Does Digital Inclusive Finance Promote Commercial Insurance Participation? -- An Empirical Study Based on the Digital Inclusive Finance Index and China Family Panel Studies Data

This paper matches the "Peking University Digital Inclusive Finance Index" published by Peking University Digital Finance Research Center with the 2018 China Family Panel Studies (CFPS) database, and uses Probit and Logit models to empirically investigate the impact of digital inclusive finance on impact of household commercial insurance participation. The findings show that, first, the development of digital inclusive finance significantly increases commercial insurance participation, and this effect remains significant after adding control variables or changing models; second, the impact of digital inclusive finance on commercial insurance participation shows structural differences by urban-rural, regional, and risk preferences. At the urban-rural level, the impact of digital inclusive finance on commercial insurance participation is significantly higher in rural than in urban areas; at the regional level, the impact of digital inclusive finance is greater in western regions than in eastern and central regions; at the risk preference level, the impact of digital inclusive finance on commercial insurance participation is higher in risk-averse groups than in risk-averse groups. Based on the above findings, this paper proposes to accelerate the development of digital inclusive finance, especially focusing on the construction of digital inclusive finance in less developed regions; improve the financial market system, strengthen the supervision of insurance products; and increase the popularization of financial knowledge.

Download Full-text

Does Digital Inclusive Finance Promote Commercial Insurance Participation? -- An Empirical Study Based on the Digital Inclusive Finance Index and China Family Panel Studies Data

10.31124/advance.17206895 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Zaikun Hou ◽

Wenjie Li ◽

Wangchen Lu ◽

Yue Gao

Keyword(s):

Urban Areas ◽

Financial Knowledge ◽

Risk Averse ◽

Commercial Insurance ◽

Structural Differences ◽

Central Regions ◽

Peking University ◽

Urban Rural ◽

Panel Studies ◽

The Impact

Download Full-text

Regional modeling of urban climate: the impact of physical process representation

10.5194/egusphere-egu2020-7001 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Peter Huszár ◽

Jan Karlický ◽

jana Ďoubalová ◽

Tereza Nováková ◽

Filip Švábik ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Boundary Layer ◽

Urban Areas ◽

Climate Model ◽

Numerical Models ◽

Absolute Humidity ◽

Average Wind Speed ◽

Substantial Impact ◽

Mitigation And Adaptation ◽

Urban Rural ◽

The Impact

The urban heat island (UHI) is a relaively old concept and has been widely studied using both observational and modeling approches. However, urban canopies impact the meteorological conditions in the planetary boundary layer (PBL) and above in many other ways, e.g. urban breeze circulation can form, enhanced drag causes intensification of the turbulent diffusion leading to elevated PBL height, reduced evaporation results in decreased absolute humidity, changes in cloudiness etc. A well established regional model representation of these phenomena is crucial for both mitigation and adaptation in areas affected by intense urbanization and climate change. There are however large uncertainities how the underlying physical processes are represented in numerical models, i.e. what models are used along with which parameterizations and parameters.Here we perform a regional multi-model analysis over central Europe using the Regional Climate Model (RegCM4) and Weather Research and Forecast (WRF) regional models with different configurations representing different PBL treatment, convection parameterization, surface layer physics, microphysics and urban canopy models. Model results are extensively compared to surface measurements as well as satellite observation of surface temperatures. We analyse the model results mainly in terms of the urban-rural contrast which is a measure of the difference between the urban core value and the vicitinity (with respect to the particular city) for selected meteorological parameters. Our results show substantial impact of the choice of the model as well as the choice of parameterization on the intensity of UHI and other meteorological effects. The urban-rural difference of PBL height and average wind speed between urban areas and their vicinity is affected the most, controlled by the boundary layer physics parameterization. Our simulations confirm the large uncertainity in how models resolve the meteorological features specific to urbanized areas and this has to be taken into account when designing different strategies for urban planning and multimodel approaches should be preferred.

