Search

In China, the employment problem of higher education, social governance, and economic development is important. Exploring the employment mechanism and distribution of general colleges and universities can provide empirical evidence to the employment generating ability of colleges and universities and also suggestions for the development of regional talent policies. Based on the theories of growth, employment, and structural employment, this study analyzes the influence of macro- and micro-factors on the employment of science and engineering and economics and management graduates, adopting a multiple regression and structural equation model. Although employment of science and engineering and economics and management in general universities is affected by different macro- and micro-factors, the former has both direct and indirect effects on employment, which are stronger than the latter. The employment distribution of science and technology is highly correlated with regional gross domestic product, while the employment distribution of economics and management reflects regional stickiness.

The lack of up-to-date data has hindered recent research on China's income and wealth inequality. This article fills this void by bringing current official and private data sources looking at these inequalities. The authors further investigate the underlying structural and sectoral policies causing these disparities. They find that the top 1% income share roughly equals that of the bottom 50%. The personal wealth share going to the top 1% exceeds by 5 times the wealth going to the bottom 50%. Failures in redistributive policies have primarily caused these growing income and wealth gaps. Sectoral and national development policies favoring the real estate industry at the expense of the manufacturing industry have also resulted in large-scale wealth shifts, with Chinese households holding increasing housing assets and residential mortgages. This article shows that Piketty's patrimonial capitalism not only applies to capitalist countries but also extends to China's socialist market economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using the cross-sectional data from the 2015 and 2021 Yunnan Migrant Workers Urban Integration Survey , this study assesses the different effects of the three types of land rights that migrant workers possess in their rural hometowns on their urban settlement choices in Yunnan, western China. Specifically, it examined the existence of migrant workers moving between urban and rural areas in response to the importance of land rights for rural migrant workers, in western China, a region with the lower level of economic development and fastest growing number of migrant workers in China. After controlling for the impact of other variables, the multinomial Probit model was used to estimate the impact of the migrant workers' land rights in their rural hometowns on their settlement choices in urban areas. We found that rural land rights significantly increased migrant workers' willingness to return to their hometowns. This indicates that land right security is a key factor affecting Yunnan migrant workers' urban settlement intentions, although it is conditional in terms of age groups and places of origin. Importantly, we found that migrant workers in western China are more inclined to keep their dual identities as both urban migrant workers and rural residents. They, hence, are more inclined to rationally allocate their resources between urban and rural areas to maximize their economic outputs. Particularly, they prefer to only working - rather than settling - in urban areas, while retaining their rural land as assets and income sources. Instead of settling in either urban or rural areas, the older migrant workers who migrate to smaller and economically underdeveloped cities are more inclined to drift between urban and rural areas without permanent settlement. This confirms the argument of livelihood resource maximization and migratory bird-type migration as important mechanisms via which land right ownership affects migrant workers' urban settlement intentions. This study suggests that policymakers should consider the land rights of rural migrant workers when making urban settlement policies, especially for small and medium-sized cities, where migrant settlement intention is weaker. Policymakers should also promote the flexibility of rural land use rights transfer and explore reforms concerning the separation of the three types of land rights to achieve a balance between urbanization and land use efficiency, particularly in small and medium-sized cities. • Land rights shape migrant workers' settlement choices in western China. • Older migrants in smaller cities tend to move between urban and rural areas. • Migration strategy is driven by resource maximization based on labor economics. • Land rights influence migration decisions, linking them to settlement choices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How do imports from China affect local labour markets in Japan? We examine this question using commuting zones as regional units and analysing shock propagation through supply chains and co‐location patterns. Applying the method proposed by Autor et al. (American Economic Review, 103, 2121, 2013) and Acemoglu, Autor et al. (Journal of Labor Economics, 34, S141, 2016), we examine the impact of import shocks on regional manufacturing employment using input–output tables which allows us to investigate the propagation of shocks to both upstream and downstream industries and to relate the regional impact to industry co‐location patterns. We find that the negative direct effect on local employment is underestimated in previous studies that do not consider the regional propagation of the shock through supply chains, especially the positive shock to downstream industries. Downstream industries in Japan, for example, significantly benefit from imports from China as they lower input prices and increase employment. In contrast to downstream