The Chinese Welfare State in Transition: 1988–2007

2013 ◽  
Vol 42 (4) ◽  
pp. 743-762 ◽  
Author(s):  
QIN GAO ◽  
SUI YANG ◽  
SHI LI

AbstractIs China a welfare state? If so, how big is it and what does it look like? Further, how does the Chinese welfare state affect income inequality? Is it progressive or regressive? Using the China Household Income Project 1988–2007 data, this article provides updated empirical evidence on the size, structure and redistributive effect of the Chinese welfare state. We find that the Chinese welfare state is highly divided along urban–rural lines: the urban social benefit system, or the urban welfare state, stands among the more comprehensive and generous ones, similar to those in the western industrialised countries, while the rural system is minimal and residual, and similar to those in the least developed countries. The urban system has consistently reduced income inequality and has remained progressive over time. The rural system has had little impact on reducing income inequality and has been largely regressive. Social benefit for migrants has seen significant increases between 2002 and 2007 and has played an increasingly larger redistributive role. These results and recent policy changes suggest that the Chinese welfare state is likely to become more integrated, generous and progressive in the future.

2022 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Guanghua Wan ◽  
Xiaoling Zhang ◽  
Mengxue Zhao

AbstractThe global community has been confronted with rising income inequality, in particular, for those least developed countries (LDCs), since the same level of inequality as in advanced countries would push many LDCs into abject poverty. This paper focuses on income inequality in developing countries, particularly LDCs. First, we demonstrate the infeasibility of fiscal measures in resolving income inequality even in developed countries. Second, we show that inequality in LDCs can be largely explained by urban-rural gap. Third, we uncover the benign impacts of urbanization on urban-rural gap. This leads us to propose an out-of-box strategy—containing income inequality by promoting well-managed urbanization. Fourth, we reveal a misperception that may have contributed to the neglect of urban-rural gap in constituting national inequality. This has possibly caused anti-urbanization mentalities and practices, with adverse distributional consequences. Finally, we provide evidence-based policy suggestions aimed at reducing income inequality and poverty—two major goals of SDGs.


2015 ◽  
Vol 54 (4I-II) ◽  
pp. 865-874
Author(s):  
Adeel Ali ◽  
Syed Faizan Iftikhar ◽  
Ambreen Fatima ◽  
Lubna Naz

Literature on nexus between trade openness and government spending is impressive [Atif, et al. (2012), Rudra (2004), Dani (1997) and McGuire (1999)]. The literature is growing rapidly. Analysts have documented the positive effects of government social spending [see for example Mesa-Lago (1994); Huber (1996); Weyland (1996); McGuire (1999)]. Unfortunately, Pakistan lacks empirical evidences on the impact of government social spending. Although Government of Pakistan has taken number of initiatives to have some form of redistribution policies, however, inequality in Pakistan is higher as compared to other Least Developed Countries that are open to trade. This situation is alarming. This paper therefore tries to identify the nexus between trade openness and social spending for the period 1975–2012. International evidence suggests that government social spending influences poverty and distribution of income. Pakistan‘s low level achievement in terms of reducing inequality, given the likely adverse economic impact of trade openness, point towards the fact that government has to design the policy in such a way that it affects the distribution of income. Thus, exploring the effect of social spending on income inequality is necessary for the concerned policy makers.


2013 ◽  
Vol 83 (2) ◽  
pp. 122-128 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cécile Renaud ◽  
Jacques Berger ◽  
Arnaud Laillou ◽  
Sylvie Avallone

Vitamin A deficiency is still one of the major public health problems in least developed countries. Fortification of vegetable oils is a strategy implemented worldwide to prevent this deficiency. For a fortification program to be effective, regular monitoring is necessary to control food quality in the producing units. The reference methods for vitamin A quantification are expensive and time-consuming. A rapid method should be useful for regular assessment of vitamin A in the oil industry. A portable device was compared to high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) for three plant oils (rapeseed, groundnut, and soya). The device presented a good linearity from 3 to 30 mg retinol equivalents per kg (mg RE.kg- 1). Its limits of detection and quantification were 3 mg RE.kg- 1 for groundnut and rapeseed oils and 4 mg RE.kg- 1 for soya oil. The intra-assay precision ranged from 1.48 % to 3.98 %, considered satisfactory. Accuracy estimated by the root mean squares error ranged from 3.99 to 5.49 and revealed a lower precision than HPLC (0.4 to 2.25). Although it offers less precision than HPLC, the device estimates quickly the vitamin A content of the tested oils from 3 or 4 to 15 mg RE.kg- 1.