Download Full-text

Numerical Study of the Interaction between Oasis and Urban Areas within an Arid Mountains-Desert System in Xinjiang, China

Atmosphere ◽

10.3390/atmos11010085 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 11 (1) ◽

pp. 85

Author(s):

Peng Cai ◽

Rafiq Hamdi ◽

Huili He ◽

Geping Luo ◽

Jin Wang ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Land Surface ◽

Urban Areas ◽

Climate Model ◽

Numerical Study ◽

Urban Expansion ◽

Regional Climate ◽

Maximum Effect ◽

Local Circulation ◽

Urban Rural ◽

The Impact

The rapid oasis expansion and urbanization that occurred in Xinjiang province (China) in the last decades have greatly modified the land surface energy balance and influenced the local circulation under the arid mountains-plain background system. In this study, we first evaluated the ALARO regional climate model coupled to the land surface scheme SURFEX at 4 km resolution using 53 national climatological stations and 5 automatic weather stations. We found that the model correctly simulates daily and hourly variation of 2 m temperature and relative humidity. A 4-day clear sky period has been chosen to study both local atmospheric circulations and their mutual interaction. Observations and simulations both show that a low-level divergence over oasis appears between 19:00 and 21:00 Beijing Time when the background mountain-plain wind system is weak. The model simulates a synergistic interaction between the oasis-desert breeze and urban-rural breeze from 16:00 until 22:00 with a maximum effect at 20:00 when the downdraft over oasis (updraft over urban) areas increases by 0.8 (0.4) Pa/s. The results show that the oasis expansion decreases the nocturnal urban heat island in the city of Urumqi by 0.8 °C, while the impact of urban expansion on the oasis cold island is negligible.

Download Full-text

Spatial evaluation of complex non-point source pollution in urban–rural watershed using fuzzy system

Journal of Hydroinformatics ◽

10.2166/hydro.2013.266 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 16 (1) ◽

pp. 114-129 ◽

Cited By ~ 6

Author(s):

Haijun Wang ◽

Wenting Zhang ◽

Song Hong ◽

Yanhua Zhuang ◽

Hongyan Lin ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Water Quality ◽

Land Use ◽

Point Source ◽

Fuzzy System ◽

Urban Areas ◽

Rapid Urbanization ◽

Nps Pollution ◽

Urban Rural ◽

Rural Place ◽

The Impact

Non-point source (NPS) pollution has become the major reason for water quality deterioration. Due to the differences in the generation and transportation mechanisms between urban areas and rural areas, different models are needed in rural and urban places. Since land use has been rapidly changing, it is difficult to define the study area as city or country absolutely and the complex NPS pollution in these urban–rural mixed places are difficult to evaluate using an urban or rural model. To address this issue, a fuzzy system-based approach of modeling complex NPS pollutant is proposed concerning the fuzziness of each land use and the ratio of belonging to an urban or rural place. The characteristic of land use, impact of city center and traffic condition were used to describe spatial membership of belonging to an urban or rural place. According to the spatial membership of belonging to an urban or rural place, the NPS distributions calculated by the urban model and rural model respectively were combined. To validate the method, Donghu Lake, which is undergoing rapid urbanization, was selected as the case study area. The results showed that the urban NPS pollutant load was significantly higher than that of the rural area. The land usage influenced the pollution more than other factors such as slope or precipitation. It also suggested that the impact of the urbanization process on water quality is noteworthy.

Download Full-text

The Burden of Seizures in Manitoba Children: A Population-Based Study

Canadian Journal of Neurological Sciences / Journal Canadien des Sciences Neurologiques ◽

10.1017/s0317167100002821 ◽

2004 ◽

Vol 31 (1) ◽

pp. 48-52 ◽

Cited By ~ 21

Author(s):

Anita L. Kozyrskyj ◽

Asuri N. Prasad

Keyword(s):

