Extending social security coverage to the rural sector in China

In late 2009 China launched an innovative, voluntary programme that by 2011 had extended pension coverage to 326.4 million people in the rural sector, including contributors and beneficiaries. It requires one contribution per year and provides a flat‐rate benefit and a contributions‐related benefit through a contributory individual account, with a government guarantee that the benefit will continue for life. The programme encourages participation of persons who do not pay income taxes, and thus have no tax incentive to participate, by providing substantial government subsidies. As a further incentive, old‐age benefits are provided to older parents when all their adult children participate in the contributory programme.     

Model-based clustering of multivariate skew data with circular components and missing values

Motivated by classification issues that arise in marine studies, we propose a latent-class mixture model for the unsupervised classification of incomplete quadrivariate data with two linear and two circular components. The model integrates bivariate circular densities and bivariate skew normal densities to capture the association between toroidal clusters of bivariate circular observations and planar clusters of bivariate linear observations. Maximum-likelihood estimation of the model is facilitated by an expectation maximization (EM) algorithm that treats unknown class membership and missing values as different sources of incomplete information. The model is exploited on hourly observations of wind speed and direction and wave height and direction to identify a number of sea regimes, which represent specific distributional shapes that the data take under environmental latent conditions.     

＂贫困＂的多模态表征

本文以中介话语分析、多模态社会符号学为理论框架从语言、图像两方面探讨"贫困"现象的话语表征方式。基于BNC语料库揭示"贫困"的词汇语法模式,在语篇层面以媒体对贫困弱势群体表征为例分析其语篇语法,并探讨新闻报道中与"贫困"相关的视觉语法。"贫困"不仅仅表征为穷者匮乏的物质存在,更表征所映现的符号状态和人类精神。     

问题类型划分方法视野下的犯罪概念研究

在问题类型划分方法的视野下,犯罪概念问题应该属于纯粹刑法学问题中的解释选择问题,但刑法学界以往有关犯罪概念的讨论却大多将其作为刑法问题中的价值判断问题。由于未能妥当确定犯罪概念的问题类型,从而使学界有关犯罪概念的讨论未能达成最低限度的学术共识。作为纯粹刑法学问题中的解释选择问题,形式与实质相结合的混合犯罪概念不存在被替代的必要性,而犯罪概念也不应被规定在刑法典中。     

论广州城市生活垃圾治理的战略取向

现代城市垃圾治理是一项复杂的系统工程。在城市垃圾中,生活垃圾所占比重大、与民众联系密切且处理阻力大,对城市生活垃圾治理的战略设计已成为城市管理者面临的最大难题之一。作为我国重要中心城市的广州,也正面临形势严峻的"垃圾围城"之困,自2012年开启新一轮城市生活垃圾综合治理以来,在有创新、有收获的同时也遇到了新的挑战。为进一步深化城市生活垃圾治理工作,广州应准确把脉顶层制度难"落地"、流程运行难系统、民众习惯难转变等现实症结,科学设计生活垃圾的多元共治路径,实现挑战与机遇的对接,为我国城市生活垃圾的治理树立标杆,助推开创城市垃圾治理的新局面。     

Multiple-class classification: Ordinal and categorical labels

We study multiple-class classification problems. Both ordinal and categorical labeled cases are discussed. The common approaches for multiple-class classification are built on binary classifiers, in which one-versus-one and one-versus-rest are typical approaches. When the number of classes is large, then these binary-classifier-based methods may suffer from either computational costs or the highly imbalanced sample sizes in their training stage. In order to alleviate the computational burden and the imbalanced training data issue in multiple-class classification problems, we propose a method that has competitive performance and retains the ease of model interpretation, which is essential for a prognostic/predictive model.     

The arithmetic of outcome editing in financial and social domains

Outcome editing refers to a set of mental rules that people apply when deciding whether to evaluate multiple outcomes jointly or separately, which subsequently affects choice. In a large-scale online survey (n = 2062) we investigate whether individuals use the same outcome editing rules for financial outcomes (e.g., a lottery win) and social outcomes (e.g., a party with friends). We also test the role of numeric ability in explaining outcome editing. Our results show that people’s preferences for combining or separating events depend on whether those events are in the financial or the social domain. Specifically, individuals were more likely to segregate social outcomes than monetary outcomes, except for when all outcomes were negative. Moreover, numeric ability was associated with preferences for outcome editing in the financial domain but not in the social domain. Our findings extend the understanding of the arithmetic operations underlying outcome editing and suggest that people rely more on calculations when making choices involving multiple financial outcomes and more on feelings when making choices involving social outcomes.     

Majority size and conformity behavior in charitable giving: Field evidence from a donation-based crowdfunding platform in Japan

A charitable donor typically imitates the majority contribution of other donors. This study examines the relationships between majority size and this so-called donor’s conformity behavior, by empirically investigating the impacts of multiple earlier donations on the donation of a subsequent donor to JapanGiving, a donation-based crowdfunding platform in Japan. This analysis is possible because the platform’s webpage displays the previous donation amounts in chronological order, thus allowing us to examine the modal amount of more recent donations. By using data on 9989 actual donations, our dynamic panel analysis suggests that when the number of most recent continuous modal donations increases, the likelihood that a subsequent donor matches the modal amount increases. This result supports the notion that a donor’s conformity behavior is more likely to occur when a greater proportion of other donors give a similar amount. Furthermore, the effects of continuous modal donations are strongly observed for low monetary ranges. We interpret that initiating further cooperation among a large number of less cooperative other donors would become harder, or individuals would obtain an excuse for less cooperation due to the others’ behaviors. Finally, we discuss how our findings connect economic studies of charity and social psychology studies of conformity and could help improve the effectiveness of fundraising by charities.