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Gender norms, roles and relations differentially affect women, men, and non-binary individuals' vulnerability to disease. Outbreak response measures also have immediate and long-term gendered effects. However, gender-based analysis of outbreaks and responses is limited by lack of data and little integration of feminist analysis within global health scholarship. Recognising these barriers, this paper applies a gender matrix methodology, grounded in feminist political economy approaches, to evaluate the gendered effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and response in four case studies: China, Hong Kong, Canada, and the UK. Through a rapid scoping of documentation of the gendered effects of the outbreak, it applies the matrix framework to analyse findings, identifying common themes across the case studies: financial discrimination, crisis in care, and unequal risks and secondary effects. Results point to transnational structural conditions which put women on the front lines of the pandemic at work and at home while denying them health, economic and personal security – effects that are exacerbated where racism and other forms of discrimination intersect with gender inequities. Given that women and people living at the intersections of multiple inequities are made additionally vulnerable by pandemic responses, intersectional feminist responses should be prioritised at the beginning of any crises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Hospital Authority (HA) is a statutory body managing all the public hospitals and institutes in Hong Kong (HK). In recent decades, Hong Kong Hospital Authority (HKHA) has been making efforts to improve the healthcare services, but there still exist some problems like unfair resource allocation and poor management, as reported by the Hong Kong medical legislative committee. One critical consequence of these problems is low healthcare efficiency of hospitals, leading to low satisfaction among patients. Moreover, HKHA also suffers from the conflict between limited resource and growing demand. An effective evaluation of HA is important for resource planning and healthcare decision making. In this paper, we propose a two-phase method to evaluate HA efficiency for reducing healthcare expenditure and improving healthcare service. Specifically, in Phase I, we measure the HKHA efficiency changes from 2000 to 2013 by applying a novel DEA-Malmquist index with undesirable factors. In Phase II, we further explore the impact of some exogenous factors (e.g., population density) on HKHA efficiency by Tobit regression model. Empirical results show that there are significant differences between the efficiencies of different hospitals and clusters. In particular, it is found that the public hospital serving in a richer district has a relatively lower efficiency. To a certain extent, this reflects the socioeconomic reality in HK that people with better economic condition prefers receiving higher quality service from the private hospitals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Economic cooperation between Hong Kong and Mainland China, especially Guangdong province, has flourished since the establishment of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region in 1997. The landmark is the conclusion of the Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement (CEPA) between Hong Kong and the Mainland in 2003. CEPA covers liberalisation of trade in goods, liberalisation of trade in services, mutual recognition of professional qualifications, and other trade facilitation measures. This paper uses the collaborative governance regime framework to analyse the economic cooperation between Hong Kong and Mainland China under CEPA. This case shows that if there are environmental conditions generating incentives for both parties to cooperate, a committed leadership on both sides to drive the regime, and institutional arrangements that could facilitate the collaborative dynamics, effective collaboration between players from different political and institutional backgrounds can still be achieved. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The growth of urban centres all over the world creates major concerns for the designers, architects and environmentalist. But the growth of Chinese cities, Hong Kong in particular is of greater concern considering the rapid population and economic growth of the country. Considering the challenge of Hong Kong city as one of the recent metropolitan cities of the world with the growing challenges of housing, informal settlement, public space and infrastructure adequacy this study is inevitable at this moment. This paper investigates, the nature of informal settlement and the adequacy of infrastructure provision in Hong Kong; and assess socio-economic characteristics of such settlement to foster the required future urban growth that is resilient and sustainable. The study adopts case study methodology, mixed methods exploratory approach of data collection and analysis. Primary source of data collection through the use of reconnaissance survey, observation, direct interaction with resident and stakeholders of selected settlements with the support of literature search (secondary data) were adopted. Data were analysed, interpreted, and results integrated to reflect the characteristics of informal settlement and infrastructure adequacy in Hong Kong urban centres for future resilience. Recommendations were made according to the research findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Folk economics has become increasingly influential in today's era, where laypeople can (inter)actively deconstruct official discourse and form their truth in social media. This article examines the formation and popularization of folk economics by investigating the localized China collapse theory known as zhibao in one of the most influential online forums in Hong Kong. By analyzing the popularization of zhibao as citizen curation – the subjective and non-professional collection, assessment, and criticism of information by participants in online discussions for the benefit of the group – this article questions the dichotomy between folk economics and mainstream economics, arguing that laypeople may selectively appropriate conventional economics into their discourse. Furthermore, by investigating the citizen curation of zhibao diachronically, this article suggests that online discussion participants' attention to the credibility of the news sources may be negatively related to the credibility of the discourse they are curating. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: China has witnessed a rapid increase of cesarean section (CS) rates in recent years. Several non-clinical factors have been cited as contributing to this trend including maternal request and perceived convenience. We aimed to assess preferences for mode of delivery and reasons for preferences for CS in China to inform the development of future interventions to mitigate unnecessary CSs, which are those performed in the absence of medical indications.Methods and Findings: We conducted a mixed-methods systematic review and included longitudinal, cross-sectional, and qualitative studies in mainland China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan that investigated preferences for mode of delivery among women and family members and health professionals, and the reasons underlying such preferences. We searched MEDLINE/PubMed, Embase, CINAHL, POPLINE, PsycINFO, Global Health Library, and one Chinese database (CNKI) using a combination of the key terms 'caesarean section', 'preference', 'choice', 'knowledge', 'attitude', 'culture', 'non-clinical factors', and 'health professionals-patient relations' between 1990 and 2018 without language restriction. Meta-analysis of quantitative studies and meta-synthesis of qualitative studies were applied. We included 66 studies in this analysis: 47 quantitative and 19 qualitative. For the index pregnancy, the pooled proportions of preference for CS reported by women in longitudinal studies were 14% in early or middle pregnancy (95% CI 12%-17%) and 21% in late pregnancy (95% CI 15%-26%). In cross-sectional studies, the proportions were 17% in early or middle pregnancy (95% CI 14%-20%), 22% in late pregnancy (95% CI 18%-25%), and 30% postpartum (95% CI 19%-40%). Women's preferences for CS were found to rise as pregnancy progressed (preference change across longitudinal studies: mean difference 7%, 95% CI 1%-13%). One longitudinal study reported that the preference for CS among women's partners increased from 8% in late pregnancy to 17% in the immediate postpartum period. In addition, 18 quantitative studies revealed that some pregnant women, ranging from 4% to 34%, did not have a straightforward preference for a mode of delivery, even in late pregnancy. The qualitative meta-synthesis found that women's perceptions of CS as preferable were based on prioritising the baby's and woman's health and appeared to intensify through interactions with the health system. Women valued the convenience of bypassing labour because of fear of pain, antagonistic relations with providers, and beliefs of deteriorating quality of care during labour and vaginal birth, fostering the feeling that CS was the safest option. Health professionals' preference for CS was influenced by financial drivers and malpractice fears. This review has some limitations, including high heterogeneity (despite subgroup and sensitivity analysis) in the quantitative analysis, and the potential for over-reporting of women's preferences for CS in the qualitative synthesis (due to some included studies only including women who requested CS).Conclusions: Despite a minority of women expressing a preference for CS, individual, health system, and socio-cultural factors converge, contributing to a high CS rate in mainland China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. In order to reduce unnecessary CSs, interventions need to address all these non-clinical factors and concerns.Systematic Review Registry: Prospero CRD42016036596. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Births outside marriage (BoM) account for around 15% of all births globally. However, the distribution around the world is very uneven, as are cultural and political attitudes towards them. Studies from East Asia have shown that the percentage of such births is very low, with only modest increases in recent years. The orthodox demographic view holds that the maintenance of conservative views around the relationship between marriage and childbearing can play a role in keeping fertility low. Prenuptial pregnancies (PNP) (where births occur within eight months of marriage) have been identified as a growing phenomenon in Japan, possibly being an ‘alternative’ Asian pathway to family formation. As yet, no comprehensive statistical analysis of the trends of BoM or PNP has been performed for Hong Kong. Using a comprehensive microdata set of birth registration in Hong Kong from 1984–2015 (N = 1,680,831) we provide evidence of recent trends in such ‘alternative pathways’ to family formation and examine predictors through regression analysis. Our results indicate, in common with elsewhere in East Asia, low overall period rates of either BoM or PNP (although the latter has risen notably in recent years). While more recent birth cohorts exhibit higher prevalence of such births, their incomplete nature and higher expected propensity suggests that the figures are exaggerated. In our regression analysis, we find that lower educational attainment is a strong predictor of both BoM and PNP, suggesting that a bifurcation of experience may be occurring. This adds further evidence to the theory that the maintenance of traditional family formation systems in the context of revolutionised educational and work opportunities for women mean that the opportunity costs of the ‘marriage package’ become too high. Current disparities in rights and privileges between married and unmarried parents–and especially their children–means that targeted family planning services and support for vulnerable families are policy priorities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT Prior research on counterfeit purchase behavior focuses on two attitudinal functions (social-adjustive and value-expressive) and ignores the others (e.g., ego-defensive, knowledge, and utilitarian), despite growing evidence that consumers' attitudes toward a product category may serve multiple functions. We address this research gap with an extended conceptual framework that incorporates all the five attitudinal functions and explores their direct and indirect effects on counterfeit product evaluation and purchase intention. A field study with 890 shoppers in Hong Kong, a popular market for both genuine and counterfeit brands, supports most hypotheses and provides useful insights into the complex sociopsychological mechanism driving counterfeit purchase behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on findings of a study on neoliberalization and community development practices in Hong Kong, China, as of January 2017. It states that neoliberalism has been a dominant force for change in the policies and practices affecting many aspects of society, and mentions that community development services have undergone significant changes under the influence of neoliberalization. It notes that significance of development of entrepreneurial skills and capacities.