Health Care ◽

Urban Areas ◽

Census Data ◽

Population Based ◽

Care Utilization ◽

Published Data ◽

Prevalence Rates ◽

Seizure Disorders ◽

Urban Rural ◽

The Impact

Background:Population-based studies are necessary to better understand the risk factors for developing seizure disorders and the impact of these conditions on children. We undertook an assessment of the prevalence of seizure disorders in a population of children on the basis of health care utilization records.Methods:Using Manitoba’s population-based prescription and health care data for 1998/99, the prevalence of children with seizure disorders, on the basis of at least one physician visit or hospitalization for epilepsy or a prescription for an antiepileptic drug, was determined by age, urban/rural region and socioeconomic status. The latter was measured as neighbourhoods stratified by income quintiles according to Census data.Results:Age-specific prevalence rates for seizure disorders in Manitoba children, determined from health care administrative records, were similar to published data on the prevalence of epilepsy, with one exception. Prevalence rates in adolescents were higher than those reported in the literature. No statistically significant differences in prevalence rates were observed between urban and rural populations. However, a higher prevalence was found among children of all ages living in lower socioeconomic neighbourhoods in urban areas, which presented as a gradient of increased prevalence with decreased levels of income.Conclusion:Population-based health care administrative data can be used to describe the geographical distribution of seizure disorders. Our data suggest that the burden of seizure disorders is not evenly distributed among children.

Download Full-text

Spatial patterns of habitat distribution of Corvidae (the case of urban-rural gradient)

Biosystems Diversity ◽

10.15421/011661 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 24 (2) ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

А. A. Zimaroyeva ◽

A. V. Matsyura ◽

K. Jankowski

Keyword(s):

Spatial Distribution ◽

Urban Areas ◽

Average Density ◽

Winter Period ◽

Breeding Period ◽

Urban Habitats ◽

Common Raven ◽

Urban Rural ◽

Hooded Crows ◽

The Impact

The spatial distribution and abundance of Corvidae species in Zhytomyr region was studied in terms of the urban-rural gradient. We selected Rook (Corvus frugilegus L.), Eurasian Jackdaw (C. monedula L.), Hooded Crow (C. cornix L.), Common Raven (C. corax L.), Eurasian Magpie (Pica pica L.) and Eurasian Jay (Garrulus glandarius L.) for our observations during 2009–2012. Some 38 survey routes totaling more than 8000 km were surveyed in 21 settlements in Zhytomyr region. Among them 13 routes were in Zhytomyr city. The average density of Rooks was 55.9 birds/km2. We found a strong correlation between Rook density and rural-urban gradient and observed that the numbers of wintering Rooks in cities significantly increased due to the influx from villages. The peak number of Rooks in villages was registered in the breeding and post-breeding seasons while in the cities it was high in winter and during the spring migration. The average density of Eurasian Magpies in the study area was 8.7 birds/km2 and we registered weak correlation with the urban-rural gradient. Their maximum density in urban habitats was in the winter period whereas the highest density in rural habitats was fixed in the summer months. The density of Magpies varied insignificantly within a narrow range during the three years of research, which suggests the species has successfully adjusted to the transformed landscapes. Average density of Hooded Crows in towns was 6.6 birds/km2. The linear relationship between the urban-rural gradient and the density of this species was rather weak. In the breeding period, the birds’ density was considerably higher in urban habitats. We also registered that the average density of Hooded Crows changed insignificantly but gradually increased during the study period. The average density of Eurasian Jackdaws was 9.7 birds/km2 and had high annual dynamics. It also changed significantly during the three years of research. The average density of Eurasian Jays was 2.4 birds/km2 and varied significantly in different settlements, although the fluctuation range was small (0.1–9.3 birds/km2). We registered an expansion in the breeding distribution of Eurasian Jays in recent years i.e. the birds began to nest in old urban neighborhoods and small central parks of large cities. However, the number of birds naturally decreased along the gradient of landscape transformation. The impact of urban-rural gradient on Eurasian Jay density was significant but the correlation was weak and negative. The density of this species was highest in small villages (4.9 birds/km2) and the lowest in medium-sized cities (1.5 birds/km2). The seasonal density of Jays varied significantly and the greatest value was registered in the post-breeding period. In urban areas the birds’ density was much higher in winter compared to the nesting period, and in villages we observed the reverse situation. The number of Eurasian Jays remained almost stable in all the settlements during the study period indicating the stability of the local populations. The average density of the Common Raven was 1.3 birds/km2 and the highest density was registered in small villages (2.2 birds/km2), the lowest – in the townships (small urban type settlements) (0.6 birds/km2). The urban-rural gradient significantly affected the spatial distribution of Common Ravens, but we cannot claim an increase or decrease in their numbers along the gradient of urbanization, since the value of this indicator also depended on habitat conditions in each specific settlement. The spatial distribution of Common Ravens varied seasonally and the highest density was typical in winter due to food migrations towards human settlements.

