The Contextual Effects of Community Social Capital on Academic Performance

Although previous research has underscored the importance of family social capital in serving educational purposes, few studies have examined the relationship between social capital accumulated in a local community and the academic performance of all students living in the community. The current study has applied an explicit multilevel model to study this relationship. Hierarchical linear model analyses of a nationally representative sample of 8th-grade students have demonstrated that most measures of community social capital are consistently associated with performance, even after controlling for measures of family social capital and demographic factors. Further, the socioeconomic characteristics of a community and the process component of community social capital explain a large portion of the associations between community structure and academic performance. In addition, the contextual effects of a high concentration of nontraditional and large families vary according to the level of process social capital. Finally, most of the contextual effects examined are approximately linear. In summary, this study has underscored the importance of community-based social capital in studying academic performance.     

Why do minorities participate less? The effects of immigration, education, and electoral process on Asian American voter registration and turnout

Despite their interest in racial differences in voting behavior, especially those between Blacks and Whites, social scientists typically have not focused explicitly on the relatively low participation rates of Asian Americans. Using the Current Population Survey Voting and Registration Supplements (1994–2000), I evaluate the utility of four explanations (socioeconomic, acculturation, differential return, and institutional barriers) for the low voter participation rates of Asian Americans and other racial minorities. I introduce a statistical model that permits a simultaneous estimation of voter registration and turnout. My results are 4-fold. First, socioeconomic explanations are less effective in understanding White-Asian differences than other White-minority comparisons. Second, immigration status and length of residency in the United States, as primary indicators of acculturation, represent the major hurdles to both Asian Americans and Hispanics for registering, but much less so for their vote-casting. Third, the positive effect of education on voter participation is relatively limited for Asian Americans, especially compared with that of Whites. Fourth, institutional barriers, most notably registration requirements, have disproportionately screened Asian Americans, and to a lesser degree Hispanics, from the final stage of vote-casting. My counterfactual analyses suggest that the differences in voter turnout between Asian Americans and Whites would virtually disappear in the absence of voter registration.     

Student misbehavior during senior year: A comparison of immigrants and the native-born

Prior research has increasingly shown that the length of time in the U.S. and acculturation may have negative effects on a variety of immigrant outcomes, including academic performance, health, and occupational attainment. However, much of the research on the educational outcomes of immigrants focuses primarily on their academic achievement but neglects another factor that affects educational success—behavior at school. Using data from a sample of high school seniors in several Pacific Northwest school districts, I examine whether more time in the U.S. increases school misbehavior by testing the effects of immigrant generation and indicators of acculturation on three measures of disciplinary problems during the senior year of high school—attending class unprepared, getting in trouble for breaking school rules, and being put on suspension. First and one-point-five generation immigrants attend class more prepared and get into less trouble for breaking the school rules than do third or higher generation students during their senior year of high school. High academic performance and indicators of acculturation explain only part of this beneficial effect of immigrant generation on behavior at school. Additional analyses show that second generation Asian immigrants are more similar to first and 1.5 generation immigrants from all racial and ethnic groups than they are from other second generation racial and ethnic groups in regards to moderate and intermediate behavior.     

Selling students short: Racial differences in teachers’ evaluations of high,average, and low performing students

Education scholars document notable racial differences in teachers’ perceptions of students’ academic skills. Using data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Kindergarten Cohort, this study advances research on teacher perceptions by investigating whether racial differences in teachers’ evaluations of first grade students’ overall literacy skills vary for high, average, and low performing students. Results highlight both the overall accuracy of teachers’ perceptions, and the extent and nature of possible inaccuracies, as demonstrated by remaining racial gaps net literacy test performance. Racial differences in teachers’ perceptions of Black, non-White Latino, and Asian students (compared to White students) exist net teacher and school characteristics and vary considerably across literacy skill levels. Skill specific literacy assessments appear to explain the remaining racial gap for Asian students, but not for Black and non-White Latino students. Implications of these findings for education scholarship, gifted education, and the achievement gap are discussed.     

