Uniform government public policy has steadily shaped the labor supply from households in the past few decades in China with possible differential impact on each parent. This paper investigates how ...uniform tax policy change plays differential roles in household's labor supply through government public education spending. Utilizing the exogenous shock from China's agricultural tax abolition in 2005, we find that the abolition results in a reduction in female employment but an increase in male employment. Specifically, a 1% increase of agricultural tax to public revenue ratio in the reference year leads to a 0.485% labor supply reduction and 1.50 fewer hours of work per month for married women, whereas the married men's labor supply increases by 0.191% and their working hours by 1.06 h in a typical urban family with school-going children. The effects are greater on married women with primary school-age children and married men from high-asset households. Our mechanism analysis indicates that public education spending works as a substitute for private education spending and affects the household labor supply through investment in children's human capital. Our findings offer a new perspective on the decreasing female labor supply and the widening employment gap between (married) women and (married) men in the Chinese labor market. The findings suggest that public tax policy could lead to unintended consequences on household's labor supply decisions, and thus exacerbate the gender employment gap in the labor market.
•In this paper, we investigate the differential effects of uniform government public policy on household labor supply, particularly its role in exacerbating the gender employment gap in urban China, through government public education spending.•We leverage the exogenous shock resulting from China's agricultural tax abolition in 2005 to isolate the pure effects and employ a continuous difference-in-differences (continuous DiD) design, supported by a battery of justification tests for validity.•Our findings indicate that the abolition leads to a significant reduction in female employment but an increase in male employment. Specifically, a 1% increase of agricultural tax to public revenue ratio in the reference year leads to a 0.485% labor supply reduction and 1.50 fewer hours of work per month for married women, whereas the married men's labor supply increases by 0.191% and their working hours by 1.06 h in a typical urban family with school-going children.•Mechanism analysis reveals that public education spending acts as a substitute for private education spending and influences household labor supply through investments in children's human capital.
Este artículo es el resultado de una investigación etnográfica en la cual, a través de una muestra dirigida de sujetos tipo, se han estudiado las representaciones colectivas construidas en torno al ...“artista”, y la incidencia de éstas en la subjetividad, toma de decisiones e identidades de los estudiantes de nuevo ingreso en las carreras de danza y creación teatral (artes escénicas), de la Universidad de las Artes (Guayaquil, Ecuador), durante el segundo periodo académico del año 2019. La realización y procesamiento de entrevistas semiestructuradas permitió determinar la presencia de cuatro elementos fundamentales en la construcción social del artista en este contexto sociocultural: 1) La determinante vocación del estudiante, 2) La presencia de estereotipos asociados al arte y los artistas, 3) La familia con sus temores y esperanzas, apoyos y oposiciones, y 4) La sociedad con sus concretas oportunidades de formación e inciertas posibilidades para el desarrollo profesional. En la totalidad de los estudiantes entrevistados, la construcción de la “persona” del artista, hace distancia de las representaciones ególatras, para remarcar su vocación de servicio.
Urban floods have long-term mental health implications, yet this subject remains largely neglected in flood-related studies. This paper examines the psychological distress (PD) of adults exposed to ...floods in Ghana. Cross-sectional data involving 767 flood-prone community-dwelling household heads aged ≥20 years were analyzed mean = 47.3 years (SD = 13.7); males = 61.4%. We used the Exposure to Flood-related Events Scale, and PD was assessed with the Kessler Psychological Distress Scale (K10). Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) regressions evaluated crude and adjusted associations of flood exposure with PD. The mean scores of PD (37SD = 8) and exposure to flood events (6SD = 3) significantly varied by age and sex (p < .05). After full adjustment for potential confounders, exposure to flood events was significantly and positively associated with PD index in the total sample (β = 0.030; p < .005), among male participants (β = 0.019; p < .05) and female participants (β = 0.048; p < .001). Furthermore, age-wise analysis revealed significant association of flood exposure with PD in young adults (β = 0.033; p < .001) but not in older adults (β = 0.048; p = .062). Exposure to floods increased the risk of PD. Policy and public health efforts to manage PD should include selective flood reduction interventions, including land use regulations and sustained public education.
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•Studies on the psychological impacts of flood-related events are limited in sub-Saharan Africa.•Exposure to the flood was associated with an increased risk of psychological distress (PD).•Flood-related PD was more pronounced among men than women.•Flood-related PD was revealed in younger adults but not in older adults.•Selective flood reduction interventions and public education are key to addressing the PD.
Growing public interest in understanding the origins and production methods of dairy products, driven by concerns related to environmental impact, local sourcing, and ethics, highlights an important ...trend. Nevertheless, a knowledge-trust gap persists between consumers and the dairy industry. Addressing this gap, in this paper, we developed an immersive virtual farm simulation to provide realistic on-farm experiences to the public. Within the virtual farm, users can explore various sites where dairy cows are raised and gain insights into dairy production processes using a head-mounted display (HMD). This simulation was demonstrated at local libraries, involving 48 public participants. We collected and analyzed participants’ feedback on various aspects, including usability and their overall perceptions, to assess the simulation’s effectiveness as an agricultural education tool. We investigated the impact of the virtual experience on participants’ perceived knowledge gain and their awareness of the dairy industry. The results indicate that our dairy farm simulation was positively received as an effective tool for public education. Emphasizing the potential of virtual reality (VR) simulations in agricultural education and the industry, we discuss our key findings and future plans.
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•Development process to build a realistic immersive simulation of a dairy farm for public education purposes.•Findings on the usability and user perception of the immersive experience for education purposes.•The system is an effective and useful tool for learning and the provision of information about the dairy industry.
The act of ensuring freshwater is considered the most essential and basic need for humanity. Although the planet is water-rich in some terms, the freshwater sources available for human consumption ...and beneficial uses are very limited. Excess population growth, industrial development coupled with improving living standards have caused an unprecedented need for freshwater all over the world. Regions once rich in water resources are struggling to meet the ever increasing demands in recent years. In addition, climate change and unsustainable management practices have led to a situation called “drought” in many regions. Water supplies in drought conditions can be addressed by taking two major approaches related to management and technology development. The management approaches include demand mitigation and supply enhancement. Demand mitigation can be done by implementing water conservation practices, and by enforcing a mechanism to influence user-responsible behavior through higher water fares and other billing routes. Supply enhancement can be achieved by utilizing the methods available for water reclamation, reuse and recycle including rain harvesting. This paper provides a critical insight of the causes for drought and the issues caused by persistent drought conditions followed by discussion of management and technological approaches required to maintain adequate water resources around the world. Challenges and opportunities involved in implementation of desalination and water reuse technologies in addressing global water scarcity are discussed in detail with case studies
Abstract This paper proposes a theory about the allocation of human capital along the development process that helps to understand the controversial impact of this variable in growth regressions. We ...build a model in which human capital is allocated to three activities: production, tax collection (bureaucracy), and public education. At the first stage of development, countries have low effective tax rates because tax collection requires human capital, which is scarce. As countries accumulate human capital throughout the transition, the effective tax rate rises, diverting human capital from production to bureaucracy and public education. Consequently, at this stage, human capital has a weak impact on production, even when the human capital allocation is efficient. Furthermore, disparities in institutional quality may diminish the correlation between human capital and GDP.
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