Intergenerational class mobility in contemporary Britain: political concerns and empirical findings

In Britain in recent years social mobility has become a topic of central political concern, primarily as a result of the effort made by New Labour to make equality of opportunity rather than equality of condition a focus of policy. Questions of the level, pattern and trend of mobility thus bear directly on the relevance of New Labour's policy analysis, and in turn are likely be crucial to the evaluation of its performance in government. However, politically motivated discussion of social mobility often reveals an inadequate grasp of both empirical and analytical issues. We provide new evidence relevant to the assessment of social mobility - in particular, intergenerational class mobility - in contemporary Britain through cross-cohort analyses based on the NCDS and BCS datasets which we can relate to earlier cross-sectional analyses based on the GHS. We find that, contrary to what seems now widely supposed, there is no evidence that absolute mobility rates are falling; but, for men, the balance of upward and downward movement is becoming less favourable. This is overwhelmingly the result of class structural change. Relative mobility rates, for both men and women, remain essentially constant, although there are possible indications of a declining propensity for long-range mobility. We conclude that under present day structural conditions there can be no return to the generally rising rates of upward mobility that characterized the middle decades of the twentieth century - unless this is achieved through changing relative rates in the direction of greater equality or, that is, of greater fluidity. But this would then produce rising rates of downward mobility to exactly the same extent - an outcome apparently unappreciated by, and unlikely to be congenial to, politicians preoccupied with winning the electoral 'middle ground'.     

EXPECTATIONS RELATING TO CHILDCARE AMONG FRENCH AND SWEDISH FAMILIES

This paper investigates how policy and values interrelate concerning expectations of childcare based on 80 interviews with 40 families with young children from France and Sweden, respectively. Upbringing, learning and socialization are important expectations among French parents. The results presented here are in line with educational goals that may have been influenced by policy. The findings suggest that France may, in terms of expectations on childcare, still belong to the conservative cluster as categorized by Esping-Andersen (1990 Esping-Andersen, G. 1990. The three worlds of welfare capitalism, Cambridge: Polity Press.  [Google Scholar]), although family policy may differ from that of, for example, Germany and Italy in the same cluster. Swedish parents stress the importance of the individual child as well as pedagogy, thus, indicating compatibility between a parental wish for the individual development of the child and an emphasis on collective care in Swedish family policy.     

关于农民土地权益若干问题的思考

通过对我国改革开放以来仅靠政策支持和财政投入并未使农业落后状况得到根本改变的历史事实的阐述,文章提出将土地权益关系的改革作为增加农民收入、加快农业发展的重要途径,并提出加强土地立法、明确土地制度中的权益关系、规范土地交易、加快土地权益证券化等与土地权益相关的政策建议,以期为实现社会主义新农村的目标提供必要的思路。     

“双积分”政策下汽车制造商竞争定价与减排策略研究

"双积分"政策的实施对汽车制造商的定价决策产生了重要影响。考虑卖方由同时生产燃油车和新能源汽车的制造商1和仅生产新能源汽车的制造商2组成,在消费者低碳偏好和价格竞争影响下分别针对制造商1对燃油车采取和不采取节能减排措施的情况,研究"双积分"政策下汽车制造商的定价策略和减排决策,探讨新能源汽车积分值和积分比例要求对政府和企业决策的作用效果。进一步,通过对不同情形的结果进行分析,得到"双积分"政策的出台、消费者低碳偏好及制造商采取节能减排措施对制造商定价和减排决策带来的变化,并通过算例分析验证了结论。研究结果表明:(1)"双积分"政策可以降低新能源汽车的价格,提高新能源汽车制造商的利润,促进燃油车主动减排。(2)当新能源汽车的需求价格弹性系数和需求交叉价格弹性系数处于较高水平时,政府要制定较高的每台新能源汽车积分值。(3)燃油车的油耗水平存在一个环境属性标准,当油耗水平低于一定值时,随着新能源汽车积分比例要求的不断增大,制造商1选择提高燃油车价格。(4)消费者低碳偏好是提高燃油车减排水平的重要因素,政府可以对减排技术先进的燃油车制造商进行低油耗认证,提高消费者低油耗燃油车需求,激励燃油车制...     

从执行主体角度探寻政策执行失真的原因

政策在执行过程中存在着"有令不行、有禁不止","上有政策,下有对策"等严重妨碍政策目标有效实现的不良情形.公共选择理论认为,把作为微观经济分析出发点的个人作为集体行为的出发点,将个人的选择或决策当作公共选择或集体决策的基础.从个体的角度看,政策执行主体的素质缺陷、信息垄断和利益追求导致了政策执行失真.     

贯彻"新八字方针",提升大学综合竞争力——广州大学实现综合性地方院校跨越式发展的路径选择

“巩固、深化、提高、发展”是教育部提出的高等教育改革和发展的“新八字方针”,广州大学在办学实践中认真探索、大胆实践地方综合性大学快速、协调发展的路子:通过巩固成果、弘扬传统、彰显优势、型构学科专业结构、完善教育教学体系,深化改革、理顺关系、组建团队、形成良好的激励机制、提升教育教学水平,提高质量、重视实践、规范制度、提高教师整体实力、营造良好的学风环境,持续发展、科学定位、对外开放、拓展学校发展空间、规划教学研究型大学发展蓝图等举措,大踏步地向高层次突破,向高水平发展。     

From Birth to Death: A Social Monitoring Framework from New Zealand

The paper begins by outlining the development of social indicators work and social monitoring at the national level in New Zealand and comments on how this relates to the international movement. It describes the 'key' indicators/life stage approach developed by the New Zealand Planning Council in the early 1980s. This exercise continues from a university base and the fourth report in the series, entitled Tracking Social Change in New Zealand was published in early 1998. Examples are presented to show how the results can be used to highlight the policy implications of changing social trends.     

Does the availability of child care influence the employment of mothers? Findings from western Germany

There is a vast empirical literature investigating the effects of child care costson female employment. Day-care costs are usually treated as a reduction infemale wages and are supposed to reduce a woman's propensity to participatein the labor market. In this paper we argue that an analysis of the effects ofchild care on the employment of mothers in Germany should focus on theavailability rather than the affordability of care, due to peculiarities of theGerman day-care regime. Our empirical findings cast doubt on the effectivenessof the current German day-care regime. Specifically, we question the extent towhich it enables mothers to participate in the labor market.     

立足服务 改革基层人口计划管理机制

基层人口计划是各级人口计划的基础 ,也是落实人口计划时的执行计划 ,它直接影响到家家户户。现行基层人口计划的管理措施中 ,有些地方亟待完善。改革现行基层人口计划管理机制 ,让群众自愿选择生育时间已成为计划生育工作发展的必然要求     

大城市低收入老人群体状况分析

本文依据在广州的调查数据 ,揭示了低收入老人的群体特征 ,提出制订老龄政策时 ,适当照顾低收入老人 ,同时动员家庭、单位和社会都来积极关心这部分脆弱群体