Suchergebnisse

The purpose of this paper is to assess the impact of plot size on the components of farmland rental contracts choice and evaluate the effects of its heterogeneities on different plot characteristics in the context of China. Based on the data from a nationally representative sample of 1215 plots among 5 provinces in rural China, this paper yields robust results using regional fixed effect method and SUR model. The results show that plot size significantly affects farmland rental contract choice. The probability of renting from non-relatives, signing a written contract, and renting with a fixed term increases by 0.5%, 0.9%, and 0.6% with 1 mu increase of plot size, respectively, and the annual rent rises by RMB 3.514 per mu. The effects of plot size on contract form, contract rent, and contract term were much larger for adjacent plots, especially for the flat and eastern plots. The findings imply that the government should encourage the innovation of managing or using plots that are of small size or non-adjacent to promote the integration of farmland resources for the formalization of farmland rental contracts, especially for mountain and western areas.

Return migration is an important form of rural labor mobility in China, and it has been given growing concern recently by governments in the background of rural revitalization. However, research covering the duration of stay in migrants&rsquo ; home counties, a basic question of labor mobility and a precondition for policy making, is far from enough. The aim of this paper is to analyze the period of return for these migrants based on employment history data by tracking their mobility among rural laborers from 1998 to 2015. The data was collected from a randomized, nationally representative sample of 100 rural villages in five provinces of China. We find that only 22.3 percent of migrants returned from 1998 to 2015, and most return migrants still remained in their home counties as of 2015. Using the OLS, Tobit, and Heckman sample selection models, the results show that return migrants who are old, more educated, unmarried, and with children are more likely to stay longer in their home counties. From a development perspective, return migrants are expected to play an important role in the process of rural revitalization.

With the dramatic trend of global aging, the physical and mental health of the rural elderly has attracted significant attention. Social support plays an important role in improving the health of the elderly. However, assessing the impact of social support on the physical and mental health of the elderly is challenging in rural China. This paper analyzes the impact of social support on the physical and mental health of the Chinese rural elderly based on data collected from households and village cadres. Probit, Oprobit, and ordinary least squares (OLS) are used to estimate these effects. The results show that 24.3% of the rural elderly are in bad physical health, and 32.9% of them are depressed. Physical and mental health is worse among the female elderly and among those who are in western provinces. Having pensions, taking care of grandchildren, and communicating with children by telephone are shown to significantly improve the mental health of the rural elderly. The government could promote the mental health of the rural elderly by improving public health services, increasing pensions, providing free mobile phones to elderly people in poverty, and advocating that the younger generation provide emotional support.

Zur Bekämpfung absoluter Armut im ländlichen China wurde 2007 landesweit das "Rural Minimum Living Standard System" eingeführt, welches direkte finanzielle Unterstützung für ländliche Haushalte unterhalb der Armutsgrenze vorsieht. Im Rahmen eines jüngeren Forschungsprojektes wurden in einer Stichprobe von knapp 5000 Haushalten extreme Fehlzuweisungen von Transfermitteln festgestellt, welche die Wirksamkeit des Programmes stark reduzierten: Während 89 Prozent der Empfängerhaushalte nach Ergebnissen dieser Studie gar nicht unterhalb der Armutslinie lagen, konnten etwa 79 Prozent der absolut armen Haushalte nicht berücksichtigt werden. Wie qualitative Nachforschungen ergaben, lag die Ursache dieser Fehlverteilung oft in der mangelnden personellen Ausstattung lokaler Verwaltungen in strukturschwachen Regionen. Durch zusätzliche finanzielle Unterstützung der Zentralregierung bei den Implementierungskosten des Programmes könnte die Zielgenauigkeit des Programmes deutlich verbessert werden. Die Implementierung eines Systems so engmaschiger Kontrollen, wie etwa in mitteleuropäischen Systemen, ist jedoch aufgrund fehlender Einkommensdokumentation in näherer Zukunft kaum möglich. Mittelfristig sollte mit Blick auf den erheblichen administrativen Aufwand für bedarfsgerechte Sozialhilfevergabe ein stufenweiser Ersatz von Sozialtransfers durch Kranken- und Pensionsversicherung diskutiert werden.

In order to combat absolute poverty in rural China, the "Rural Minimum Living Standard System" was launched nationally in 2007. The program provides direct monetary transfers to rural households living below the poverty line. A recent research project working with a sample of around 5000 households found that monetary transfers were being misallocated to a considerable extent, which greatly reduced the effectiveness of the program: 89 percent of the recipient households were not eligible according to their (reported) income while 79 percent of households assessed to be eligible according to their reported income were unable to receive the necessary assistance. Qualitative investigations revealed that these misallocations were often caused by a lack of human resources among local administrations within structurally weak regions. Additional financial aid provided by the central government towards the cost of the program's implementation could lead to considerable improvement in targeting, i.e. the identification of households eligible to receive transfers. However, due to an inability to accurately measure and document income, the implementation of a closely supervised system such as those found in central Europe does not appear to be suitable in the near future. In the mid-term, a step by step replacement of social transfers with health and pension benefits should be discussed in order to alleviate the high administrative cost engendered by targeting based on income. ; Zur Bekämpfung absoluter Armut im ländlichen China wurde 2007 landesweit das "Rural Minimum Living Standard System" eingeführt, welches direkte finanzielle Unterstützung für ländliche Haushalte unterhalb der Armutsgrenze vorsieht. Im Rahmen eines jüngeren Forschungsprojektes wurden in einer Stichprobe von knapp 5000 Haushalten extreme Fehlzuweisungen von Transfermitteln festgestellt, welche die Wirksamkeit des Programmes stark reduzierten: Während 89 Prozent der Empfängerhaushalte nach Ergebnissen dieser Studie gar nicht unterhalb der Armutslinie lagen, konnten etwa 79 Prozent der absolut armen Haushalte nicht berücksichtigt werden. Wie qualitative Nachforschungen ergaben, lag die Ursache dieser Fehlverteilung oft in der mangelnden personellen Ausstattung lokaler Verwaltungen in strukturschwachen Regionen. Durch zusätzliche finanzielle Unterstützung der Zentralregierung bei den Implementierungskosten des Programmes könnte die Zielgenauigkeit des Programmes deutlich verbessert werden. Die Implementierung eines Systems so engmaschiger Kontrollen, wie etwa in mitteleuropäischen Systemen, ist jedoch aufgrund fehlender Einkommensdokumentation in näherer Zukunft kaum möglich. Mittelfristig sollte mit Blick auf den erheblichen administrativen Aufwand für bedarfsgerechte Sozialhilfevergabe ein stufenweiser Ersatz von Sozialtransfers durch Kranken- und Pensionsversicherung diskutiert werden.