industries, we find no significant impact on upstream industries. Our results imply that the direct negative effect on local labour markets is somewhat mitigated by effects on downstream industries within the same region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In hilly and mountainous areas of China, landslides are a common geological hazard that threatens agricultural production and has a profound impact on farmers' production behavior. This study aims to understand the natural factors and internal logical mechanisms that lead to farmland abandonment. More specifically, based on a sustainable livelihood framework that couples Marxist land rent theory, the new labor migration economics theory, and the human-land relationship and geographic system theory, this study builds a theoretical analysis framework that: differences in natural environmental shocks lead to differences in livelihood strategy, and then lead to differences in farmland use, which explore the impact of landslides on farmland abandonment and how this impact is affected by the mechanism of off-farm employment. Based on CLDS2014 micro-survey data, the empirical results find that (1) compared with farmers who have not experienced landslides, farmers who experienced landslides abandon a larger area of farmland, (2) Landslides significantly increase the possibility of farmers participating in off-farm employment, (3) Off-farm employment plays an important role in the impact of landslides on farmland abandonment. Thus, this study may help developing counties to further understand rural revitalization, especially to provide reference for disaster management policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We evaluate the direct impact of China trade shock on the Korean labour market following the approach of Acemoglu, Autor, Dorn, Hanson, and Price (Journal of Labor Economics, 2016, 34, S1). Using firm‐ and industry‐level data for the period 1993–2013, our direct estimates imply that the net employment effect of the China shock in the manufacturing sector is the creation of 0.52 million jobs. The positive impact is mostly driven by China's rising demand for intermediate inputs and capital goods from Korea to support its export expansion to the global economy. The import‐competition channel plays a negligible role in manufacturing employment because it creates temporary jobs that merely compensate for the loss in permanent jobs. By contrast, over the same period, the average wage declined by 2.4%, and income inequality, measured as the gap between the high‐ and low‐income quantile, grew substantially in manufacturing. In addition, we find that the direct effect of China shock lowers labour market concentration by shifting workers from big firms to small‐ and medium‐sized firms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nowhere has the scale and scope of urbanization been larger than in China over the last few decades. We analyze Chinese city development between the years 1996 and 2014 using data for the urbanized components of prefecture-level cities. We show that, despite much variability and fast economic and demographic change, China is undergoing transformations similar to the historical trajectory of other urban systems. We also show that the distinguishing signs of urban economies—superlinear scaling of agglomeration effects in economic productivity and economies of scale in land use—also characterize Chinese cities. We then analyze the structure of economic change in Chinese cities using a variety of metrics, characterizing employment, firms and households. Population size estimates remain a major challenge for Chinese cities, as official numbers are often reported based on the Hukou registration system. We use the information in the residuals to scaling relations for economic quantities to predict actual resident population and show that these estimates agree well with data for a subset of cities for which counts of total resident population exist. We conclude with a list of issues that must be better understood and measured to make sense of present urban development trajectories in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper develops two-stage inverse data envelopment analysis models with undesirable outputs to formulate resource plans for 16 Chinese listed commercial banks whose outputs are increased and overall efficiency is kept unchanged in the short term. We use these models to meet three different output targets, namely, increasing both the desirable and undesirable outputs by the same percentage, increasing these outputs by different percentages, and increasing only the desirable outputs while keeping the undesirable outputs unchanged. We find that operation cost and interest expense are more flexible than labor in the adjustment process and that deposits have no obvious law of change. The findings of this work provide some suggestions for bank managers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The existing literature concentrates on the relationship between amenities and migrants or residents. However, only a few studies have focused on the role of city amenities in determining the intentions of rural–urban migrants. Such a relation is a key issue in Chinese urbanisation development. The current study investigates the effects of urban amenities on the settlement intentions of rural–urban migrants in China. We find that medical amenities have a significantly positive effect on rural–urban migrants’ intentions. We also indicate that educational amenities and transportation services attract rural–urban migrants to settle in cities. Furthermore, we explore the heterogeneous effects of amenities on different cohorts by education and age. High- and low-skilled rural–urban migrants focus on transportation amenities, while young and middle–aged migrants are attracted by urban educational amenities. Results suggest that increasing access to urban amenities for rural–urban migrants and improving urban amenities enhance the willingness