This paper throws new light on this process by means of a large new data-set that examines use patterns of mobile phones in 11 African countries. The main hypothesis is that this technology will be most widely used in countries lacking in viable alternatives to the use of mobile phones e.g. where public transport is weak or roads are poor. The results tend to support this view though there remains much to be explained.     

教育在中国经济增长和社会转型中的作用分析

加快城市化发展是中国经济转型和社会转型的必然趋势。优先发展教育对促进和完成这个历史性巨变有着极其重要的意义。一方面,教育作为生产人力资本的重要部门,对经济增长、就业、科技创新和社会进步有着显著作用;另一方面,教育和培训是低素质劳动力、特别是农村劳动力从低生产率的传统农业部门转向生产率较高的现代工业部门,实现角色和职业转换的重要手段。新中国成立以来,教育事业发展为缩小城乡教育不平等做出了巨大贡献,但城乡之间人力资本存量水平仍存在较大差距。加速国民经济结构调整和应对全球经济一体化挑战对提高劳动力素质提出了迫切要求,这需要加大对教育的投资,特别是对农村、贫困地区和城市贫困人口的投资,扭转和改变中国劳动力整体素质偏低的局面。     

Sport and Social Inclusion: Evidence from the Performance of Public Leisure Facilities

In the UK, sport is increasingly recognized as a means for promoting social inclusion. However, evaluation, to date, is limited with regard to the achievement of social inclusion through sport. Based on the database of Sport England’s National Benchmarking Service, this paper aims to investigate the extent to which public leisure facilities were used by socially disadvantaged groups in England over the past 10 years. The statistical evidence demonstrates the consistent pattern of numerical under-representation of the most disadvantaged socio-economic group and people aged over 60 years. Furthermore, there were significant and linear decreases in participation of young people aged 11–19 years and disabled people aged under 60 years. Finally, facility type and management type were found to be the main sources of performance gaps in certain indicators. In spite of these findings, further research is still required to investigate whether under-representation and the deterioration of performance are due to constraints or preferences.