Parental divorce, sibship size, family resources, and children’s academic performance

Using data from 19,839 adolescents from the National Education Longitudinal Study, this study investigates whether the effects of parental divorce on adolescents’ academic test performance vary by sibship size. Analyses show that the negative effect of divorce on adolescent performance attenuates as sibship size increases. On the other side of the interaction, the inverse relationship between sibship size and test performance is weaker in disrupted than in two-biological-parent families. Trends of such interactions are evident when sibship size is examined either as a continuous or a categorical measure. Finally, the observed interactions on adolescents’ academic performance are completely explained by variations in parental financial, human, cultural, and social resources. In sum, this study underlines the importance of treating the effect of parental divorce as a variable and calls for more research to identify child and family features that may change the magnitude of such an effect.     

Wages, earnings, and occupational status: did World War II veterans receive a premium?

Over 16 million men served during World War II (WWII), and we know that veterans obtained more education and earned higher incomes than did non-veterans and that these premiums were more substantial for Blacks and less educated men. However, we know very little about the reasons for such veteran premiums. Using several distinct, yet connected, theoretical traditions that have been used to link military service to subsequent outcomes—theories of the life course, the status attainment perspective, relatively new conceptualizations of social capital, economic theories of human capital, and theories of selectivity—we seek to redress this lack of understanding. We use survey data from the National Longitudinal Study of Mature Men (NLSMM) to examine the long-term effects of military service during WWII on occupational and income attainments. We find that the effects associated with being a veteran of WWII are modest and are mostly limited to less advantaged veterans, and can be largely explained by differences in human capital investment or selectivity. The one finding that cannot be explained by differences in family background, human capital investments, and selectivity is a higher hourly wage rate associated with being a Black veteran.     

基础教育不平等背后的社会经济不平等

随着就业市场教育水平门槛的逐渐提高,更多的家庭把大部分收入都投资于子女教育,这无疑有益于人力资源的发展和劳动力素质的提高。然而教育费用的飞涨使得中低收入家庭不堪负重,更把贫因家庭的子女逼入教育无保障的境地。因此需通过政府干预等政策来逐渐解决这一问题。     

农村社会养老保险的功能定位、发展路径与制度创新

目前我国农村实施的纳费型养老保险制度不可能建立起覆盖全体农民群体的保障制度,非纳费型养老保险制度是农村社会养老保险制度的重要制度基础和必然选择。农村养老保障制度应形成与经济发展社会转型等的良性互动,必须高度关注和重视农村财政支持、农村金融发展、资产建设计划、农村教育投资、农村反贫困计划等整合发展动力机制的作用。     

Race/ethnicity,human capital,and the selection of young children into early childhood education

Mexican-origin families face complex ethnic and immigration-based barriers to enrollment in early childhood education programs. As such, reducing barriers to enrollment for this population requires a better understanding of how Mexican-origin families work with, against, or around both general and group-specific constraints on educational opportunities. Using the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study–Birth Cohort, this study tailored broad social theory to the experience of Mexican-origin families to examine associations between human capital considerations and early childhood education enrollment within this population. Results supported the hypothesis that human capital considerations would be associated with early childhood care and education and provide limited evidence for the expectation that this link would be stronger for Mexican-origin families.     

Race and Wealth Inequality: The Impact of Racial Differences in Asset Ownership on the Distribution of Household Wealth

What accounts for persistent racial differences in wealth ownership? Previous research has debated the role that differences in asset ownership play in creating and maintaining wealth inequality. I use survey data to model the ownership of seven assets and find that whites are indeed more likely than blacks to buy high-risk, high-return assets. I then use a simulation model to explore the effect that these differences have on the distribution of wealth. I separate the effects of asset ownership from the effects of racial differences in family wealth history, earnings, education, marital behavior, fertility, and other influences on wealth inequality. I find that removing racial differences in asset ownership reduced wealth inequality drastically, but not completely, and that racial differences in educational attainment account for much of the remaining difference. I estimate how changes in historical patterns of portfolio behavior and educational attainment would have reduced inequality, and I explore the implications of these findings for reducing wealth inequality in the future.     