of rural–urban migrants to stay in cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To discuss how off-farm employment affect the harvesting decision-making of households with different scales in China's collective forest area is valuable to clarifying the forest management objectives for households and the trend of forest management ownership in collective forest area. This can give evidence for supporting the large-scale forest ownership under the background of the fast growing of out-migration rural labors in China. Based on the theory of New Economics of Labor Migration (NELM), this paper collected the input-output data at plot level of Chinese fir management through a survey of 50 rural households in Zhejiang, Fujian and Jiangxi provinces. Then, it calculated the optimal rotation age of largeand small-scale households with the Faustmann model, and used the econometric model to analyze how off- farm employment affect the harvesting decision-making of households with different scales. The results show that there is no obvious difference of optimal rotation age between large-and small-scale households. The migration effect of off-farm employment causing the expect rotation age is obviously smaller than optimal rotation age for small-scale households; on the contrary, the income effect of off-farm employment caused the expect rotation age is significantly closely related with optimal rotation age for large-scale households. Large-scale ownership is more suitable for raising large timbers and increasing economic and ecological value in collective forest area under the fast growing of out-migration rural labors in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite extensive literature on leadership and its impact employee innovative behavior, few studies have explored the relationship between inclusive leadership and employee innovative behavior. To address this gap, this study aimed to investigate how inclusive leadership influenced employee innovative behavior by examining perceived organizational support (POS) as a mediator. We used multi-wave and multi-source data collected at 15 companies in China to test our theoretical model. Results revealed that inclusive leadership had significantly positive effects on POS and employee innovative behavior. Furthermore, POS was positively related to employee innovative behavior and partially mediated the relationship between inclusive leadership and employee innovative behavior. We discussed implications and limitations of this study as well as avenues for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: It has been widely understood that well-trained doctors are crucial for a high-quality public health system and safe patient care. Thus, in 2011, China initiated its first national residency training program, called the China Standardized Training for Resident Doctor (C-STRD), for medical graduates to prepare qualified doctors for the medical care system with increasing demands. So far, no studies have specifically address the prevalence of stress and its determinants among residents enrolled in the C-STRD. Participants and methods: The research is performed in two stages. In stage I, the authors conducted a pilot study and met 112 C-STRD residents in person. Based on the preliminary data, a revised questionnaire was adopted in stage II, during which the authors conducted a multi-institutional, cross-sectional survey of 340 participants from 11 hospitals in Shanghai in a self-administered manner. Results: The results showed that C-STRD residents were overall under severe stress as their mean PSS score was 27.5 ± 4.9, which was higher than the threshold of high stress (PSS = 20). Specifically, the PSS score for the residents with Bachelor (MB), Master (MM) and Doctoral of Medicine (MD) educational degree were 26.6 ± 4.1, 27.8 ± 3.5 and 27.1 ± 5.2, respectively (P>0.05). Their stress was mainly associated with their financial income status and workload, as these two factors caused more severe burden than other listed stressors (P<0.05). Specially, the residents indicated that their montly payroll amout were as low as $590.2 ± 127 while no benefit package and allowance were given. Surprisingly, wage arrears up to 5.3 month were reported by 36 (10%) participants. Workload survey showed the residents has high work intensity and inadequate rest. Since no stress management program was provided, the majority of residents tended to cope their stress with unhealthy strategies, such as mesmerizing in TV/computer (88.2%) and overeating (59.7%). Conclusion: The C-STRD residents are at high risk of perceived stress. Although there was a difference in perception of stress for workload and career future among different educational degree owners, low financial income is the major stressor among all C-STRD residents. Unhealthy stress management strategies were adopted by all residents due to lack of appropriate stress-relieving intervention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Within labour economics, returns to education is an area of focused research. Moreover, amongst studies looking at emerging economies, China is the most widely studied economy. While there is a general consensus that returns to education are positive, studies use various datasets and methodologies and consequently present varying estimates of returns to education. We perform a meta-analysis of these estimates of the returns to education in China, addressing issues of heterogeneity in the existing literature and examining whether variations in reported estimates can be explained by study characteristics such as dataset and estimation methods, among others. The meta-regression results show that variations in reported estimates can be accounted for by study characteristics such as data source, estimation method and sample period, among others. The results support the college premium hypothesis and reveal that the returns to education for college graduates are higher than those for other (lower) levels of