On the conditions of authority in academic publics

The discourse of some of the most powerful public figures in today’s world is often incoherent and nonsensical. Incoherent yet authoritative discourse shows that authority does not rest in language but results from non‐linguistic and pre‐textual conditions. The non‐linguistic and pre‐textual conditions are exemplified in an Australian case‐study of a media debate between the Immigration Minister and a refugee, drawing on research by Smith‐Khan (2019a, 2019b). Two such conditions are then examined with reference to academic publics. First, I ask which languages do or do not carry authority, before moving on to speaker identity as a condition of authority. The close association between English and academic excellence has resulted in diminishing the authority of academic publications in languages other than English. The same is true of publications by women and people of colour. I close by reflecting on referencing practices as forms of extending authoritativeness to voices in excluded languages and from excluded scholars in academic publics.     

Celebrating Joan Acker: Sociologist,fearless feminist,friend

Joan Acker's life reflects a time when middle‐class women were expected to be satisfied with maintaining the home front, serving husbands and children, not having paid‐work careers. After living “the ideal” for 37 years, Acker took a new path by earning a Ph. D. and producing path‐breaking scholarship that challenged taken‐for‐granted beliefs about gender, family, work, and organizations. Acker spoke “truth to power” and was an academic heroine in posing feminist challenges to injustices involving gender, social class, and race/ethnicity, particularly (but not solely) related to the workplace. This overview lets Joan tell her story and offers reflections on her milestone publications as seen by Pat Martin.     

Getting low educated and older people into work: The role of fiscal policy

Raising employment, in particular employment among older individuals and low educated individuals, stands high on the agenda of policy makers in many OECD countries. Increased sensitivity in recent years to rising inequality has made the challenge only larger. In this paper we evaluate alternative fiscal policy scenarios to face this challenge. We construct and use an overlapping generations model for an open economy where individuals differ not only by age, but also by innate ability and human capital. The model allows us to study effects on aggregate employment, per capita income and welfare, as well as effects for specific age and ability groups. We show that well-considered fiscal policy changes can significantly improve macroeconomic productive efficiency, without increasing intergenerational or intragenerational welfare inequality. Our results strongly prefer a reduction in the labor tax rate on older workers and on all low-wage earners, financed by an overall reduction in non-employment benefits. An alternative financing option is to raise the consumption tax rate. These results are to be seen as long-run effects for economies at potential output.     

市场化转型下的住房不平等——基于CGSS2006调查数据

基于CGSS2006调查数据,运用多层线性模型分析方法,揭示了市场化改革对住房不平等程度,以及住房资源分配机制的影响作用。研究表明,在地区层面,地区市场化的推进虽然有效提高居民的住房水平,但在一定时期内也拉大住房资源分配的贫富差距,地区市场化水平与住房不平等程度之间存在倒“U”型曲线关系;在个体层面,体制内外职工的住房差异已不显著,但政治精英在住房资源的占有上更具优势。     

Informatization, voter turnout and income inequality

In recent years, voter turnout has been decreasing in most industrial countries, and about 40% of all electors abstain from voting. This may affect income inequality and the GDP growth rate through a redistribution policy determined by majority voting. In this paper, we explore the reasons for this continuing decrease in voter turnout and assess its social costs. We conclude that informatization lowers voter turnout by generating an information overload, and that a decrease in voter turnout lowers GDP growth by limiting income redistribution.      

Ethnic‐Controlled Economy or Segregation? Exploring Inequality in Latina/o Co‐Ethnic Jobsites1

Recent research has increasingly focused on how ethnicity operates within labor markets. Due to perceptions of intragroup homogeneity and assumptions that inequality only occurs between majority whites and people of color, most research has neglected intragroup economic inequality. This study examines how skin color, immigration/nativity status, and gender influence wage differentials in Latina/o co‐ethnic jobsites (where workers are the same ethnicity). Using data from the Los Angeles Study of Urban Inequality (LASUI), it is found that there are skin color, immigration/nativity status, and sex wage gaps among Latina/os working in co‐ethnic jobsites. Moreover, illustrating intersectionality, immigrant women and dark‐skinned immigrants suffer from wage gaps in co‐ethnic jobsites. Unexpectedly, some Latinas experience a wage advantage, in comparison with Latinos, which is associated with lighter skin. The author suggests that Latinas are subjected to multiple‐jeopardy situations in which they experience an intersection of inequalities in jobsites saturated by co‐ethnics but that lightness of skin color functions as a form of social capital. Thus, research on the benefits or costs associated with working with co‐ethnics cannot be extended to the entire ethnic group. The conclusion is that for Central Americans and Mexicans, co‐ethnic jobsites are generally forms of segregated employment with limited protection from discrimination.     

Public Attitudes towards Income Redistribution: Evidence from Hong Kong

The drivers of public support for redistributive policy have stimulated academic debate around the world. The majority of studies use cross‐country surveys conducted in the Organisation for Economic Co‐operation and Development countries to contribute to the debate on whether self‐interest or social values have more influence on public attitudes towards redistribution. Drawing on a phone survey conducted in 2013, this study advances the discussion by investigating public attitudes towards redistribution and social policy changes against the backdrop of buoyant government revenues in Hong Kong. The Hong Kong welfare model, best seen as a parallel to the liberal welfare state, is selective and residual. Contrary to the usual assumption, the social values hypothesis, viewing poverty as societal problems instead of individual reasons, has been supported in the Hong Kong context. It lends support to greater redistribution in a residual welfare state. The policy implications of the findings are also discussed.     

Testing monotonic equilibrium residual entropy of N-State Random Evolution

In this study, we propose an information measure of uncertainty associated with the random equilibrium residual lifetime of a system driven by N-State Random Evolution. A U-statistic test driven by a moment inequality is proposed for testing the hypothesis that the uncertainty of equilibrium remaining life of a system remains unchanged (when system is in the steady state) against the alternative situation when system’s equilibrium residual life has increasing uncertainty over time (i.e., the life distribution has Increasing Equilibrium Residual Entropy property). Some numerical results such as tabulated critical values and empirical power of the proposed test statistic are presented as well.     

中国高等教育中的自主招生与人才选拔：来自北大、清华和人大的发现

本文通过对“首都大学生成长追踪调查”中三所精英大学（北京大学、清华大学和中国人民大学）具有代表性样本的数据分析,从教育公平和人才选拔效率两个角度检验了自主招生政策实施的效果。研究结果表明,从教育公平的方面来讲,获得自主招生破格录取的学生更有可能来自父母受过高等教育的家庭、城市家庭和好的重点高中。从人才选拔效率的角度来讲,获得自主招生破格录取学生的学业表现、社会活动能力、非认知能力、毕业后的计划和实际去向与统招学生却并无显著差别。本文的发现对于如何完善自主招生政策、促进教育公平、科学选拔和培养优秀人才等议题具有重要的政策启示意义。     

“农转非”、人力资本回报与收入不平等——基于分位数回归分解的方法

随着中国城镇化进程的推进,越来越多的农村户籍人口实现了身份转换,成为制度认可的新市民。本文利用中国综合社会调查（CGSS）数据发现,即使户口状况相同,"新市民"与"老市民"之间依然存在一定的收入差距。分位数回归及其分解的结果显示,"农转非"人群在劳动力市场上仍受到制度性或非制度性歧视,且歧视程度随着分位数的变化呈现倒U型趋势。同时,"农转非"人群内部也存在较大的差异,歧视降低了自致型"农转非"人群相较于城市原居民的禀赋优势,而外致型"农转非"人群则面临人力资本劣势与就业市场歧视的双重压力。