Purpose As the Chinese Government is planning to transform the economy from an export-oriented economy into a consumption-oriented economy, the impact of Chinese consumers to the economy will become more and more important. However, there is a lack of literature on Chinese consumers’ behavior and the critical factors of shopping malls in China. Hence, this study aims to determine the critical factors of a shopping mall in an urban complex in China from customers’ perspective, using Nanjing Wanda Plaza as an example for our case study.Design/methodology/approach This study carries out ranking analysis and factor analysis to determine the critical factors of the shopping mall. Then cluster analysis is applied to divide the customers into three segments, showing the importance of each factor to different customer segments. Furthermore, correspondence analysis is conducted to investigate the relationship between customer segments and customer characteristics (gender, occupation, age and income). This method can show how customer characteristics affect the critical factors of the shopping mall.Findings Sensual enjoyable shoppers consider the “soft factors” to be superior to the “hard factors”, whereas the pragmatic shoppers are just the opposite.Originality/value This study can serve as a useful reference for developers in designing shopping malls in urban complexes to attract more customers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mairead Black and Sohinee Bhattacharya discuss research findings on preferences for cesarean delivery in Asian settings and share their Perspective on facilitating woman-centered birth choices in China following the end of the one-child policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We analyse the effects of a recent financial reform (Shanghai-Hong Kong Stock Connect) that enables cross-market investment between Hong Kong and Shanghai stock exchanges. Using a VECM, we find that the reform announcement considerably narrows the equilibrium level of price disparity and strengthens the price comovement of shares that are cross-listed in both markets. The estimated equilibrium relationship is in support of the relative law of one price. We find that both markets adjust in response to a disequilibrium in price disparity, leading to a sizeable error correction activity. The Shanghai market contributes to approximately two-thirds of the price discovery process. Competition and informativeness of trading affect the relative role of price discovery in each market. Finally, the reform implementation reinforces the long-run cointegration relationship and strengthens the short-run price comovements of cross-listed stocks despite the widening price disparity during the period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This chapter introduces demographic variables in empirical regression to help find whether demographic changes have an impact on economic growth. There is evidence from estimated values in this chapter to suggest that there is no impact that demographic changes in Hong Kong is affecting the economic growth. The population growth has purely a transition impact where the fertility rate was low in early 2000 up to 2015 as the size of the dependency ratio increases. Besides testing demographic variables the government emphasises better education for all people of ages for prosperous growth but in fact has a negative response on educational investment on the growth of the economy. A well-educated country individual does not suggest a higher productivity in economy growth. An important implication is that there has been no single variable as yet that has seriously impacted the economy growth, but there will be changes in the coming years and has to be attended in result to avoid a diminishing economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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In this article, we investigate the impacts of futures and options markets on the volatility of the underlying market. Unlike earlier studies, the focus is on their persistence over time. Tests on the Hang Seng index yield several interesting results that often contrast with previous findings. Empirical results suggest that the quality of new information generated by derivative trading determines the impacts on the spot market volatility. The futures market provides new, material information reducing spot market volatility. The Options market, on the other hand, generates noisy information and distorts price, which is followed by an increase in volatility and a decrease in its sensitivity to price change. While the impact of futures persists, that of options mostly disappears as the market matures. Our conjecture is that the futures market is mainly driven by informed, experienced participants, while the options market attracts new, inexperienced investors. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Resources such as education and social networks are likely to contribute to migrants' upward mobility in the class hierarchy. Moreover, according to structural fit theory, the contribution tends to be contingent on age and social network size. The contingency is the major concern of the present study of mainland Chinese migrants in Hong Kong, which is somewhat different from the Chinese mainland economically, politically and even culturally. In this study, we show that the conditions for upward mobility are some human and social resources and their various combinations. Notably, schooling after arrival in Hong Kong contributed more to the upward mobility of the migrant who was younger or had a larger social network at the time of arrival in Hong Kong. Purportedly, promoting the migrant's integration with the school and local social network would prepare the migrant for upward mobility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]