The Role of Parents in Introducing Children to Financial Services: Evidence from Ghana-YouthSave

Financial capability—financial knowledge, skills, and access to financial services—may help smooth transitions to adulthood for youth and is affected by socialization experiences with parents and other family members. Among a sample of youth and their parents enrolled in the YouthSave experiment in Ghana (n?=?4,065), this study examined whether physical access to financial services and/or visiting banks with parents or other family members was associated with youth’s perceptions and understanding of financial institutions. We found a statistically significant association between visiting the bank with a parent or other family member and youth’s attitudes (β?=?1.45, p?<?0.001) and understanding of financial services (β?=?2.96, p?<?0.001), controlling for other factors like household income and assets. Conversely, physical access (distance, travel time) was not associated with financial services attitudes or understanding. Parents may play an important role in introducing their children to financial services. Practitioners and policy makers should consider ways to include parents in efforts to promote financial capability among youth.     

Who is a volunteer? A cultural and temporal exploration of volunteerism

This study’s purpose was to develop a temporal and cultural definition of volunteering in China. Using a comparative mixed-methods approach, N₁ = 218 Chinese students in Hong Kong were surveyed about their perceptions of volunteering. These quantitative data were compared cross-culturally with a sample of adults in the United States who used the same instrument called Who is a Volunteer? Subsequently, N₂ = 40 of these same students voluntarily participated in a series of focus groups, to further explore more in-depth their opinions about volunteering. The main quantitative results revealed that at the extreme ends of the volunteer scale, both the U.S. and Chinese samples could readily distinguish what volunteering was or was not. The more nuanced empirical differences on the scale (24% of the 21 items) were explained either by unique cultural differences, or the longer and more prominent history that volunteering has had in North America versus China. Main qualitative findings revealed additional between-group cultural differences exemplified by (1) a more family-centric and collectivist Chinese culture versus a more individualistic American culture, (2) a role blurring about volunteer activities versus paid work activities, and (3) that both organizational and cultural context must be seriously considered when defining volunteerism. This study adds to the growing definitional literature on this transformational concept and represents the largest comparative empirical investigation on this subject from East Asia.     

China’s modern image – contemporary Chinese art

Abstract

As a worldwide cultural phenomenon, contemporary art in China has not only been used as a diplomatic language but also a reflection of contemporary Chinese culture. Contemporary Chinese art, as an emerging field to display China’s global role, provides an important perspective to study China’s self-position in global relations, China’s diplomacy in exercising its soft power, contemporary Chinese culture, and the reinvention of China’s cultural/national identity in post-Mao China. Using the 2000 Shanghai Biennale and the Chinese pavilion at the 54th Venice Biennale as case studies, this article investigates how the fluid construct of Chineseness is successfully promoted and demonstrated through the government’s support of contemporary Chinese art.     

新一轮区域发展背景下广州南站地区产业发展研究

"高铁经济"的发展对区域经济与社会发展具有重要的带动作用与战略意义,高铁枢纽及其周边地区也将成为城市发展新引擎。对其功能定位与产业发展则是高铁枢纽地区开发建设的前提与成功与否的关键因素之一。以广州南站枢纽地区为例,以区域竞合发展的视角,剖析南站地区发展面临的阶段困境,探索基于新一轮国家对外开放战略与地区合作升级机遇的背景下,南站地区如何利用高铁枢纽和区位优势,对接不同层面的战略需求来清晰定位其功能,并对产业发展路径与空间布局提出相应的合理化建议。     

基于多源遥感的城市生态用地识别及生态风险评价

随着城市化进程的不断推进、建设用地不断扩张,城市生态空间正处于剧烈变化中。大量具有生态价值和服务功能的土地不断被侵占,以满足暂时的城市建设需求。但从长远来看,这些生态用地的"消失",将不可避免的影响区域生态平衡,给区域经济的健康发展埋下隐患。广州作为华南的中心城市,改革开放以来,大量外来人口涌入,土地利用变化频繁,生态环境的保护面临着巨大压力。因此,本文基于多源遥感数据,利用监督分类法与综合指数法相综合的复合提取方案对2016年广州生态用地进行空间识别,掌握广州市生态用地存量现状。同时,借助生态风险小区和生态风险等景观指数对广州进行了生态风险评估,结果显示,广州市生态风险呈现明显的多核圈层结构,由多核心的中心向外部逐渐降低。     

Unified Inference for Sparse and Dense Longitudinal Data in Time‐varying Coefficient Models

Time‐varying coefficient models are widely used in longitudinal data analysis. These models allow the effects of predictors on response to vary over time. In this article, we consider a mixed‐effects time‐varying coefficient model to account for the within subject correlation for longitudinal data. We show that when kernel smoothing is used to estimate the smooth functions in time‐varying coefficient models for sparse or dense longitudinal data, the asymptotic results of these two situations are essentially different. Therefore, a subjective choice between the sparse and dense cases might lead to erroneous conclusions for statistical inference. In order to solve this problem, we establish a unified self‐normalized central limit theorem, based on which a unified inference is proposed without deciding whether the data are sparse or dense. The effectiveness of the proposed unified inference is demonstrated through a simulation study and an analysis of Baltimore MACS data.     

Statistical analysis of dependent competing risks model in accelerated life testing under progressively hybrid censoring using copula function

This article considers statistical analysis of dependent competing risks model from Weibull distribution in accelerated life testing, in which copula function is used to examine the dependence structure between competing failure modes. We derive the maximum likelihood estimates, the approximate, and Bootstrap confidence intervals of the parameters. The effects of different dependence structures on the estimates of parameters are investigated. The simulation is given to compare the performance of the estimates when the competing failure modes are dependent with those when the failure modes are independent. Finally, one dataset was used for illustrative purpose in conclusion.     

More on the restricted Liu estimator in the logistic regression model

?iray et al. proposed a restricted Liu estimator to overcome multicollinearity in the logistic regression model. They also used a Monte Carlo simulation to study the properties of the restricted Liu estimator. However, they did not present the theoretical result about the mean squared error properties of the restricted estimator compared to MLE, restricted maximum likelihood estimator (RMLE) and Liu estimator. In this article, we compare the restricted Liu estimator with MLE, RMLE and Liu estimator in the mean squared error sense and we also present a method to choose a biasing parameter. Finally, a real data example and a Monte Carlo simulation are conducted to illustrate the benefits of the restricted Liu estimator.     

Monitoring the coefficient of variation using a variable sample size and sampling interval control chart

This article proposes a CV chart by using the variable sample size and sampling interval (VSSI) feature to improve the performance of the basic CV chart, for detecting small and moderate shifts in the CV. The proposed VSSI CV chart is designed by allowing the sample size and the sampling interval to vary. The VSSI CV chart's statistical performance is measured by using the average time to signal (ATS) and expected average time to signal (EATS) criteria and is compared with that of existing CV charts. The Markov chain approach is employed in the design of the chart.