education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We exploit a policy‐induced exogenous surge in China's college‐educated workforce that started in 2003 to identify the impact of human capital on productivity. Using a difference‐in‐differences estimation strategy, we find that industries using more human‐capital intensive technologies experienced a larger gain in total factor productivity after 2003 than they did in prior years. Exploring the pathways from human capital increases to TFP growth, we find that these industries also accelerated new technology adoption, as reflected in the importation of advanced capital goods, R&D expenditure and capital intensity, as well as employment of more highly skilled individuals. The productivity gains were weaker for domestic private firms than for foreign‐owned firms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Accidents, bad weathers, traffic congestions, etc. led to the uncertainties of travel times in real-life road networks, which greatly affected the quality of individual’s life and the reliability of transportation system. This paper addressed the school bus routing problem in such a stochastic and time-dependent road environment. Firstly, the problem was set based on a single-school configuration, and the students were picked up at their homes, which was in line with the current situation of school bus systems in China. Thus, it could be regarded as an independent problem of school bus route generation in random dynamic networks, which could be solved as a variant of extended Vehicle Routing Problem. However, due to the fluctuation and uncertainty of link travel times, the arrival time at each stop including the destination was varying. Therefore, the selection of optimal path connecting the current service node with the next one was treated as a sub-problem in this study, where the reliability of travel times in the stochastic and time-varying network was highly concerned by such time-rigid commuters. To this end, a Robust Optimal Schedule Times model with a hard time windows constraint was built to generate a most cost-reliable route for school buses. By the use of Robust Optimization method, it was intended to minimize the worst-case total cost which combined the cost of earlier schedule delays with the disutility of travel times. It was also proved that the proposed model could be converted into solving a conventional problem in deterministic dynamic networks for a reduction of computation complexity, which provided the potential of applying to the practical problems. Finally, the validity of the proposed model and its performance evaluation was analyzed through a small-scale computational instance, where all the link travel times in the simulated network were attributed to both time-varying and stochastic. Then, a mathematical programming solver was used to find the exact optimal solution. The results indicated that the model was valid, and the necessity of considering the stochastic and time-dependent nature of transportation networks was also confirmed in the case study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aimed to examine the effects of active workstation use on the executive function by measuring the three components of executive function (Inhibition, Updating, and Shifting) during sitting, standing, and walking at an active workstation with different speeds. Twenty-four college students completed a cognitive test battery while sitting, standing, walking on an active workstation with a self-selected speed (mean = 2.3 km/h) and a faster speed (mean = 3.5 km/h). The three components of executive function (Inhibition, Updating, and Shifting) were assessed by Stroop task, N-back task, More-odd shifting task, respectively. Performance of each task was determined by the response time and accuracy. Repeated measures ANOVAs were conducted with workstation condition and trial type as within-subjects factors. There were no significant main effects for workstation condition and no interaction between workstation condition × trial type in Stroop task and More-odd shifting task. There was a significant main effect for workstation condition (F (3, 69) = 4.029, p = 0.011) and interaction effect between workstation condition × trial type (F (6, 138) = 9.371, p < 0.001) in N-back task. Decomposition of the interaction showed that accuracy of 2-back task in self-paced walking was significantly lower than that in sitting condition (p = 0.017) and in standing condition (p < .001). But there was no difference in accuracy of 2-back task between self-paced walking condition and faster walking condition (p = 0.517). Our results suggest that using an active workstation may have a selective impact on three components of executive function, in which the Updating may be impaired to a certain extent while the Inhibition and Shifting remain unaffected. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China’s fast economic growth contributes to the rapid development of its urbanization process, and also renders a series of industrial accidents, which often cause loss of life, damage to property and environment, thus requiring the associated risk analysis and safety control measures to be implemented in advance. However, incompleteness of historical failure data before the occurrence of accidents makes it difficult to use traditional risk analysis approaches such as probabilistic risk analysis in many cases. This paper aims to develop a new methodology capable of assessing regional industrial safety (RIS) in an uncertain environment. A hierarchical structure for modelling the risks influencing RIS is first constructed. The hybrid of evidential reasoning (ER) and Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) is then used to assess the risks in a complementary way, in which AHP is hired to evaluate the weight of each risk factor and ER is employed to synthesise the safety evaluations of the investigated region(s) against the risk factors from the bottom to the top level in the hierarchy. The successful application of the hybrid approach in a real case analysis of RIS in several major districts of Beijing (capital of China) demonstrates its feasibility as well as provides risk analysts and safety engineers with useful insights on effective solutions to comprehensive risk assessment of RIS in metropolitan cities. The contribution of this paper is made by the findings on the comparison of risk levels of RIS at different regions against various risk factors so that best practices from the good performer(s) can be used to improve the safety of the others. