Search

Literature in population and development studies has examined the positive effects of rural-urban migration on the livelihoods and living standards of migrant workers. Less attention has been paid to the rural households trapped in poverty despite having family members working in the city. Drawing on a survey of rural households in the north of Jiangsu province, China, this paper examines how migration and an urban income affect the consumption patterns of poor rural households. The results confirm that among the rural poor, households with migrating members tend to have higher disposable incomes than immobile households. However, considerably higher living costs in the city compel these migrant households to be frugal and often split the family between the city and the rural home to minimize total household expenditures. Their incomes are often depleted by the costs of essential goods and services, such as housing, education, medication, transport, and other daily necessities. The findings reflect that many of China's poorest rural households are on the horns of a dilemma—having a job in the city mitigates poverty but often leads to the misery of family separation and the need to endure harsh living conditions for family members in the city. This urges policy changes to facilitate family migration and enhance rural welfare and resource provisions, especially in healthcare and education. • Migration affects the consumption patterns of poor rural households. • Urban livelihoods mitigate poverty but cause family separation and substandard living. • Policy recommendations to facilitate family migration and enhance education and healthcare. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The southeast region of China is frequently affected by summer heat waves. Nanjing, a metropolitan city in Jiangsu Province, China, experienced an extreme 14-day heat wave in 2013. Extreme heat can not only induce health outcomes in terms of excess mortality and morbidity (hospital admissions) but can also cause productivity losses for self-paced indoor workers and capacity losses for outdoor workers due to occupational safety requirements. All of these effects can be translated into productive working time losses, thus creating a need to investigate the macroeconomic implications of heat waves on production supply chains. Indeed, industrial interdependencies are important for capturing the cascading effects of initial changes in factor inputs in a single sector on the remaining sectors and the economy. To consider these effects, this paper develops an interdisciplinary approach by combining meteorological, epidemiological and economic analyses to investigate the macroeconomic impacts of heat waves on the economy of Nanjing in 2013. By adopting a supply-driven input-output (IO) model, labour is perceived to be a key factor input, and any heat effect on human beings can be viewed as a degradation of productive time and human capital. Using this interdisciplinary tool, our study shows a total economic loss of 27.49 billion Yuan for Nanjing in 2013 due to the heat wave, which is equivalent to 3.43% of the city's gross value of production in 2013. The manufacturing sector sustained 63.1% of the total economic loss at 17.34 billion Yuan. Indeed, based on the ability of the IO model to capture indirect economic loss, our results further suggest that although the productive time losses in the manufacturing and service sectors have lower magnitudes than those in the agricultural and mining sectors, they can entail substantial indirect losses because of industrial interdependencies. This important conclusion highlights the importance of incorporating industrial interdependencies and indirect economic assessments in disaster risk studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Housing problems in China have recently aroused wide range of interests of scholars. Housing demand, which is a classical discussing point in academia, also acts as reference for governments to enact loose, tense or neutral housing policies. However, studies scrutinizing the housing demand structure, particularly from consumption and investment perspectives are scant. Existing researches have mostly focused on the mature housing market in large cities in China, and the housing market in small cities has rarely been addressed. In this study, housing demand is deliberated in two respective dimensions of rent/own and consumption/investment demand. Price elasticities are obtained through formulating demand functions of each demand category with micro-data collected through questionnaire survey in small cities in Jiangsu. Underpinned by the set of elasticity coefficients, detailed housing demand structure can be calculated proportionately. Results suggest that the improvement and investment housing needs have outweighed basic consumption demand in small cities in Jiangsu Province. Housing price rising has a promoting effect on residential housing demand, which is in stark contrast to the existing studies on price elasticity of housing demand in large cities in China. Factors of urbanization significantly influence the housing need of residents in small cities. Improvement of urbanization rate would contribute to the consumption demand booming while prosperity of tertiary industry would boost improvement and investment housing demand. Not only could the analytic methodology of housing demand structure demonstrated in this paper be referenced, but the empirical answers carry vital implications for governments