Project description:ObjectivesThis study attempts to analyse the impact of smoking on the income level of Chinese urban residents to provide a reference for creating informed regulations on cigarette smoking.DesignA population-based cohort study.MethodTwo waves of panel data in 2014 and 2016 from the China Family Panel Study were used. A total of 8025 urban adults were identified. The Hausman-Taylor model was used to analyse the theoretical relationship between smoking and income.ResultsThe percentage of current smokers decreased from 27.39% (2014) to 26.24% (2016), while the percentage of former smokers rose from 9.78% to 11.78%. The results from the Hausman-Taylor model showed that current smokers and former smokers are associated with statistically significant decrease in the income of urban residents of 37.70% and 44.00%, respectively, compared with that of non-smokers. After eliminating the impact of smoking on income, the poverty rate among urban residents decreased from 15.33% to 13.63%.ConclusionsSmoking can significantly reduce the income of Chinese urban residents, resulting in immense negative impacts on Chinese society. Therefore, the government should raise the tax rate on tobacco, include smoking cessation treatment in medical insurance coverage, promote publicity campaigns on the awareness of tobacco hazards and encourage smokers to quit smoking early.
Project description:Over the past four decades, China's economy has experienced tremendous economic growth but also a widening urban-rural income gap. Given the dilemma of the urban-rural income gap in China explained by neoclassical equilibrium theory, this paper attempts to provide a new theoretical explanation for the large-income gap between urban and rural areas in China. We select data from 30 provinces(cities) in China over the period from 2006 to 2017 as a sample to investigate whether and how the degree of farmland financial innovation narrows the urban-rural income gap. The results show that the coefficient for farmland financial innovation is significantly negative at the 1% level, signifying that financial innovation can narrow the urban-rural income gap in China. The mediation effect test provides evidence that farmland financial innovation narrows the urban-rural income gap by promoting the permanent migration of the labor force and upgrading the industrial structure. Our results indicate that the government should promote various forms of farmland financial innovation, establish rural property rights transaction system and free farmers from deep farmer-land attachment to realize permanent labor migration.
Project description:The unprecedented expansion and development of high-speed rail (HSR) in China provides a unique opportunity and a new way of thinking for addressing the problem of urban-rural wealth disparities. In this paper, I examine the impact of the introduction of HSRs on the income disparity between urban and rural residents in China. Using panel data from 285 prefecture-level cities from 2004 to 2018, in this paper I employ the double-difference method to assess the impact of HSR on the income gap between urban and rural populations and the mechanism of its action; furthermore, I explore the influence of HSR on urban residents' per capita disposable income and rural residents' per capita net income, as well as the impact of HSR on the flow of elements such as labor and capital. My research findings reveal that the introduction of HSR has greatly widened the income gap between urban and rural residents; however, there is heterogeneity between different East, Central, and West regions, as well as between different levels of cities. A further mechanism study finds that HSR lowers farmers' per capita net income, raises urban residents' per capita disposable income, and widens the urban/rural income gap via mechanisms such as facilitating the interregional mobility of labor and capital factors. Therefore, it is necessary to comprehensively assess the economic effects brought about by HSR, strengthen the construction of urban-rural transport networks, and improve support for rural areas, so as to promote the coordinated development of inter-regional and urban-rural areas.
Project description:The aging population is a common problem faced by most countries in the world. This study uses 18 years (from 2002 to 2019) of panel data from 31 regions in China (excluding Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan Province), and establishes a panel threshold regression model to study the non-linear impact of the aging population on economic development. It is different from traditional research in that this paper divides 31 regions in China into three regions: Eastern, Central, and Western according to the classification standard of the National Bureau of Statistics of China and compares the different impacts of the aging population on economic development in the three regions. Although this study finds that the aging population promotes the economy of China's eastern, central, and western regions, different threshold variables have dramatically different influences. When the sum of export and import is the threshold variable, the impact of the aging population on the eastern and the central region of China is significantly larger than that of the western region of China. However, when the unemployment rate is the threshold variable, the impact of the aging population on the western region of China is dramatically higher than the other regions' impact. Thus, one of the contributions of this study is that if the local government wants to increase the positive impact of the aging population on the per capita GDP of China, the local governments of different regions should advocate more policies that align with their economic situation rather than always emulating policies from other regions.
Project description:ObjectiveHealth equality has drawn much public attention in both developed and developing countries. China, the largest developing country, has implemented a new round of health system reform to improve health equality since 2009. This study aims to examine the magnitude and sources of income-related health inequality in western rural regions of China.MethodsData were obtained from the Survey of Rural Economic and Social Development in Western China conducted in 2014, in which 14,555 individuals from 5,299 households in 12 provinces were included. Health outcome variables of interest were self-rated health status, prevalence of chronic disease and four-week illness. Concentration index was calculated to assess magnitude of income-related health inequality, and nonlinear decomposition analysis was performed to identify the sources of health inequality.ResultsThe Concentration indexes for poor self-rated health status, prevalence of chronic disease and four-week illness were -0.0898 (P<0.001),-0.0860 (P<0.001) and -0.1284 (P<0.001), respectively. Income and education were two main sources of health inequality, accounting for about 25-50% and 15% contribution to the inequality. Ethnicity made <10% contribution to income-related health inequality, and enrollment in New Rural Cooperative Medical Scheme contributed to <1%.ConclusionThis study found slight income-related health inequality among rural residents in western China, implying that although China has made substantial progress in economic development and poverty alleviation, health inequality in western rural region should still be concerned by the government. To achieve health equality further, the Chinese government should not only strengthen its reimbursement mechanism of the current health insurance scheme to improve affordability of primary healthcare for residents in western rural regions, but also implement health poverty alleviation policies targeting socioeconomically vulnerable population and ethnic minorities in future.