2014 ◽  
Vol 6 (01) ◽  
Author(s):  
JAVED ALAM SHEIKH

Almost 50 per cent of the world population is constituted by the women and they have been making substantial contribution to socio-economic development. But, unfortunately their tremendous contribution remains unrecognized and unnoticed in most of the developing and least developed countries causing the problem of poverty among them. Empowering women has become the key element in the development of an economy. With women moving forward, the family moves, the village moves and the nation moves. Hence, improving the status of women by way of their economic empowerment is highly called for. Entrepreneurship is a key tool for the economic empowerment of women around the world for alleviating poverty. Entrepreneurship is now widely recognized as a tool of economic development in India also. In this paper I have tried to discuss the reasons and role of Women Entrepreneurship with the help of Push and Pull factors. In the last I have also discussed the problems and the road map of Women Entrepreneurs development in India.


2012 ◽  
Vol 17 (6) ◽  
pp. 1198-1226 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luca Bossi ◽  
Gulcin Gumus

In this paper, we set up a three-period stochastic overlapping-generations model to analyze the implications of income inequality and mobility for demand for redistribution and social insurance. We model the size of two different public programs under the welfare state. We investigate bidimensional voting on the tax rates that determine the allocation of government revenues among transfer payments and old-age pensions. We show that the coalitions formed, the resulting political equilibria, and the demand for redistribution crucially depend on the level of income inequality and mobility.


2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
James Atampiiga Avoka ◽  
Elvis J. Dun-Dery ◽  
Issah Seidu ◽  
Armel N. E. Abou ◽  
Paul Twene ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Rotavirus is considered the main causal factor of severe gastroenteritis among infants and children globally. The association with severe rotavirus infection is mostly worse among the least developed countries, mainly due to inadequate access to medical care and poverty. This study was conducted to determine the seasonal effects in respect of diarrhea cases in children, the association between diarrhea cases and Rota2 vaccine in the Fanteakwa District of the Eastern Region of Ghana. Methods The study compares monthly diarrhea cases against children vaccinated with Rota2 extracted from DHIMS2 spanning May 2012 to December 2017 in Fanteakwa District. A univariate association between diarrhea cases and children vaccinated with Rota 2 was conducted using the R-software version 3.4.4 with the use of forecast, tseries and TSAPred. Pearson Correlation coefficient was also computed between monthly diarrhea cases and Rota 2 as well as lagged values of Rota 2 and Diarrhea cases. Results The study shows that February recorded the highest average number of diarrhea cases (172) over the period 2012 to 2017 with a standard deviation of 59. However, a one-way analysis of variance shows a significant difference amongst the monthly averages with an F-statistic of 0.042 and P-value of 0.064. It is observed that the correlations between each of the Rota2 doses and the lagged cases are positive, showing higher Rota2 doses a month ago ((Xt − 1),0.346 to0.735), two months ago ((Xt − 2),0.383 to 0.746), three months ago ((Xt − 3), 0.330 to 0.737) and four months ago ((Xt − 4), 0.236 to 0.723) are associated with lower diarrhea cases. The results also show that an increase in the previous two month’s Rota2 figures by 100 is associated with a significant decrease in the currently expected diarrhea cases by approximately 36. Conclusion Seasonal variations exist in the occurrence of diarrhea in children, with January recording the highest number of diarrhea cases (172). There is a relationship between episodes of diarrhea in children and Rota2 (p-value = 0.064); thus, the more children are vaccinated with Rota2, the less diarrhea cases are recorded. Diarrhea cases in Fanteakwa district are generally low, except 2013 and 2016 where the cases are higher than the rest of the other years.


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