Happiness is not Enough: Cognitive Judgements as Indicators of National Wellbeing

The European Social Survey, on which this issue of the journal focuses, is a 30-nation multi-funded survey series measuring attitude change. Started in 2001, it is characterised by unusually high standards of sampling and data equivalence. Its data are made available on-line with equal access to all, and have already attracted over 20,000 users. Many papers, articles and books based on the ESS have already appeared. But none has yet employed the data—whether alone or with other sources—to derive indicators of citizens’ cognitive judgements of their society. A recent EC grant is enabling the authors to fill this gap, covering topics such as trust in national institutions, tolerance, social cohesion, social trust and fear of crime. The aim is to be able to monitor changes over time in the distance between what citizens believe their society ought to be in these respects and how they actually perceive it to be.

苗族婚姻制度变迁六十年——以贵州省施秉县夯巴寨为例

半个多世纪以来,苗族婚姻制度发生了诸多变迁。本文聚焦于游方、婚姻仪式、两性距离与婚姻限制等要素来揭示婚姻制度的变迁。这些变迁与国家意志、市场原则、大众媒体、社会时尚、科学知识与文化传统等因素相关。这些因素分别作用于婚姻制度的各个层面,并促使其发生牵连性的变迁。     

Malaria in Pacific populations: seen but not heard?

Most Pacific Island countries are located in the tropics, where there is an abundance of mosquitoes with the potential to carry debilitating or life-threatening vector-borne diseases. This article examines three Melanesian countries in which malaria is endemic—Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu—but the threat posed by the spread of malaria gives the issues a broader significance to the Pacific region. After discussing the spatial distribution and prevalence of malaria in the Pacific, the article examines a number of health interventions through which people have sought to control malaria. Although the disease was nearly eradicated in the Pacific in the 1970s, it is no longer in retreat. The article concludes by examining why there are still grounds for cautious optimism, and the challenges that Pacific Island countries face in reducing the impact of malaria on their populations. There is a need for prompt and concerted action on malaria at the national, regional and international levels if the public health concerns arising from the disease are to be adequately addressed.     

中心与边缘互动中的文化认同——以羌族旅游为例

中心与边缘是一个相对概念,它体现了一个社会存在的政治、经济、文化发展的不平衡状态.本文以羌族旅游为研究个案,通过中心/现代性与边缘/传统性的语境分析,再现了在旅游过程中,羌族作为地方传统性的异族形象不断被来自中心的旅游者所强化和认同,另一方面羌族自身又在不断吸纳现代性的过程中有意识地强化传统性的异族形象的复杂过程,从而揭示出中心与边缘在推进现代性与保持传统性的矛盾过程中对羌族文化传承与发展所带来的双重影响.     

统一涉外税制 改善投资环境——简析《外商投资企业和外国企业所得税法》的特点

本文通过对新老涉外税法的比较,总结出新税法的三大特点:即统一外商投资企业的纳税制度;扩大税收优惠,增强对外商的吸引力;增设反避税条款,加强税务管理。     

Business visits,knowledge diffusion and productivity

We investigate whether labor mobility can be a distinct source of growth by studying the productivity impact of business visits (BVs), vis-à-vis that of other well-known drivers of productivity enhancement. Our analysis uses an unbalanced panel—covering on average 16 sectors per year in ten countries during the period 1998–2011—which combines unique and novel data on BVs sourced from the US National Business Travel Association with Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) data on R&D and capital formation. We find that mobility through BVs is an effective mechanism to improve productivity, being about half that obtained by investing in R&D. This relevant finding invites viewing short-term mobility as a strategic mechanism and prospective policy tool to overcome productivity slowdowns and foster economic growth.     

中国人口发展演变趋势的分形分析

文章采用非线性分形理论及分形分析R/S法,对中国人口总数的发展演变特征进行实证分析。结果显示,中国人口发展演变满足赫斯特律,具有明显的分形特征,人口增长在其演变过程中具有明显的持续性规律,人口总数将继续持续增长,这种研究结论与中国人口发展实际情况基本一致。     

Effects of child support and welfare policies on nonmarital teenage childbearing and motherhood

This paper is an assessment of the impact of child support enforcement and welfare policies on nonmarital teenage childbearing and motherhood. We derive four hypotheses about the effects of policies on nonmarital teenage childbearing and motherhood. We propose that teenage motherhood and school enrollment are joint decisions for teenage girls. Based on individual trajectories during ages 12–19, our analysis uses an event history model for nonmarital teenage childbearing and a dynamic model of motherhood that is jointly determined with school enrollment. We find some evidence that child support policies indirectly reduce teen motherhood by increasing the probability of school enrollment, which, in turn, reduces the probability of teen motherhood. This finding suggests that welfare offices may wish to place greater weight on outreach programs that inform more teenagers of the existence of strong child support enforcement measures. Such programs might reduce nonmarital teen motherhood further and thus reduce the need for welfare support and child support enforcement in the long run.