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

<p>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.</p>

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

<p>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.</p>

Association between dietary patterns and cognitive ability in Chinese children aged 10–15 years: evidence from the 2010 China Family Panel Studies

Background Limited information is available concerning the association between dietary patterns and cognitive ability during adolescence, especially in regards to the epidemiological studies in China. Therefore, this study aimed to analyze the association between dietary patterns and cognitive ability in Chinese children aged 10–15 years. Methods The dietary information, cognitive ability and sociodemographic data of 2029 children were retrieved from the 2010 China Family Panel Studies. Dietary patterns were assessed by principal component analysis. Ordinal logistic regression models were used to determine the association between dietary patterns and cognitive ability in these children. Results Three dietary patterns were identified, namely, ‘High protein’, ‘High fat’ and ‘High salt-oil’. Following adjustment for gender, age, nationality, household registration, school type, parental education level, family learning environment, annual household income and family size, we found that an increase in ‘High protein’ pattern score was significantly associated with higher mathematics test scores (OR = 1.62, CI: 1.23 ~ 2.15; P = 0.001), but not with vocabulary test scores (OR = 1.21, CI: 0.93 ~ 1.58; P = 0.149). On the contrary, an increase in ‘High fat’ pattern score was significantly associated with lower scores of mathematics (OR = 0.76, CI: 0.59 ~ 0.98; P = 0.031) and vocabulary (OR = 0.77, CI: 0.61 ~ 0.97; P = 0.029) tests. However, there was no significant association between ‘High salt-oil’ pattern and the scores of mathematics (OR = 0.99, CI: 0.77 ~ 1.27; P = 0.915) and vocabulary (OR = 0.93, CI: 0.73 ~ 1.18; P = 0.544) tests. Conclusion The findings of this study demonstrated that ‘High protein’ pattern was positively associated with cognitive ability in Chinese children, while ‘High fat’ pattern exhibited a negative association.

Measuring Broadband and Its Impacts

One of the core methods used in many evaluation studies is survey research. This chapter discusses the challenges of measuring behavioral change and the impacts of broadband use through surveys and addresses how evaluators can get the most from repeated surveys (pre- and post-studies and panel studies). This chapter draws on lessons from a national panel study of participants that included nearly two thousand Internet Essentials users and was uniquely positioned to examine the experience of individuals and families who moved from being non-adopters to broadband adopters, assessing their adoption and engagement pathways. Such research provides policy-relevant evidence and recommendations for practice. The chapter also discusses how evaluators can work with diverse stakeholders (policymakers, local officials, funders, and others) to encourage evaluation and to assist them in using research findings. What is it that such stakeholders expect or want to know about technology and its impacts on individuals and society?

Exploring Chinese folk religion: Popularity, diffuseness, and diversities

Folk religion, as the basis of the religious landscape in traditional China, is a highly syncretic system which includes elements from Buddhism, Daoism, and other traditional religious beliefs. Due to the shortcomings of denomination-based measurement, most previous social surveys have documented a very low percentage of folk religion adherents in China, and found almost no overlapping among religious beliefs. This study offers a quantitative portrait of the popularity, the diffuseness, and the diversity of Chinese folk religion. With the improved instruments in the 2018 China Family Panel Studies, we first observe that nearly 50% of respondents claim to have multiple (two or even more than three) religious beliefs and the believers of folk religion account for about 70% of the population. By using latent class analysis, this article explores the pattern of inter-belief mixing and identifies four typical classes of religious believers: “non-believers and single-belief believers”, “believers of geomancy”, “believers of diffused Buddhism and Daoism”, and “believers embracing all beliefs”. Finally, we find that the degree of commitment varies across these religious classes. Believers of folk religion are found to be less committed than believers of Western institutional religions, but as committed as believers of Eastern institutional religions.