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: A large number of programs have been implemented in many countries to increase the healthcare workforce recruitment in rural and remote areas. Rural early exposure programs for medical students have been shown to be effective strategies. However, no related studies have been reported before in China. This study was carried out to determine the association between medical students’ participation in rural clinical clerkships and their intentions to choose rural medical work after graduation from western medical schools in China. Methods: Based on a two-stage random sampling method, the cross-sectional survey was carried out in ten western provinces in China. A brief questionnaire filled in by medical students was used for data collection. A total of 4278 medical students participated in the study. The response rate was approximately 90.34%. Pearson’s chi-squared tests and binary logistic regression analyses were performed for data analyses. Results: Approximately 52.0% of medical students disclosed intentions to work in rural medical institutions after graduation. Only one in five participants had experience with a rural clinical clerkship. Rural clinical clerkships were significantly associated with medical students’ intentions to work in rural medical institutions (OR: 1.24, 95%CI: 1.05–1.46); further analyses indicated that such clerkships only had a significant impact among the medical students with an urban background (OR: 2.10, 95%CI: 1.48–2.97). In terms of the sociodemographic characteristics, younger age, low level of parental education, majoring in general practice, and studying in low-level medical schools increased the odds of having intentions to engage in rural medical work among medical students; however, rural origins was the only positive univariate predictor. In addition, the predictors of intentions to choose rural medical work were different between medical students with a rural background and those with an urban background. Conclusions: Rural clinical clerkship is likely to increase the odds of having intentions to work in rural medical institutions after graduation among medical students in western China, especially for those with an urban background. Related policy makers could consider developing compulsory rural clerkship programs and implement them among medical students to increase early rural exposure. [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]

Objectives: Among the dramatic increased internal migration in China in past three decades, a considerable proportion of young females migrated to urban areas and found employment in “entertainment venues”, who may be vulnerable to psychological distress. This study examines the prevalence of depression and explores its associations with health-risk behaviors and social capital among this subgroup. Methods: 358 female migrants were recruited from entertainment venues in a rapidly growing urban city in China. A survey which included measures of depressive symptoms, health-risk behaviors, social capital, and socio-demographic characteristics was administered. Multivariable logistic regression was conducted to identify the independent correlates of depression. Results: Of participants, 31.0% had clinically significant depressive symptoms (CES-D score ≥ 16). In multivariable models, greater likelihood of depressive symptoms was associated with working in massage centers/hotels (OR = 3.20, 95% CI: 1.80–5.70), having probable alcohol dependence (OR = 2.25, 95% CI: 1.22–4.16), self-reported lifetime use of illicit drugs (OR = 2.98, 95% CI: 1.26–7.06), growing up in a non-nuclear family (OR = 2.46, 95% CI: 1.18–5.16), and poor social capital (OR = 6.01, 95% CI = 2.02–17.87). Conclusion: Intervention strategies to address the high prevalence of depression among female migrants are needed, and should also aim to reduce problematic alcohol and drug use, improve social capital, and target women working in massage centers or hotels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper empirically analyzes the factors affecting personal income in urban China using survey data of the "Preference and Life Satisfaction Survey" conducted by the Global COE project of Osaka University from 2009 to 2013. We consider education level as an endogenous variable, and both ordinary least squares (OLS) regression and instrumental variable (IV) regression are performed. We find a number of factors, such as sex, age, education, and marriage that significantly affect personal income. In addition, differences between different occupations are also investigated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To explore the association of working hours and occupational physical activity (OPA) with the occurrence of coronary heart disease (CHD) in a Chinese population. Methods: A total of 595 participants (354 and 241 patients with and without CHD, respectively) aged between 24 and 65 were enrolled in our study, which was conducted at the First Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing Medical University between December 2015 and October 2016. Participant characteristics were collected from face-to-face questionnaires, and logistic regression analysis was conducted to examine the association of working hours and OPA with the occurrence of CHD. Results: Compared with non-employed people, long working hours (especially ≥55 hours/week) contributed to the occurrence of CHD (adjusted odds