Project description:Patterns of poultry exposure in rural and urban areas in China have not been systematically evaluated and compared. The objective of our study is to investigate patterns in human exposure to poultry in rural and urban China. We conducted a two-stage household-based clustered survey on population exposure to live/sick/dead poultry in Xiuning and Shenzhen. Half of the rural households (51%) in Xiuning raised poultry, mostly (78%) free-range. Around half of those households (40%) allowed poultry to stay in their living areas. One quarter of villagers reported having contact with sick or dead poultry. In Shenzhen, 37% urban residents visited live poultry markets. Among these, 40% purchased live poultry and 16% touched the poultry or cages during purchase. Our findings indicated that human exposure to poultry was different in rural and urban areas in China. This discrepancy could contribute to the observed differences in epidemiologic characteristics between urban and rural cases of influenza A(H7N9) and A(H5N1) virus infection.
Project description:The aim of the present study was to assess the regional deprivation and individual factors that influence how far a person will travel to access dental care. Using data from the Korea Health Panel (2008 to 2011), we selected a group of 4,256 subjects and geocoded their homes and dental hospitals/clinics. Using the road network analysis, we calculated the distance traveled by the subjects for dental care. We used the generalized estimating equation (GEE) for repeated data analysis and included an interaction term between regional deprivation and individual income to determine the effects of the two factors on the choice of a dental hospital/clinic. When the regional deprivation index was divided into three quarters (high, middle, and low), urban areas had higher"high" and "low" levels of deprivation, and rural areas had relatively higher middle level of deprivation. GEE regression showed that the level of education, regional deprivation level, and income all affected the distance traveled to dental clinics. The regional deprivation level had a higher association than income with the travel distance. At the same income level, subjects who lived in the least deprived areas were more likely to travel longer distances than subjects living in the most deprived areas. Regarding the distribution of dental hospitals/clinics, incentive based dental polices for either dental providers or patients are needed that will assure the delivery of dental care despite spatial inequality.
Project description:Accessible urban nature is a key component of creating sustainable urban communities and promoting human health and well-being. To balance the economic, social, and environmental dimensions of sustainable development, the United Nations adopted several sustainable developmental goals (SDGs), such as SDG 11 for sustainable cities and communities, which aims to improve urban planning and management, including equitable access to urban nature. However, more information is still needed regarding how planners and managers can promote urban nature visitation and equitable access during health and environmental crises, such as the COVID-19 pandemic. The purpose of this study was to examine trends in urban nature visitation during the pandemic and then to determine if the effect of the pandemic on the frequency of urban nature site visitation varied by distance to home, using an innovative approach of analyzing both publicly available large-scale mobility data and a web-based survey of urban residents of Tel Aviv-Yafo, Israel. The mobility data results showed that there was a negative mean % difference in park visits compared to baseline during the first and third lockdowns, but an increase compared to baseline between lockdowns and even during the second lockdown. This suggests that urban residents had greater need to reconnect with urban nature during and after periods of intense stress. In addition, the survey results showed an increasing negative effect of distance on urban nature site visitation during the pandemic, specifically for urban nature sites located more than 1 km from home. Altogether, the mobility data and survey results suggest that people who lived within 1 km of their preferred urban nature site had disproportionate access to the benefits of urban nature during and after lockdowns than others. To effectively make social and ecological transitions toward urban sustainability, it is vital that cities promote urban nature accessibility during current and future environmental and health crises. Cities should collaborate with diverse stakeholders to create/maintain accessible urban nature sites nearby all sociodemographic groups, provide sustainability education and training to convey the benefits of urban nature, and pursue participatory solutions for understanding urban nature needs and preferences. In this manner, it will be possible to address the growing influence of proximity/travel distance and additional factors that affect urban nature visitation and ultimately, human health and urban sustainability.
Project description:This research aims to explore the reality of the soundscape preferences of Chinese urban residents in general public landscape in the post-pandemic era, and then to propose design recommendations to meet the practical needs of people's preferences for landscape-especially soundscapes-in the post-pandemic era. In this study, we utilized the subjective evaluation method to conduct an online questionnaire in 29 Chinese provinces which experienced severe pandemic caseloads and collected 860 valid responses. This study revealed people's preference for landscape and soundscape in the post-pandemic era. We further studied the correlation between landscape preference and soundscape preference, analyzed the influence of living conditions on soundscape preference, founded the effects of personal characteristics and living conditions on soundscape preference, and explored the strongest influence factors on soundscape preference through the establishment of automatic linear model. The results revealed a positive correlation between life happiness and soundscape preference, whereas wearing masks significantly reduced soundscape perception ratings and people who have been vaccinated are more tolerant of various noises. Moreover, based on these analysis results, the design recommendations on landscape (overall landscape, plant, and tour space), soundscape construction of caring for vulnerable groups (teenagers and children, elderly people, and disabled and unhealthy) has been discussed.