implementing diverse policy design in large and small cities in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary This paper examines the evolution of Chinese rural industry since the rural reform in the late 1970s and revisits the debate on the role of ownership. Based on a case study of W county in southern Jiangsu province as well as drawing on national data, the author shows that the community-based market dynamic had been a key factor in the expansion of rural enterprises and that its weakening in recent years has led to the closing of village enterprises and deindustrialization of the countryside. Large-scale land expropriation, sponsored by local government, is the principal factor responsible for the change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China has undergone economic and political restructuring in the post-socialist era under the background of globalization. At the same time, its provincial governments have mobilized various forms of booming North–South City-to-city (C2C) cooperation within their respective jurisdictions during the last ten years. This paper investigates the dynamics behind such cooperation through a case study of the Suzhou-Suqian Industrial Park in Jiangsu, with the aim of enriching and diversifying debates about the changing roles and functions of China’s provincial government and introduction of market in the North–South C2C cooperation. Several scholars argued that the roles and functions of the provincial government have weakened with China’s neoliberal shifts, whereas others insist that they have maintained a strong role in local governance. The findings of this study do not support an absolute distinction between these two sides. A diverse trend is identified when look into this argument in terms of goals and approaches. It is found that the regulation power of provincial government continues to have strong goals, but its approaches are changing from a direct to a market-oriented one. The debate about the balance between market power and government intervention under China’s context has been receiving attention as well. It is found that in discussing which driving force is more important in the local cooperation programme, the conclusion varies in different stages of the cooperation process. Results support the importance of introducing market in the North–South C2C development cooperation under China’s context. Although the booming North–South City-to-city cooperation mobilized by China’s provincial government is derived from the national slogan of reducing regional disparity, local governments are also seizing the opportunity and using the top-down scheme to solve local development bottlenecks and crises as well as to reposition the jurisdictions amidst the yardstick competition. Such cooperation prevents interprovincial industrial relocation to a certain extent; thus, it has considerable influence on China’s industrial transfer paths and its economic restructuring pattern. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Pyrethroid pesticides are widely used throughout the world in agriculture to protect crops and in public health to control diseases. Of particular concern is exposure of pregnant women and their fetuses because little is known about the potential developmental hazards of such exposure. Several studies have detected internal pyrethroid exposure in urine both in adults and children, but few published data are available on metabolites in pregnant women. The present paper provides data on pyrethroid pesticides exposure based on questionnaire items and measurement of maternal urinary metabolite levels among 1149 pregnant women living in agricultural area of Jiangsu Province, China in 2009–2010, none of which reported occupational exposure to pyrethroid insecticides during pregnancy. To assess exposure to pyrethroid pesticides, urine specimens were analyzed for three main metabolites of 3-phenoxybenzoic acid (3-PBA), cis-and-trans-3-(2,2-dichlorovinyl)-2,2-dimethylcyclopropane-1-carboxylic acid (cis-DCCA and trans-DCCA) using a gas chromatography–mass spectrometry method. The limits of detection for three pyrethroid metabolites were 0.1μg/L. All pyrethroid metabolites were found in more than 94.0% of the urine samples. Median unadjusted and creatinine-adjusted values for urinary pyrethroid metabolites in these females were 1.01μg/L and 1.55μg/g Cre for 3-PBA, 0.44μg/L and 0.69μg/g Cre for cis-DCCA, 1.17μg/L and 1.86μg/g Cre for trans-DCCA, respectively. About half (45.5%) of women reported that they or family members had applied commercially available indoor insecticides during pregnancy. Both the questionnaire and laboratory data revealed that exposure to pyrethroid pesticides was considerably widespread in our subjects. The median values of urinary metabolites in the present study were about 4–10 times higher as those of general population from the developed countries. Interestingly, we found there was a temporal season variation tendency in different months. Especially, the levels of urinary metabolites in summer were significant higher than those in winter. These data indicated the need to assess the potential adverse effects of pyrethroid pesticides exposure on fetuses and infants in order to take adequate measures to protect pregnant women from pesticide exposures during pregnancy. