Gender and Mathematics Achievement in China and the United States

This study examines the relationship between gender and mathematics achievement among students in China and the United States, with an emphasis on the gender gap among mathematically talented students. The results show that in neither the US nor China are there gender differences in eighth grade math-achievement test scores. In China, there are no gender differences in mean college entrance examination math scores among high-school seniors, while in America, the mean SAT-Math score among male high-school seniors has been consistently higher than those of their female counterparts. In both the US and China, there are gender differences among the top math performers on college entrance examinations; boys are over-represented. The Chinese national mathematics curriculum, well-trained teachers, beliefs by students and their parents that academic achievement is more a product of effort than of natural ability, a gender-neutral parental expectation for children’s education, and generous family spending on the education of girls are suggested as possible factors underlying the comparable performance of the Chinese female and male students. The sorting system at Chinese secondary school level and a cultural stereotype favoring boys in mathematics are suggested as possible contributors to the math-achievement gender gap found among the top Chinese high school seniors.

Bridging the Organizational Divide: A Comparative Institutional Analysis of United States and International Humanitarian Service Delivery Structures

Hurricane Katrina, which devastated the New Orleans, Louisiana metropolitan area in August 2005, made many United States citizens more aware of how their national government undertakes its humanitarian relief responsibilities. Many learned for the first time, for example, that the federal government is a secondary responder and attends to natural disasters only when states and localities request such support and assistance. That U.S. framework and the international relief implementation structure are remarkably similar. This paper compares and contrasts these two aid implementation approaches with an eye to clarifying their similarities and differences and to identifying how each might better be understood for the future to secure improved coordination and more effective outcomes.

A critical disjuncture? The culmination of post-World War II socio-demographic and economic trends in the United States

This essay examines the consequences of major social, demographic and economic trends in the United States since World War II. These include rising women’s employment, the ‘Baby Boom’, the outlines of the so-called ‘new’ immigration, the increasing racial and ethnic diversity deriving from that immigration, the economic contexts in which recent US immigration has occurred, and recent technologically-induced features of global work flows that will condition immigration’s future reception and effects. Women’s wartime work experiences, together with their economic opportunities in the ensuing decades, boosted married women’s autonomy and domestic leverage. Rising economic prosperity encouraged marriage and family formation even as growing employment among married women of childbearing age made having and taking care of large families more difficult. World War II also spawned the expansion of migration to the United States, which in turn converted the country from a largely biracial society with a sizable white majority and a small black minority into a multiracial, multiethnic society with greater racial and ethnic boundary crossing and increasingly blurred colour lines. A major issue is whether currently changing economic conditions and social institutions will support and strengthen such tendencies or instead weaken them. Without robust job growth, the demographic legacy of the baby boom, which now involves ever-rising numbers of retired people, will be more difficult to support, especially given the country’s current fiscal deficits. Greater earnings inequality and weak job growth may also poison the climate for further immigration to the US, thus diminishing the chance that newcomers can continue contributing to the dissolution of fault lines among racial-ethnic groups and to the resolution of periodic labour shortages.     

西南联大与云南现代高等教育

西南联大在昆明驻足8年,对云南现代高等教育的贡献是巨大的。不仅对处于艰难时势中的云南大学提供了巨大的支持,而且还促使云南师范大学的诞生;同时,西南联大学者开启的学术研究路径,为云南乃至中国的学者开辟了广阔的天地。     

"东方主义"与后冷战时期美国的"中国威胁论"

“权力话语方式”是萨义德所称的“东方主义”的含义之一。后冷战时期美国的“中国威胁论”——一个作为整体的有关“中国威胁”的理论和“话语体系”,是长久以来美国的“东方主义”的一部分。敌对的“二元对立式的”世界观和对至上权力的追求从深层次解释了后冷战时代美国出现鼓吹“中国威胁论”的原因     

冷战后美国的中东战略与全球战略评析

冷战后美国全球战略的核心是强化一超地位,建立单极世界;中东以其独特的地缘政治和战略资源地位而受到美国的高度重视;美国中东战略是其全球战略的一部分,并服务于、服从于其全球战略;控制中东油气资源,以军事、经济和文化手段“改造”中东,主导中东和平进程是其中中东战略的主要内容。     

美国赠送西藏当局无线电台事件与美英两国对于西藏地位的分歧

抗日战争后期,围绕赠送西藏当局无线电台事件,美国国务院和军方情报部门发生争执;同时,美国政府与英国政府在西藏地位问题上出现意见分歧,美国政府对于西藏是中国的一部分的认识更加明确。本文主要依据美英两国的档案、文件,参考中文资料,以第二次世界大战为背景,对于上述事件进行介绍与分析。     

国际海底资源开发制度研究

国际海底制度是《联合国海洋法公约》的重要成果与制度,无论在理论上,还是在实践上, 都有研究的意义与价值。各国对待国际海底制度有各自的态度及主张;从国际海底制度的发展过程和国际海底制度的修改来看,该制度具有过程的特征;从中国在国际海底制度方面的实践与成就及发展趋向来看,尚需进一步完善我国海洋开发法制。     

美国是怎样阻挠西藏和平解放的

1950年初,中国中央人民政府准备通过谈判和平解放西藏。美国政府出于反共和冷战的目的,采取种种阴谋手段,始则阻挠西藏当局派代表团与中央政府谈判,继而鼓动英国和印度与其联手破坏中国人民的统一事业,甚至图谋裹胁达赖喇嘛离开西藏。然而,由于党中央和毛主席采取了正确的方针政策,加之西藏上层当中爱国力量的努力,美国政府阻挠西藏和平解放的种种阴谋终于以失败而告终。     

Why Doesn't Technology Flow From Rich to Poor Countries?

What is the role of a country's financial system in determining technology adoption? To examine this, a dynamic contract model is embedded into a general equilibrium setting with competitive intermediation. The terms of finance are dictated by an intermediary's ability to monitor and control a firm's cash flow, in conjunction with the structure of the technology that the firm adopts. It is not always profitable to finance promising technologies. A quantitative illustration is presented where financial frictions induce entrepreneurs in India and Mexico to adopt less‐promising ventures than in the United States, despite lower input prices.