Download Full-text

Integration of Rural and Urban Society in China and Implications for Urbanization, Infrastructure, Land and Labor in the New Era

South Asian Journal of Social Studies and Economics ◽

10.9734/sajsse/2018/v2i329634 ◽

2019 ◽

pp. 1-13

Author(s):

Haiying Feng ◽

Victor R. Squires

Keyword(s):

Land Use Planning ◽

Urban Areas ◽

Urban Migration ◽

New Era ◽

Services Sector ◽

Rapid Economic Growth ◽

Rural And Urban ◽

Urban Rural ◽

Urban Population Growth ◽

The Impact

In many parts of China, rapid economic growth, socio-economic inequality, and environmental degradation (air, water, soil) are undermining social stability and sustainable urbanization. Rural-urban migration is the main factor contributing to urban population growth. Economic opportunity in urban areas is the main ‘pull factor’ but government policies provide a ‘push factor’. A model of the relationship over time of the rural sector and the urban sectors, mainly relating to the focus on manufacturing and the services sector, is discussed. Each sector provides a market for the other. We use three cameos of different types of urban-rural development taking examples from a Prefecture-level city of about 500,000 population located in Guangxi Autonomous Region in south east China. We analyze the infrastructure plan and land use planning in respect to the impact on labor, investment and urban growth.

Download Full-text

The Urban-Rural Divide: Spatial Inequalities and Backlash in the Investment Treaty Regime

The Italian Yearbook of International Law Online ◽

10.1163/22116133-03001008 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 30 (1) ◽

pp. 131-153

Author(s):

Daniel Litwin

Keyword(s):

International Law ◽

Rural Areas ◽

Urban Areas ◽

Multinational Enterprises ◽

Small Towns ◽

Political Polarization ◽

Investment Treaty ◽

Spatial Inequalities ◽

Urban Rural ◽

The Impact

A growing literature in international law has examined the backlash against international institutions and norms and its links with the rise of nationalist parties and populism. Some of this backlash have been said to originate with populations in small towns and rural areas socioeconomically “left-behind” by economic globalization. These developments have made salient the growing economic and political polarization between urban and non-urban areas. Nevertheless, this urban- rural divide and its implications for international law have only started to be acknowledged. Aligned with these concerns, this article adopts the urban-rural divide as a geographical scale or frame to suggest a new perspective on the investment treaty regime, its backlash and reform. Outside of the particularly virulent nature of its backlash, the regime’s context provides fertile ground for this frame: it is structured so that urban actors principally located in global or capital cities, such as multinational enterprises, global law firms, or national executive branches, make decisions about foreign investment projects that are often located and impact non-urban areas and populations. As this article contends, this context points to the regime’s potential to impact (and address) through geographical affinities the global growth of political and economic polarization between urban and nonurban areas. The impact of these urban decisions on non-urban areas has so far principally been examined through frames that emphasize impact in terms of the “environment” or “local communities” together with calls for reforms to the regime by allocating more policy space for States. An “urban-rural” frame centers additional impacts in terms of non-urban public interest, local participation, and the distribution of resources, and queries the ability of domestic policies alone to respond to them in the pursuit of socially and economic inclusive investment.

Download Full-text

Determinants of Savings in Urban and Rural Households: Case of South Africa

Demography and social economy ◽

10.15407/dse2021.04.151 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 151-168

Author(s):

T. ZWANE

Keyword(s):