ratio[OR] = 2.213, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.125, 4.355, P = 0.021) after multivariate adjustment in the Chinese population. With the extension of worktime, the CHD risk increased (P for the dose-response trend = 0.022). Meanwhile, even after adjusting for engagement in physical activity during leisure time, sedentary behavior at work had an adverse effect on CHD risk (adjusted OR = 2.794, 95%CI: 1.526, 5.115, P = 0.001), and a linear relationship was also found between OPA and CHD (P for the trend = 0.005). Conclusions: Long working hours and sedentary behavior at work are associated with a high risk of CHD. In addition, prolonged working hours in sedentary occupations increases the risk of CHD, independent of engagement in leisure time physical activity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Employing the fundamental value of real estate determined by the economic fundamentals, a measurement model for real estate bubble size is established based on the panel data analysis. Using this model, real estate bubble sizes in various regions in Japan in the late 1980s and in recent China are examined. Two panel models for Japan provide results, which are consistent with the reality in the 1980s where a commercial land price bubble appeared in most area and was much larger than that of residential land. This provides evidence of the reliability of our model, overcoming the limit of existing literature with this method. The same models for housing prices in China at both the provincial and city levels show that contrary to the concern of serious housing price bubble in China, over-valuing in recent China is much smaller than that in 1980s Japan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Few studies have looked at the relationship between psychological and the mental health status of pregnant women in rural China. The current study aims to explore the potential mediating effect of negative automatic thoughts between negative life events and antenatal depression. Methods: Data were collected in June 2012 and October 2012. 495 rural pregnant women were interviewed. Depressive symptoms were measured by the Edinburgh postnatal depression scale, stresses of pregnancy were measured by the pregnancy pressure scale, negative automatic thoughts were measured by the automatic thoughts questionnaire, and negative life events were measured by the life events scale for pregnant women. We used logistic regression and path analysis to test the mediating effect. Results: The prevalence of antenatal depression was 13.7%. In the logistic regression, the only socio-demographic and health behavior factor significantly related to antenatal depression was sleep quality. Negative life events were not associated with depression in the fully adjusted model. Path analysis showed that the eventual direct and general effects of negative automatic thoughts were 0.39 and 0.51, which were larger than the effects of negative life events. Conclusions: This study suggested that there was a potentially significant mediating effect of negative automatic thoughts. Pregnant women who had lower scores of negative automatic thoughts were more likely to suffer less from negative life events which might lead to antenatal depression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Global literature has suggested a negative impact of acculturative stress on both physical and mental health among international migrants. In China, approximately 20 percent of its population is rural-to-urban migrant workers and there are significant cultural differences between rural and urban societies, but no data are available regarding the acculturative stress of Chinese migrant workers. This study aimed to explore the forms and contexts of acculturative stress among Chinese migrant workers. Methods: Qualitative data were collected from four focus group discussions with 17 Chinese rural-to-urban migrant workers and three individual interviews with three medical professionals who provided mental health services for factory-workers in Shenzhen, China. Results: The data in the current study showed that rural-to-urban migrant workers in China had experienced various forms of acculturative stress including difficulties in adapting to the environment, work-related stress, family-related stress, financial hardship, and lack of sense of belonging to cities. Conclusion: Rural-to-urban migration in China is a challenging transition with significant acculturative stress and demands for major adjustments among migrant workers. The assessment and management of acculturative stress is a necessary first step in providing mental health services to migrant workers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research was aimed at estimating possible Coal workers’ pneumoconiosis (CWP) cases as of 2012, and predicting future CWP cases among redeployed coal workers from the Fuxin Mining Industry Group. This study provided the scientific basis for regulations on CWP screening and diagnosis and labor insurance policies for redeployed coal workers of resource-exhausted mines. The study cohort included 19,116 coal workers. The cumulative incidence of CWP was calculated by the life-table method. Possible CWP cases by occupational category were estimated through the average annual incidence rate of CWP and males’ life expectancy. It was estimated that 141 redeployed coal workers might have suffered from CWP as of 2012, and 221 redeployed coal workers could suffer from CWP in the future. It is crucial to establish a set of feasible and affordable regulations on CWP screening and diagnosis as well as labor insurance policies for redeployed coal workers of resource-exhausted coal mines in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article empirically studied the influence of the absorptive capacity of the eastern, middle and western area on the technological spillover of outsourcing by using cross-province panel data from 1992 to 2008 and applying GMM estimation method. The following