Linearization of inequality indices in the design-based framework

Linearization methods are customarily adopted in sampling surveys to obtain approximated variance formulae for estimators of statistical functionals under the design-based approach. In the present paper, following the Deville [Variance estimation for complex statistics and estimators: linearization and residual techniques. Surv Methodol. 1999;25:193–203] approach stemming from the concept of design-based influence function, we provide a general result for linearizing a large family of population functionals which includes many of the inequality measures considered in social, economic and statistical studies, such as the Gini, Amato, Zenga, Atkinson and Generalized Entropy indices. The feasibility of our theoretical results is assessed by some simulation studies involving real and artificial data.     

初次分配、财政支出对居民收入差距的影响——基于动态面板GMM估计的实证分析

基于2007—2013年省级面板数据构建一个动态面板模型,利用差分矩估计和系统矩估计的方法对初次分配、财政支出结构对居民收入差距的影响进行实证研究.结果表明,现阶段初次分配的结构存在一定程度的不合理情况,会扩大居民收入差距,而农业、医疗卫生支出在财政支出中比重的提升是对收入差距缩小的有利因素.     

Spatial inequality and poverty among American children

National-level statistics often mask extreme spatial differentiation in child poverty. Using county-level data from the 1990 US decennial census summary tape file, we show that child poverty is distributed unevenly over geographic space. Child poverty is concentrated in counties in Appalachia, the Mississippi Delta, and the southern black belt. Child poverty rates are strongly influenced by the local industrial composition (e.g., agriculture and manufacturing), but the effects are largely indirect, operating primarily through reduced employment opportunities among adult workers. High county unemployment and underemployment rates contribute directly to children's economic deprivation, as well as indirectly by undermining the formation and stability of two-parent families. Our results highlight existing spatial differentiation and inequality in children's economic well-being, and provide a point of departure for additional research on the geography of child poverty.     

凸函数的一个定义及分析中的九个不等式

本文从凸函数的一个定义出发,得到了几个重要不等式,进而解决了一些不等式的证明。     

Does housework matter anymore? The shifting impact of housework on economic inequality

In recent years, American women’s housework time has declined while American men’s housework time has risen. We examine how these changes have affected economic inequality in the United States. Using time-diary data from the Time Use in Economic and Social Accounts, 1975–1976 (N = 1,484) and the American Time Use Survey, 2003 (N = 5,534), we value adults’ housework using two alternative methodologies and assess its influence on households’ real access to goods and services in both years. Results suggest that housework reduces economic inequality in both years. But, between 1975–1976 and 2002–2003, overall economic inequality rose largely because of the growing wage inequality and also, in part, because of growth in housework inequality. Socio-demographic change partially inhibited the overall growth in economic inequality.

“98房改”的历史与社会影响：基于利益分化的视角

自1998年全面停止实物分房这一具有里程碑意义的改革开始,中国房地产业得到快速发展,城镇居民的住房条件得到了极大的改善,但住房利益分化也日益突出。“98房改”通过内部市场的方式在将计划经济时期由单位制所决定的住房利益差异固化,并一定程度上使之在住房改革过程中以及改革后的房地产市场中得以放大。尽管从市场角度理解住房利益差异是不可忽略的视角,但历史回溯表明,住房政策及其变动过程本身对利益分化的影响同样不可忽视,并且这种影响也会因为政策设置缺乏预见性而持续作用于改革之后的市场当中。     

The Associations Between Socioeconomic Status,Caregivers' Depressive Symptoms,Children's Health‐Promoting Behavior,and Children's Physical Health: A Mediation Model

The aim of this study was to examine the mediating effects of children's health‐promoting behaviors on the association between socioeconomic status, caregivers' depressive symptoms, and children's physical health outcomes. We used the first wave of “Seoul Education and Health Welfare Panel.” Data were collected from 820 fourth‐grade elementary and first‐year middle school students and their caregivers using self‐administered surveys. Structural equation modeling was employed to analyze the mediating effects of health‐promoting behaviors. Bias‐corrected bootstrap confidence intervals were used to test the mediating effect. The results showed that both low socioeconomic status and caregivers' depressive symptoms were negatively associated with a child's health‐promoting behaviors. Children's health‐promoting behaviors were positively associated with physical health. However, children's physical health was not significantly associated with socioeconomic status but was marginally associated with caregivers' depressive symptoms. We found that children's health‐promoting behaviors significantly mediated associations between both socioeconomic status and children's physical health and between caregivers' depressive symptoms and children's physical health. Based on the findings, we suggest the development and implementation of school‐based, health‐enhancement programs as a means to improve the general health of all children and to reduce health inequalities.     

Labor Mobility Without Pension Portability: Migrant Workers’ Endangered Pension Entitlement in China

This paper investigates migrant workers’ endangered pension entitlement in China from a perspective of political economy. The decentralized pension governance structure in China led to limited portability of the urban pension program. The movement of migrant workers challenges this decentralized governance structure, and have also produced clear winner and loser provinces in the pension program. This study argues that the interests of migrant‐receiving provinces, the winners, became a major obstacle in reforms that sought to address the pension portability problem. The migrant workers’ pension issue has in fact contributed to inter‐regional welfare inequality. This resulting inter‐regional inequality makes any central government's plan on centralizing the pension program a challenging task.     

当下中国学术危机的三大症候

当学术研究中的非学术因素成为一种主导时,不仅带来研究者的精神变异,更带来学术的社会性危机。当下中国学术的危机首先表现为官本位意识导致学术权利与学术地位的不公平,学术身份往往与社会身份乃至政治身份混淆,从而造成行政权力扩大或者置换为学术权利,最后导致学术权利和价值评价的不平等。其次,急功近利的需求导致学科之间的不平等和过度量化的评价机制;再次,主体性缺失导致学术思想的传统性失语和学术道德的当下性失贞。     

Sports Sociology’s Still Untapped Potential

Following up on Zirin’s (2008) challenge that sports sociologists “get off the bench,” and Karen and Washington’s (2001) plea to make sports sociology more central to analyses of social power, this article empirically reviews and assesses the sociology of sports from 1977–2008. Using a sample of 441 articles selected from the three major sports sociology journals during that period, we conclude that sports sociology exhibits a strong and increasing bias toward micro‐level analyses of (for example) how the content of sports frames and constructs the social world. A smaller and shrinking body of work examines more macro‐oriented issues such as the economics and politics of sports, and there seem to be few attempts to meaningfully synthesize these micro and macro orientations. We think this partiality toward micro‐oriented frameworks is rooted in factors unique to sports sociology while also reflecting larger trends within sociology as a whole. As advocates of popularly accessible public sociology, we respectfully suggest that sports sociologists try harder to weave macro analyses into their work, not necessarily replacing micro‐level approaches, but complementing them. We believe that sports sociology is well‐positioned to become a standard bearer for public sociology, but only if it pays more attention to the way organized sports intertwines with the organizational, political, and economic forces that perpetuate and exacerbate social inequality.