AIDS Report from China

ＡｓｏｆＪｕｎｅ３０，ｔｈｅｒｅｗｅｒｅ１０，６７６ＨＩＶｉｎｆｅｃｔｅｄｃａｓｅｓ，ｉｎｃｌｕｄｉｎｇ３０１ＡＩＤＳｐａｔｉｅｎｔｓｉｎＣｈｉｎａ，ａｃｏｒｄｉｎｇｔｏａｒｅｐｏｒｔｒｅｌｅａｓｅｄｂｙｔｈｅＭｉｎｉｓｔｒｙｏｆＰｕｂｌｉｃＨｅａ...     

730 Million Farmers Freed from Agricultural Tax

About 730 million farmers will benefit from tax cuts totaling more than 20 billion yuan (US$2.4 billion) this year, as 26 of China's 31 provinces will terminate the Agricultural Tax, according to Vice Minister of Agriculture Fan Xiaojian. Only Hebei, Shandong, Yunnan, Gansu and Guangxi will continue to charge the tax, although they will reduce the amount by two percentage points this year. China's goal is to abolish all farming taxes within five years. (Source: Xinhua News Agency, Feb…     

Predicted Employment Situation from 1996 to 2000

ＰｒｅｄｉｃｔｅｄＥｍｐｌｏｙｍｅｎｔＳｉｔｕａｔｉｏｎｆｒｏｍ１９９６ｔｏ２０００￥／／ＴｈｅＳｏｃｉａｌＤｅｖｅｌｏｐｍｅｎｔＤｅｐａｒｔｍｅｎｔｏｆｔｈｅＳｔａｔｅＰｌａｎｎｉｎｇＣｏｍｍｉｓｓｉｏｎｉｎｉｔｓｒｅｐｏｒｔ，＂ＡｎＡｎａｌｙｓｉ...     

Should occupational codes be obtained from census data or from retrospective survey data in studies on occupational health?

The aim of this study was to assess the quality of occupational history information obtained via retrospective interview questions by comparison with occupational information for the same individuals obtained via a number of censuses. Moreover, morbidity patterns were investigated for different occupational exposure categories that were constructed either on occupational data gathered retrospectively or on data gathered longitudinally through censuses. The study population consisted of 6764 men and 2104 women who were interviewed within the Swedish Survey on Living Conditions. Census data on occupation from 1960, 1970 and 1975 were used for comparison. There was high level of agreement between the two data bases for occupational categories containing workers who were stable in their occupations. The correspondence was better for women. Prevalence rates for different long-term illnesses were almost the same for the categories, no matter which of the data bases was used for constructing the categories. Thus, we have found that self-reported work histories might be a useful way of controlling for occupational exposures in the past.     

Can fertility be estimated from current pregnancy data?

Summary This paper explores the feasibility of estimating fertility from reports on current pregnancies collected in single-round sample surveys. Data from 15 countries in the World Fertility Survey are used to evaluate the possibilities. The results indicate that neither the age pattern of fertility nor the total fertility ratio can be reliably estimated from current pregnancy data. For almost all countries, the total fertility ratio based on recent births is higher than that based on current pregnancies, even when the latter estimate is restricted to higher durations of pregnancy.     

Adolescent Health Education from the Eyes of a Journalist

In 2000,the China Family Planning Association(CFPA)in collaboration with the Program for Appropriate Technology in Health (PATH)began an adolescent health education program in China. The keys to starting the program,to people's surprise, were the"goalkeepers"such as decision-makers,teachers and parents.     

Can migration reduce educational attainment? Evidence from Mexico

This paper examines the impact of migration on educational attainment in rural Mexico. Using historical migration rates to instrument for current migration, we find evidence of a significant negative effect of migration on schooling attendance and attainment. IV-censored ordered probits show that living in a migrant household lowers the chances of boys completing junior high school and of boys and girls completing high school. We find that the observed decrease in schooling of 16- to 18-year-olds is accounted for by current migration of boys and increased housework for girls.     

China:Women Benefit from the Family Planning Programme

Ｃｈｉｎａ：ＷｏｍｅｎＢｅｎｅｆｉｔｆｒｏｍｔｈｅＦａｍｉｌｙＰｌａｎｎｉｎｇＰｒｏｇｒａｍｍｅＩｔｉｓｅｓｔｉｍａｔｅｄｔｈａｔｔｈｅｒｅｈａｖｅｂｅｅｎ３００ｍｉｌｌｉｏｎｆｅｗｅｒｂｉｒｔｈｓｉｎＣｈｉｎａｏｖｅｒｔｈｅｐａｓｔｔｗｏｄｅｃａｄ...     

Do children from welfare families obtain less education?