conclusions have been drawn: 1) technological spillover of outsourcing exists in eastern, middle and western areas, but the spillover is small; 2) human capital is the main factor restricting the technology absorptive capacity of outsourcing in eastern area; 3) the economic openness and financial development level are the main factors restricting the technology absorptive capacity of outsourcing in middle and western areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on the panel data of the provinces (municipality, autonomous regions) from 2005 to 2010, this article made a dynamic analysis on the input-output efficiency of human capital of China by using DEA method. The results showed that the average growth rate of the input-output efficiency of China's human capital is low, and the difference of the growth rate of different provinces is large, with that of central China being the highest followed by that of east and west China while that of northeast China being the lowest. Furthermore, the decomposition on the Malmquist index of the human capital input-output efficiency found that technology progress has enhanced the input-output efficiencies of the human capital in above-mentioned four regions while the decrease of the scale economy are against the growth of human capital input-output efficiencies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In contrast to the great changes from a planning economy to market economic system, the transition in statistics system is left behind. The problem is quite serious in labor statistics. The paper reviews how the current labor statistical system collects the data and its reliability. By analyzing relevant indicators, the paper points out that policy-making based on the current labor statistics may mislead the outcomes in the Chinese labor market. To improve the labor statistics, a deep and comprehensive reform in the statistical system is required. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

China has taken a foreign direct investment-based approach toward increasing its capital and knowledge base, and developing into an innovative economy. However, little quantitative evidence exists about the factors that drive innovations of foreign-invested enterprises ( FIEs) there. This paper uses survey data from high-technology firms in Shanghai to discuss factors affecting their innovativeness. It takes the concepts of absorptive capacity, export orientation, and innovation-related cooperation as a starting point. It highlights how the interplay of strategies and resources affects innovativeness and heterogeneity of FIEs. The most innovative FIEs are endowed with a strong human capital base and R& D activities, which at the same time target export markets and whose cooperative partners involve firms other than their parent company. The results underline the necessity to differentiate between the different types of FIEs when examining their innovativeness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

According to the theories of institutional economics and development economics, the positive and negative externality of rural labor force flowing from central and western regions and into eastern regions of China were analyzed, and then it was proposed that it is necessary to positive externality, rather than take " household register" measures to solve the problem simply. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the trends in the Mincerian rates of return (MRRs) to education in urban China between 1989 and 2009 using two sources of data: the China Urban Household Survey and the China Health and Nutrition Survey, and attempts to explain the underlying causes of the trends. The authors find that while the rates of return to education had been rising steadily since 1992 in urban China, a trend consistent with earlier studies, they have stagnated and even shown a statistically insignificant and very small decline between 2004 and 2009. Using the conceptual framework of supply, demand and institution in labor economics, the authors show evidence that the rapid rise in MRRs since 1992 has been driven by the strong relative demand for skills and productivity unleashed by the market-oriented economic reforms of the late 1980s and 1990s when relative supply of skilled labor was by and large stable. However, the "great leap forward" in senior secondary and tertiary education since the late 1990s produced huge numbers of graduates by the mid-2000s, outpacing the growth of relative demand for skilled labor due to the economy's overdependence on low value-added industries such as manufacturing and construction. The apparent slowdown in the deepening of marketization since the mid-2000s may have also contributed to the stagnation or slight decline in the returns to education in urban China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It has been widely recognised that China has had a large pool of surplus labour. However, despite its significant implications for wage levels and the Chinese economy, the current debates yield conflicting results as to whether a Lewis turning point has been reached. This paper clarifies a theoretical issue about the mechanisms of surplus labour absorption, subsequently indentifies two Lewis turning points and examines the factors that affect the reaching of these two points. It then applies the framework to China to study the labour absorption process and examines some of the likely implications of the removal of the Hukou system in terms of welfare and economic performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent decades, cheap labor has played a central role in the Chinese model, which has relied on expanded participation in world trade as a main driver of growth. At the beginning of China's economic reforms in 1978, the annual wage of a Chinese urban worker was only $1,004 in U.S. dollars. The Chinese wage was only 3 percent of the average U.S. wage at that time, and it was also significantly lower than the wages in neighboring Asian countries