Working part‐time: achieving a successful ‘work‐life’ balance?1

The role of part-time employment in the balancing of women's employment and family lives has generated an immense literature. Using data on women working part-time and full-time in different level occupations in the British Household Panel Survey, this paper argues that it is now vital to move these balancing debates on from their location within work-family rhetoric and to re-position the study of women's working time in broader work-life discussions. Work-family debates tend to neglect a number of key domains that women balance in their lives, in addition to family and employment, including their financial security and their leisure. The paper shows that examining the financial situations and the leisure lives of female part-timers in lower level jobs reveals a less positive picture of their 'life balancing' than is portrayed in much work-family literature. Instead, they emerged as the least financially secure employees and, linked to this, less satisfied with their social lives too. It is concluded that since the work-life system is multi- and not just two-dimensional, it is important to examine how all life domains interrelate with each other. In this way, we would be in a better position to begin to assess all the benefits and disadvantages associated with working part-time and with other work-life balancing strategies.     

反垄断视野下的民间金融制度探析

中国民间金融历史久远,随着现代市场经济的发展,其已经大规模存在,并对我国中小企业融资和正规资本相对缺乏的农村发展起着重要作用.民间金融的发展并不缺乏法律认可上的障碍,而是在制度和法律保障上存在缺陷,这主要是由于国有正规金融机构对金融业的垄断导致.打破金融垄断,让民间金融进入正规金融体制内并享有公平竞争的权利是民间金融制度建设急需解决的问题.反垄断视角下的民间金融制度设计包括:根据WTO法律框架对内开放金融业;降低金融业准入门槛;完善金融业反垄断立法.