In sight,in mind: Spatial proximity to protest sites and changes in peoples' political attitudes

Occupying public spaces can be an effective tactic for conveying a semantic message of protest and gaining wider support; however, it may also severely disrupt the everyday lives of non-participants and causes a backfire. Therefore, it remains unclear whether and how the occupy movements have shifted political attitudes among the general public. Bringing a social-spatial perspective to the case of the Occupy Central Movement (OCM) in Hong Kong, this study investigates how the attitudinal impact of occupation has varied according to people's spatial proximity to the protest sites. Using two waves of individual-level panel data collected right before and after the OCM and detailed geo-information on the respondents' home addresses and the occupied areas, we apply a difference-in-differences (DIDs) design to identify the causal link between space and attitudes. In addition, propensity score matching (PSM) methods are used to ensure the comparability of nearby and faraway residents. The results show that after the OCM, residents living near the occupied areas not only maintained their support for the pro-democracy camp but also became more liberal as compared to faraway residents. This phenomenon can be explained by the “on-site” effect, which suggests that the direct exposure to protestors' solidarity and the repressive actions of authorities arouse bystanders' sympathy for the protestors and support for their political cause. Such influence appears to be long-lasting and can be evidenced by the local election results after the protest.     

高技术产业关联密度对城市就业的影响——基于产业空间认知邻近度的实证分析

在经济高质量发展中需要高技术产业发展引领，而高技术产业发展与新技术的广泛使用对就业岗位是否会产生冲击而造成大规模失业，引起了人们的担忧。为此，将高技术产业发展与演化经济地理学主题相结合，采用“产业空间”方法测度了高技术产业和其他产业关联性，基于中国工业企业数据库的面板数据对中国高技术产业及其与其他产业关联密度在城市工业就业上的影响进行了检验。研究表明：(1)高技术产业具有就业创造效应，城市经济对劳动力的需求会因高技术产业诱发关联产业发展而显著增加。(2)高技术产业发展为市场提供了技术应用与服务，使资源密集型产业的劳动力需求减少，释放出一定规模的劳动力。(3)高技术产业与其他产业的关联密度主要是通过生产效率提高促使产业规模扩大、提高居民收入促使消费需求提升等机制促进城市产业就业需求增加。高技术产业带动关联产业的发展对城市就业的促进效应具有较强的稳健性。     

Do remittances reduce school dropout in Bangladesh? The role of government’s administrative and structural support

In the development literature, the impact of remittances on educational outcomes is a contentious topic and remains at the heart of policy discussions on enhancing quality education in developing countries. Bangladesh being one of the world’s top remittance recipients, it’s crucial to understand the influence of remittances on educational outcomes and school dropout rates. In this study, we examine the impact of internal remittances (from inside Bangladesh) and international remittances (from outside Bangladesh) on school dropout at the household level using a unique, national, and two most recent datasets covering migration and remittance-related information from the Bangladesh Household Income and Expenditure Survey (HIES). Considering the methodological issues such as endogeneity sources and self-selection, we used the Instrumental Variable Cox Proportional Hazard model and included asset scores in the models as a proxy measure of households’ wealth index. Furthermore, all the outcomes using the econometric approaches were segregated into three groups: i) those who received no remittances, ii) those who received internal remittances, and iii) those who received international remittances for both HIES 2010 and HIES 2016. This analysis provides a critical picture of the influence of remittances on school dropouts in Bangladesh by giving us a significant positive outcome of the remittances as a whole on education. With the increase in remittance inflows in Bangladesh, the risk of children aged 6-18 dropping out of education are more likely to fall. Aside from the positive impact, this study suggests that government should take the initiative of reducing the costs of sending remittances to Bangladesh. Moreover, the government should provide procedural and structural support to migrants.     

On not ‘being there’: Making sense of the potent urge for physical proximity in transnational families at the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic

This paper investigates transnational families’ experiences of the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak and the accompanying sudden and unexpected travel restrictions. Our data consist of written stories collected in April–June 2020 from migrants with ageing kin living in another country. For many respondents, the situation provoked an acutely felt urge for physical proximity with their families. By analysing their experiences of ‘not being there’, we seek to understand what exactly made the urge to ‘be there’ so forceful. Bringing into dialogue literature on transnational families with Jennifer Mason's recent theoretical work on affinities, we move the focus from families’ transnational caregiving practices to the potent connections between family members. We argue that this approach can open important avenues for future research on families—transnational or otherwise—because it sheds light on the multisensory and often ineffable charges between family members that serve to connect them.     

审计师-客户公司的地理邻近性与会计稳健性

 近年来，相关研究发现地理区位特征是影响经济主体行为决策及其后果的重要因素。在审计实践中，有些上市公司倾向于聘请地理邻近的本地会计师事务所提供审计服务，而有些上市公司却喜欢“舍近求远”聘请外地会计师事务所提供审计服务。这个现象说明，审计师的地理区位特征很可能是影响上市公司与审计师间交互行为的一个重要潜在因素。        基于客户公司会计稳健性的视角，以地理经济学相关理论为支撑，探讨审计师的地理区位特征对审计师审计行为的影响，进而检验对客户公司会计稳健性的影响。        综合考虑中国关系型社会和法制不健全的转型经济背景，研究审计师与客户公司间地理距离对客户公司会计稳健性的影响。利用2004年至2014年中国A股上市公司的13 624个年度观察数据为研究样本，使用OLS、工具变量的2SLS、Petersen所采用的稳健回归等多元回归分析方法进行实证检验。        研究结果表明，①审计师-客户公司地理距离越近，客户公司的会计稳健性越低，即地理邻近性降低了客户公司的会计稳健性；②与国际四大相比，非国际四大审计师与客户公司间的地理邻近性对客户公司会计稳健性的消极影响显著更强；③相对于监管强度高的地区，审计师-客户公司的地理邻近性对会计稳健性的消极影响在监管强度低的地区表现得更强。此外，对内生性、计量估计模型、主要变量度量方法和样本筛选等问题进行的稳健性检验结果表明，上述研究结论稳健成立。        审计师的地理邻近性会降低客户公司的会计稳健性，因为地理邻近性会特别损害会计稳健性所依赖的外部审计的独立性，而良好的审计师声誉和外部监管环境则有利于在一定程度上缓解审计师的地理邻近性对客户公司会计稳健性的不利影响。相关结果加深了对审计师行为动机及其后果的理解，对审计师在审计本地客户时加强独立性、监管机构加强针对性的监管以及完善各种内外部治理机制都具有重要的政策启示意义。