Economic Inequality is Associated with Lower Internet Use: A Nationally Representative Study

Social Indicators Research - Previous studies have documented the associations of objective class with either social capital or subjective social status, yet little attention has been paid to the...     

Vocational Status,Hukou and Housing Migrants in the New Century: Evidence from a Multi-city Study of Housing Inequality

In the 1960s and 1970s, the countries of Central and Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union experienced an unanticipated stagnation in the process of mortality reduction that was accelerating in the west. This was followed by even starker fluctuations and overall declines in life expectancy during the 1980s and 1990s. We identify statistically the extent to which, since the 1990s, the countries of the post-communist region have converged as a group towards other regional or cross-regional geopolitical blocks, or whether there are now multiple steady-states (‘convergence clubs’) emerging among these countries. We apply a complex convergence club methodology, including a recursive analysis, to data on 30 OECD countries (including 11 post-communist countries) drawn from the Human Mortality Database and spanning the period 1959–2010. We find that, rather than converging uniformly on western life expectancy levels, the post-communist countries have diverged into multiple clubs, with the lowest seemingly stuck in low-level equilibria, while the best performers (e.g. Czech Republic) show signs of catching-up with the leading OECD countries. As the post-communist period has progressed, the group of transition countries themselves has become more heterogeneous and it is noticeable that distinctive gender and age patterns have emerged. We are the first to employ an empirical convergence club methodology to help understand the complex long-run patterns of life expectancy within the post-communist region, one of very few papers to situate such an analysis in the context of the OECD countries, and one of relatively few to interpret the dynamics over the long-term.     

THE CREDIT‐CHANNEL TRANSMISSION MECHANISM AND THE NONLINEAR GROWTH AND WELFARE EFFECTS OF INFLATION AND TAXES

With the credit‐channel effect driven by the central bank's open market operations, this paper's model easily gives rise to the nonlinear inflation‐growth nexus, which is evidenced by a number of cross‐country empirical studies. The threshold level of the inflation rate is found to be lower when tax rates are higher. The presence of the credit‐channel effect also provides the rationale for setting positive (and smaller than 1) tax rates on consumption, labor income, and capital income. The optimal tax rates rise as the inflation target declines. Under a fiscal policy rule where labor and capital income taxes move proportionally to each other, the optimal capital income tax rate could be higher than the optimal labor income tax rate. Under a sufficiently large central bank balance sheet, the credit‐channel effect will be so weak that inflation and all kinds of taxes are growth and welfare repressing. This provides a rationale for central banks that have implemented quantitative easing policies to shrink their balance sheets. (JEL E58, E62, O42)     

HORIZONTAL MERGERS IN THE PRESENCE OF CAPACITY CONSTRAINTS

We examine a merger between two competitors in a Bertrand‐Edgeworth model. We find that the effects of merger depend on the tightness of capacity constraints. The combination of two firms has no price effect if and only if the capacity constraints of all firms are binding both before and after the merger. However, a merger may turn a binding capacity constraint into a slack one, which results in higher prices. In an industry where excess capacity drives the premerger prices of all firms to the marginal cost, a merger may cause prices to rise even though aggregate capacity remains constant. (JEL L13, L40)     

Career Adaptability,Self‐Esteem,and Social Support Among Hong Kong University Students

Career adaptability manifests itself through 4 self‐regulated internal resources for coping with occupational challenges and transitions: concern, control, curiosity, and confidence. Few studies have examined career adaptability specifically in the Hong Kong context. The Career Adapt‐Abilities Scale–China Form (CAAS‐China; Hou, Leung, Li, Li, & Xu, 2012 ) was administered, along with measures of self‐esteem and social support, to 522 Hong Kong Chinese undergraduate students. Results indicated that the CAAS‐China is a reliable and valid instrument for use with these students. Data also showed that self‐esteem was strongly associated with career adaptability, and this relationship was partially mediated by perceived social support. Implications for careers counseling in universities and colleges are discussed.     

A simpler PTAS for connected <Emphasis Type="Italic">k</Emphasis>-path vertex cover in homogeneous wireless sensor network

Because of its application in the field of security in wireless sensor networks, k-path vertex cover (\(\hbox {VCP}_k\)) has received a lot of attention in recent years. Given a graph \(G=(V,E)\), a vertex set \(C\subseteq V\) is a k-path vertex cover (\(\hbox {VCP}_k\)) of G if every path on k vertices has at least one vertex in C, and C is a connected k-path vertex cover of G (\(\hbox {CVCP}_k\)) if furthermore the subgraph of G induced by C is connected. A homogeneous wireless sensor network can be modeled as a unit disk graph. This paper presents a new PTAS for \(\hbox {MinCVCP}_k\) on unit disk graphs. Compared with previous PTAS given by Liu et al., our method not only simplifies the algorithm and reduces the time-complexity, but also simplifies the analysis by a large amount.     

加强岭南民族经济史研究的思考

岭南民族经济史在我国民族史和岭南开发历史研究中具有重要的地位.几十年来,岭南民族经济史的研究领域逐步拓展,但真正从民族学的视角,从不同经济文化类型的依存和互动去论述各民族之间的经济关系,从经济与社会文化、生态环境的相互关联来研究少数民族经济发展及其制约因素的并不多,一些重大问题缺乏深入系统研究.加强岭南民族经济史的研究,为制订少数民族地区经济发展战略、政策和有关法律法规时提供科学的依据,促使中国少数民族经济史学科的形成和发展.     

四川省“十一五”期间“民族问题”研究述评

"十一五"期间,四川省"民族问题"研究已经形成了良好的发展势头,"民族问题"研究工作者和民族工作战线的广大工作人员,取得了令人瞩目的成绩,主要表现在学术机构、学术队伍和学科建设的新发展以及社科基金项目大幅攀升等方面。这些成就为"十二五"期间"民族问题"研究的发展跃上一个新台阶奠定了很好的基础。但是,也存在一些问题:国家社科基金侧重应用研究和对策研究,事实上削弱了基本理论的研究,"体"与"用"出现失衡,从长远而言,不利于我国哲学社会科学的繁荣发展;理论研究的失误和缺失势必带来政策与工作的失误。实事求是地总结近60年来我们民族工作正、反两个方面的经验教训,评估我们当前的民族问题和民族工作状况,改进我们下一步的民族工作是我们面临的一个重要课题。