Zur Bekämpfung absoluter Armut im ländlichen China wurde 2007 landesweit das "Rural Minimum Living Standard System" eingeführt, welches direkte finanzielle Unterstützung für ländliche Haushalte unterhalb der Armutsgrenze vorsieht. Im Rahmen eines jüngeren Forschungsprojektes wurden in einer Stichprobe von knapp 5000 Haushalten extreme Fehlzuweisungen von Transfermitteln festgestellt, welche die Wirksamkeit des Programmes stark reduzierten: Während 89 Prozent der Empfängerhaushalte nach Ergebnissen dieser Studie gar nicht unterhalb der Armutslinie lagen, konnten etwa 79 Prozent der absolut armen Haushalte nicht berücksichtigt werden. Wie qualitative Nachforschungen ergaben, lag die Ursache dieser Fehlverteilung oft in der mangelnden personellen Ausstattung lokaler Verwaltungen in strukturschwachen Regionen. Durch zusätzliche finanzielle Unterstützung der Zentralregierung bei den Implementierungskosten des Programmes könnte die Zielgenauigkeit des Programmes deutlich verbessert werden. Die Implementierung eines Systems so engmaschiger Kontrollen, wie etwa in mitteleuropäischen Systemen, ist jedoch aufgrund fehlender Einkommensdokumentation in näherer Zukunft kaum möglich. Mittelfristig sollte mit Blick auf den erheblichen administrativen Aufwand für bedarfsgerechte Sozialhilfevergabe ein stufenweiser Ersatz von Sozialtransfers durch Kranken- und Pensionsversicherung diskutiert werden. ; In order to combat absolute poverty in rural China, the "Rural Minimum Living Standard System" was launched nationally in 2007. The program provides direct monetary transfers to rural households living below the poverty line. A recent research project working with a sample of around 5000 households found that monetary transfers were being misallocated to a considerable extent, which greatly reduced the effectiveness of the program: 89 percent of the recipient households were not eligible according to their (reported) income while 79 percent of households assessed to be eligible according to their reported income were unable to receive the necessary assistance. Qualitative investigations revealed that these misallocations were often caused by a lack of human resources among local administrations within structurally weak regions. Additional financial aid provided by the central government towards the cost of the program's implementation could lead to considerable improvement in targeting, i.e. the identification of households eligible to receive transfers. However, due to an inability to accurately measure and document income, the implementation of a closely supervised system such as those found in central Europe does not appear to be suitable in the near future. In the mid-term, a step by step replacement of social transfers with health and pension benefits should be discussed in order to alleviate the high administrative cost engendered by targeting based on income.

The Rural Minimum Living Standard is an important component of social security in rural areas of China, as it provides social assistance to poor rural households. The country's size and large development heterogeneities, however, make the policy's implementation a challenging task. Using quantitative and qualitative data from rural households and administrators in five provinces, we identify the pitfalls of multi-level implementation along with the difficulty of measuring income in rural, underdeveloped areas as key sources of an implementation gap that has led to a considerable degree of misallocation of monetary transfers. Changes in the budgeting process and the distribution method might improve the anti-poverty effect of social assistance without having to carry out additional monitoring. (JCCA/GIGA)

The overall goal of this article is to understand the progress in implementing the New Cooperative Medical Scheme, while seeking to assess the strengths and weaknesses of the programme and, in particular, to understand its effects on the incidence of catastrophic medical payment. The study is based on two rounds of nationally representative household survey data collected in 2005 and 2008. The study found that the programme has a very high level of participation, and has increased farmers' use of medical services. However, despite efforts by both central and local governments and high household participation, the programme is only partially achieving its policy objectives. In particular, it has been able to extend to almost all of the rural population, but has failed to cover expenses for catastrophic illness, due to insufficient funds.(IDS Bulletin/GIGA)

Abstract.  This paper seeks to evaluate effects of micro‐credit projects on the poor. We utilize data that we collected in Sichuan Province in 1999 to investigate whether micro‐credit projects have targeted the poor and whether participation in the micro‐credit project increases the likelihood of migration and switching to off‐farm jobs. We find that, although the micro‐credit programs did not help increase assets of the participants, it did help to move one or more of their members into an off‐farm job. Our findings indicate that there is a great deal of benefit in supporting micro‐credit programs.