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The GreenWatch program has been implemented nationally in China. However, whether the program and its process have been effective in improving firms'' environmental performance remains unclear. Based on the stakeholder theory, this paper conducts a comparative analysis between firms participating in the program and those that do not, all of which are based in Changshu City in the developed part of Jiangsu Province, China. Data suggest that GreenWatch encourages firms to improve and disclose their environmental performance. Through pressures imposed by different stakeholders—from the government, investors, and consumers, to the public, such as the community and media—this program has become the main driving force for improving the firms'' environmental performance. The current study also provides substantial evidence that public disclosure in China opens up channels for effective public participation. Therefore, the GreenWatch program deserves to be promoted in China. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Research on the social mobility of rural migrants in China has focused on the effect of urban jobs. Rural landholdings are considered almost irrelevant, given the minimal revenue generated from agriculture and the ban on rural land transactions. Yet recent decades have seen policy reforms and new development initiatives that have allowed for more profitable land uses and requisition terms, which unlock the potential of rural land. The retention of rural land may affect the lives of rural citizens, including those who have migrated to the city. This paper explores the potential effects of landholdings on the social mobility of rural migrants in Jiangsu with respect to occupation, housing, and income. The possession of rural landholdings is found to be associated with the mobility choices and life outcomes of rural migrants. Rural land, which has not been seen as a main driver of social mobility, may be sorting rural citizens into different localities and social classes. • Juxtaposes and relates rural migrants' mobility choices with rural landholdings. • Contributes to the social mobility literature from a multi-sited perspective. • Explores potential effects of landholdings on the social mobility of rural-to-urban migrants. • Associates the geography of rural landholdings with the mobility choices and life outcomes of rural migrants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Global warming caused by greenhouse gases (GHG) emissions has become a paramount problem for all countries to solve. The construction industry emits 36 percent of the GHG in all sectors globally. China is the largest carbon emitter in the world, and Jiangsu province has been used as a test bed for reforming and developing modern construction industry in China. The aim of the study is to explore the driving factors of the total carbon emissions from the construction industry (CECI) in the provincial region using a hybrid Logarithmic Mean Divisia Index (LMDI) model. The findings of the study indicate that: 1) Indirect and operational CECI account for the largest proportion (52.22% and 46.02% in 2016 respectively); 2) The driving factors of CECI in Jiangsu province are the area factor (contribution from 2005 to 2016 is 100.22%) and the output value intensity factor (86.56%) while the restraining factor is the carbon emission intensity (−80.35%). Discussion and implicated policies, such as improving the energy efficiency of related industries and using green building materials have been elaborated at the end of the study. The decomposition and calculation method presented in this paper provides a useful tool for policymakers to evaluate CECI of a province or state and formulate appropriate carbon policies to reduce emissions and promote low-carbon development in a region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The resource utilization of crop straw is related to the green development of agriculture and the development of the rural ecological environment. Given a background of tightening agricultural environmental constraints, realizing the effective utilization of straw resources has become a real-world problem in China urgently requiring a solution. Straw incorporation is an effective way to effectively utilize straw resources. This paper quantitatively analyzed the impact of household land endowment and environmental cognition on farmers' willingness to implement straw incorporation (FWSI) by using household survey data from Jiangsu Province in China and an ordered logit model. The results reveal that straw incorporation not only needs to be considered at the technical level but also needs to start with household land endowment and environmental cognition. There is a close relationship between household environmental cognition and FWSI, and thus improving environmental cognitive ability can promote FWSI. In contrast to farm size, plot area is an important factor influencing FWSI, and scale farmers are also more concerned about straw incorporation cost than other farmers. The government should provide relevant training to clarify the positive effect of farmers' environmental cognition on straw incorporation and enhance farmers' cognition of the value of straw incorporation in China. Considering the plot area and cost, the government should also vigorously encourage the transfer and integration of adjacent plots, expand the plot area, reduce the cost of straw incorporation for a single plot, and guide social funds toward research on straw purchasing and storage technology. Attention should also be paid to the demonstration role of scale farmers in straw incorporation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]