South Africa ◽

Rural Areas ◽

Urban Areas ◽

Negative Impact ◽

National Level ◽

National Income ◽

Least Square ◽

Urban Sample ◽

Urban Rural ◽

The Impact

Savings have been described as a significant fi nancial and economic matter and represent an essential driving force of economic growth and development. Despite this, many studies investigating the determinants of savings in South Africa have looked predominantly at the drivers of savings only at a national level, without focusing on urban and rural differences. This is critical as these localities are structurally different, with different characteristics. It is, therefore, likely that the determinants of savings in these unique geographical localities would differ, given the negative impact of past policies of marginalisation. The purpose of this paper is to examine the urban-rural disparities in savings for South African households. We used data sourced from the five waves of the National Income Dynamics Study (NIDS) observed from 2008-2017. The novelty of this study is in its application of a novel two-stage least square estimation technique which addresses possible endogeneity problems which might have plagued previous studies in this field. It was concluded from the research that the determinants of savings are different across samples (urban and rural). We found that having access to land is an important predictor of savings in rural areas where the poor live (positive and significant), but the coefficient is not significant in the urban sample. Although there was a positive correlation between income and savings across samples, but the income impact on savings is higher in absolute values for households residing in rural areas, compared to household living in urban areas. We also found that, despite the coefficient of employment being similar in the direction of the impact (positive and significant) across the samples, the magnitude of the coefficient was stronger in the rural sample. Based on the higher magnitude of the coefficient, we found that household size has more effect in urban than rural areas. The study recommends that government should design and implement policies that foster job creation, even low-skilled jobs, which will generate more income and reduce unemployment.

Download Full-text

Biological ice nucleation particles in the urban atmosphere of two megacities Beijing and Tianjin in North China

10.5194/egusphere-egu2020-7064 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Wei Hu ◽

Shu Huang ◽

Jie Chen ◽

Jingchuan Chen ◽

Xiangyu Pei ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Heat Treatment ◽

Urban Areas ◽

North China ◽

Large Fraction ◽

Ice Nucleation ◽

Urban Atmosphere ◽

Strong Wind ◽

Air Masses ◽

Peking University ◽

The Impact

Biological materials are the most active ice nucleating particles (INPs), which can nucleate ice at relatively warm temperatures, affecting cloud properties and regional or even global climate. However, the understanding on the impact of biological INPs in urban areas is quite limited. Beijing is the biggest megacity in North China suffered from severe air pollution. Tianjin is the biggest coastal megacity in North China and influenced by both continental/anthropogenic pollution and marine air masses, especially in summer. In this study, we collected aerosol samples on the urban campuses of Tianjin University (39.11&#176;N, 117.17&#176;E) from 01 to 08 July 2019 and PeKing University (39.99&#176;N, 116.31&#176;E) from 11 to 18 August 2019 with SKC Biosamplers. The concentration of INPs in aerosols has been investigated using the PeKing University Ice Nucleation Array (PKU-INA). The abundance of total bacteria in aerosols was enumerated using the LIVE/DEAD bacterial viability assay and an epifluorescence microscope (DM2500, Leica, Germany). The average concentration of INPs in Beijing (18 &#177; 23 L-1) is higher than in Tianjin (8 &#177; 18 L-1) at -19 &#176;C. Heat-sensitive INPs inactivated by heat treatment (inactivating ice nucleation protein, 95&#176;C, 15 min) and lysozyme-sensitive INPs (digested by lysozyme) were inferred to biological INPs and bacterial INPs, respectively. The contribution of biological INPs in Beijing (86 &#177; 14%) was higher than in Tianjin (72 &#177; 26%), but the proportion of bacterial INPs in Beijing (57 &#177; 20%) was lower than in Tianjin (64 &#177; 22%). In addition, we measured the ice nucleation activity of ice nucleating macromolecules (INMs) in filtrate (0.22 &#181;m) and after heat treatment. INMs can be found both in Tianjin and Beijing and the majority of them can be inactivated by heat treatment, indicating most of them were likely proteinaceous materials. Also, we found a significant increase in the concentration of INPs during a rain period with strong wind in Tianjin, which implies rainfall and wind speed may significantly influence the abundance of INPs in this region. Backward air masses trajectories indicated that continental air masses can bring high bacterial INPs in Tianjin and Beijing. Interestingly, the air masses in Tianjin with low bacterial INP concentration were mainly from marine areas. These results imply that biological sources including bacteria may contribute a large fraction of INPs above -19 &#176;C in Tianjin and Beijing in the summer of 2019, and biological INPs potentially play an important role in cloud formation and precipitation in Chinese urban areas.

Download Full-text