In this study, we analyzed whether parents' receipt of welfare affects children's educational attainment in early adulthood, independent of its effect through changing family income. We used data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics with information on parents' welfare receipt over the first 15 years of childhood. Cross-sectional results show that greater exposure to welfare is significantly associated with children's poorer educational attainment. Family fixed-effect regressions also indicate a negative effect of exposure to welfare, but its overall pattern is less consistent. Although exposure to welfare in early childhood has no effect, in adolescence and, to a lesser degree, in middle childhood, its effect is often negative.     

Child labour or school attendance? Evidence from Zambia

In this paper we investigate what affects school attendance and child labour in an LDC, using data for Zambia. Since the data comes from a household survey with information on all household members it allows us to take account of unobserved household effects by introducing household-specific effects in a logit model. The empirical analysis suggests that both economic and sociological variables are important determinants for the choice between school attendance and child labour. In particular, we find some support for the hypothesis that poverty forces households to keep their children away from school. JEL classification: J24, I21, O15 Received May 20, 1996/Accepted January 2, 1997     

Selections from SINET – The Social Indicators Network News

Social Indicators Research -     

The Argument from Overpopulation—Logical and Ethical Considerations

A traditional subject for discussion in population debates is whether the world or any subdivisions of it are overpopulated. Some proclaim that we are indeed in a state of overpopulation, while others persistently deny this claim. However, statements which proclaim or deny overpopulation are almost never accompanied by satisfactory definitions as to what overpopulation means. This is most unsatisfactory, especially because whether or not overpopulation is a fact is often claimed to be crucial when it comes to the justification of population political recommendations. This article considers an argument from overpopulation, according to which overpopulation justifies policies which reduce population size; and an argument against overpopulation, according to which the fact that present problems can be handled without population reductions establishes that there is no state of overpopulation. Both arguments are rejected by clarifying possible definitions of overpopulation.     

Major Findings from Survey of Floating Population in Beijing

ＭａｊｏｒＦｉｎｄｉｎｇｓｆｒｏｍＳｕｒｖｅｙｏｆＦｌｏａｔｉｎｇＰｏｐｕｌａｔｉｏｎｉｎＢｅｉｊｉｎｇＡｓａｍｐｌｉｎｇｓｕｒｖｅｙｏｆｔｈｅｆｌｏａｔｉｎｇｐｏｐｕｌａｔｉｏｎ，ｆｏｃｕｓｉｎｇｏｎｉｎ－ｍｉｇｒａｎｔｓｏｎｌｙ，ｗａｓｃｏｎｄｕ...     

Selections from Sinet – the Social Indicators Network News

Social Indicators Research -     

Do amnesty programs reduce undocumented immigration? Evidence from Irca

This article examines whether mass legalization programs reduce future undocumented immigration. We focus on the effects of the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act, which granted amnesty to nearly 2.7 million undocumented immigrants. We report that apprehensions of persons attempting to cross the U.S.-Mexico border illegally declined immediately following passage of the law but returned to normal levels during the period when undocumented immigrants could file for amnesty and the years thereafter. Our findings suggest that the amnesty program did not change long-term patterns of undocumented immigration from Mexico.     

Does child gender affect marital status? Evidence from Australia

Pooling microdata from five Australian censuses, I explore the relationship between child gender and parents’ marital status. By contrast with the USA, I find no evidence that the gender of the first child has a significant impact on the decision to marry or divorce. However, among two-child families, parents with two children of the same sex are 1.7 percentage points less likely to be married than parents with a boy and a girl. This finding is unlikely to be consistent with theories of preference for sons over daughters, differential costs, role models, or complementary costs but is consistent with a theory of mixed-gender preference.

Does emigration benefit the stayers? Evidence from EU enlargement

Around 9 % of the Lithuanian workforce emigrated to Western Europe after the enlargement of the European Union in 2004. I exploit this emigration wave to study the effect of emigration on wages in the sending country. Using household data from Lithuania and work permit and census data from the UK and Ireland, I demonstrate that emigration had a significant positive effect on the wages of stayers. A one-percentage-point increase in the emigration rate predicts a 0.67 % increase in real wages. This effect, however, is only statistically significant for men.     

Why does migration decrease fertility? Evidence from the Philippines

We model the impact of past migration on fertility, assessing the separate effects of relative urbanization of the destination, as a proxy for norms, and post-migration employment, as a proxy for opportunity costs. In the Philippines, we find that large fertility declines accompany post-migration employment. If not followed by work for pay, the estimated fertility impact of migration is small. We find little evidence of migrant selectivity in fertility, and offer speculative evidence that fertility disruption accompanying migration may be large enough to account for much of the apparent effect of normative adaptation.