Trends in the relative occupational status of African Americans and European immigrants in Northern cities, 1880–1970

In his classic book, A Piece of the Pie, Stanley Lieberson described divergent trends in occupational standing for African Americans and European immigrants after 1920, as the Great Migration from the South swelled the size of the black population in northern cities. In this paper I build upon Lieberson’s work using longitudinal data drawn from the Integrated Public Use Microdata Series for the census years 1880–1970. This more versatile data source allows me to examine separate occupational trends for northern-born blacks and southern-born migrants and to control for relevant socio-demographic characteristics. The findings confirm Lieberson’s general conclusion that blacks lost ground, occupationally, to immigrants after 1920. However, they show further that: (1) northern- and southern-born blacks experienced different trends in relative occupational standing after 1920, (2) that these different trends were due largely to compositional differences between the two groups of northern blacks, especially educational differences, and (3) that blacks were generally less successful than immigrants at translating additional educational attainment into improved occupational status, with southern migrants experiencing the weakest occupational returns to education. It is concluded that compositional differences and a racially-defined occupational queue were the most important factors shaping group differences and trends in occupational standing between 1920 and 1970. Timing of arrival in the northern industrial economy and a response by whites to the “racial threat” from a growing black population were less important.     

Did send-down experience benefit youth? A reevaluation of the social consequences of forced urban–rural migration during China’s Cultural Revolution

During China’s Cultural Revolution, a large proportion of urban youth were forced to go to the countryside as a result of the state’s “send-down” policy. Past research has been ambivalent about the long-term social consequences for the Chinese youth who experienced send-down. Some scholars have suggested that the send-down experience may have yielded beneficial effects. To test this claim, we analyze data from the Survey of Family Life in Urban China, which we conducted in three large cities in 1999. Questions available in this data set allow us to ascertain the send-down experience of both the respondent and a sibling and educational attainment at the times of send-down and return. Our analyses of the new data show that the send-down experience does not seem to have benefited the affected Chinese youth. Differences in social outcomes between those who experienced send-down and those who did not are either non-existent or spurious due to other social processes.     

上市公司高管人力资本与企业绩效的实证研究——以医药行业为例

在综述前人研究成果的基础上,将上市公司高管人力资本细分为教育型人力资本、实践型人力资本和激励型人力资本。利用2010年12月中国医药行业上市公司的财务数据资料,对上市公司高管人力资本与企业绩效的关系进行实证研究,分析结果表明:医药行业上市公司高管教育型人力资本对绩效的影响最显著,实践型人力资本、激励型人力资本和企业规模对绩效的影响都不显著,同时说明高管的教育型人力资本、激励型人力资和实践型人力资本各自对企业绩效贡献的大小是因行业而定的,不同的行业其各类人力资本对企业绩效贡献的大小不同。     

高校贫困生资助工作存在的问题与对策

到目前为止,虽然国家已经对高校贫困生出台了很多政策,针对贫困生的教育资助也的确减轻了贫困生家庭的经济负担,但资助工作仍存在着一些问题。作者通过对秦皇岛市七所高校的调查访谈和分析,认为我国高校的贫困生资助工作存在资金总额总体不足、且构成比例不合理、贷学贷款制度不健全等问题。为了做好高校贫困生的资助工作,今后,必须构建高校贫困生资助体系的新模式,政府要成为高校贫困生资助工作的政策支持者和经济资助者;高校要成为学生资助工作体系的教育和管理主体;同时成立专门的教育银行,并使其成为国家助学贷款工作的金融主体。     