such as the Philippines and Thailand. The Chinese wage was also low relative to productivity. However, wages are now rising in China. In 2010, the annual wage of a Chinese urban worker reached $5,487 in U.S. dollars, which is similar to wages earned by workers in the Philippines and Thailand and significantly higher than those earned by workers in India and Indonesia. China's wages also increased faster than productivity since the late 1990s, suggesting that Chinese labor is becoming more expensive in this sense as well. The increase in China's wages is not confined to any sector, as wages have increased for both skilled and unskilled workers, for both coastal and inland areas, and for both exporting and nonexporting firms. We benchmark wage growth to productivity growth using both national- and industry-level data, showing that Chinese labor was kept cheap until the late 1990s but the relative cost of labor has increased since then. Finally, we discuss the main forces that are pushing wages up. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article aims to study an issue of "double absence" embedded in the rapidly changing construction industry and to explore how it induces serious collective action among construction workers in post-socialist China. (**) The political economy of the construction industry has shaped a specific labour use system - a labour subcontracting system. The system generates a specific capital-labour relationship in which the legal labour identity and labour relationship are highly subsumed by an "absent" employer. It creates a double absence in legal terms: an "absent" boss and an "absent" labour relationship. This double absence has led to a perpetual process of wage arrears and struggles by construction workers to pursue delayed wages in various ways, usually involving legal action or non-legal collective action. The findings of this study are drawn from case studies conducted between 2008 and 2009 in seven Chinese cities. The labour struggle - the fight for delayed payment - was understood not as a form of legal labour activism, but as incipient class action in a specific context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article investigates the effect of family life course transitions on labor allocation strategies in rural Chinese households. We highlight three types of economic activity that involve reallocation of household labor oriented toward a more diversified, nonfarm rural economy: involvement in wage employment, household entrepreneurship, and/or multiple activities that span economic sectors. With the use of data from the China Health and Nutrition Survey (CHNS 1997, 2000, and 2004), our longitudinal analyses of rural household economic activity point to the significance of household demography, life course transitions, and local economic structures as factors facilitating household labor reallocation. First, as expected, a relatively youthful household structure is conducive to innovative economic behavior. Second, household entrances and exits are significant, but their impacts are not equal. Life events such as births, deaths, marriage, or leaving home for school or employment affect household economy in distinctive ways. Finally, the reallocations of household labor undertaken by households are shaped by local economic structures: in particular, the extent of village-level entrepreneurial activity, off-farm employment, and out-migration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the geographic distribution of talent and its associations with innovation, entrepreneurship and regional economic performance in China. Two types of talent are examined: human capital in terms of the educational attainment and the creative class in terms of the occupational skill. Explanatory variables of the talent distribution cover both market factors (jobs and wage levels) and non-market factors (amenities, openness and the university). The results of correlation analysis and multivariate analysis show that the university is the single most important factor that affects the talent distribution in China. Wage levels, service amenities and openness also contribute to talent attraction but to different extents. Furthermore, human capital outweighing the creative class exhibits positive effects on innovation, entrepreneurship and regional economic performance. Openness presents a direct influence not only on talent stock, but on innovation and regional economic performance as well. Explanations of empirical results in the Chinese context are offered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper examines the marginal returns of education in China for 4 years covering the period 1989-2000. We find, in common, with others that such returns were small in 1989 and 1993, but have increased steadily since 1993. We also find that the returns for women exceed those for men and go some way to reducing the gender earnings gap. Crucially, however, the returns to education decline with the length of time since the individual left school which is consistent with the hypothesis that education enhances ability and skills which in turn enhances earnings, but that the value of such skills deteriorates over time. Finally we find evidence for gravity effects by which earnings decline with distance from Beijing, and more noticeably, Shanghai. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined the impact of inter- and intra-hierarchy wage dispersions on company performance based on a sample of 395 Chinese enterprises. It was hypothesized that (1) inter-hierarchy wage dispersion between managers and workers is positively related to firm performance and (2) intra-hierarchy wage dispersion within manager and worker groups is negatively related to firm performance. Results based on regression analysis confirmed the first hypothesis and showed partial support for the second. Practical and policy implications are discussed in the context of China's transitional economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]