Psychological ‘self–other overlap’ and support for slavery reparations

Neurobiological and social psychological studies suggest the existence of non-conscious ‘self–other overlap’ that can lead individuals to identify with other individuals or groups. This paper investigates whether this effect may help to explain support by some Whites for an otherwise unpopular policy on behalf of African Americans-slavery reparations. A representative telephone survey (n = 1200) serves as baseline of comparison for an online reaction time study with a non-representative sample (n = 1341) that measures ‘self–other overlap’ (interchangeably referred to as “implicit closeness” to Blacks). Partial proportional odds ordered logit analyses reveal implicit closeness to Blacks as the single most powerful predictor of support for reparations among White respondents. The magnitude of the absolute effect of implicit closeness exceeds that of traditional predictors such as racial resentment, ideology, and party identification. Methodological and political implications are discussed.     

基于博弈模型的高新技术企业人力资本投资风险管理决策

知识及技术进步迫使高新技术企业必须进行人力资本投资,以促进企业内的知识及技术创新,保持其核心竞争能力.然而,巨大的人力资本投资风险影响了企业投资人力资本的积极性.针时这一问题,文章在界定高新技术企业人力资本及其投资风险基本内涵的基础上,引入博弈模型对人力资本投资风险管理决策问题进行了深入分析,最后提出了防范高新技术企业人力资本投资风险的措施,从而为解决类似问题提供了一种新的思路.     

Light and shadows: An analysis of racial differences between siblings in Brazil

Using data from the 2010 Census of Brazil, this article quantitatively examines the phenomenon of sibling differences in racial classification. In sum, the findings demonstrate that within-sibling racial heterogeneity occurs in 17–19% of families. The strongest predictor of racial discordance between siblings is racial discordance between parents. Furthermore, within-sibling regression models establish that race exhibits a modest but statistically significant association with some education and labor market outcomes. Most outcomes are not associated with race for siblings aged 15–19, although in families with both sexes, darker females have more favorable educational outcomes, while darker males have less favorable outcomes. In contrast, darker siblings aged 20–25 are less advantaged than their lighter brothers and sisters along a number of dimensions. They have significantly lower education, lower personal income, lower formal employment, and lower occupational status. It is argued that patterns for siblings aged 20–25 may be indicative of individual racial discrimination.     

我国高等教育投资分析

我国高等教育正处于全面改革和发展阶段,高等教育投资改革是其中的一个中心环节。目前我国高等教育已初步形成了以国家财政拨款为主,多渠道,多元化投资的格局,但仍存在以下一些突出问题:包括国家投资占投资总额比重过高,各投资主体投资不活跃,资金筹措方式较单一,投资规模经济缺乏。要解决以上问题应考虑的对策主要包括如何强化财政投入,如何引入民间资本,如何确定学生缴费比例,如何利用资本市场等。     

企业社会资本、组织学习与经营绩效:转型升级的机制和路径——对格力电器案例的研究

在企业技术创新和可持续发展能力研究领域,组织动员各类社会资本以及对组织学习行为的研究日益引起人们的关注,企业社会资本有利于促进组织学习活动进而提升经营绩效的观点已成为共识,但是三者之间的具体作用机制还有待更深入的分析。研究表明,企业内部社会资本有助于组织开展利用式学习提升财务绩效,企业外部社会资本则有助于组织开展探索式学习提升新产品绩效,两者互构,协调协同,带动企业转型升级,实现可持续发展。     

新疆贫困地区人力资源开发与扶贫战略

21世纪, 人力资本已成为经济发展的关键因素之一。加快人力资源向人力资本转变, 以此带动各投资主体对人力资本投资的积极性, 增加人力资本存量, 对确保新疆贫困地区经济持续增长, 加快脱贫致富的步伐具有重要意义。因此, 开发新疆农村贫困地区人力资源应从四个方面着手: 一是加大对教育的投入, 加强技术技能培训; 二是通过参与扶贫开发项目, 提高技术和管理能力; 三是在贫困地区发展劳动密集型产业; 四是加大对卫生保健、医疗的投入力度, 建立新疆新型农村合作医疗制度。