Search Results (10)

In recent years, China’s financial markets have come under increasing scrutiny. In order to explore the impact of financial literacy on urban household investment in the risk financial market, this paper used the micro-data of the 2019 China Household Finance Survey (CHFS) to start from two perspectives: household risk financial investment and the number of investment financial products, namely the breadth of investment. By constructing a probit model and ordered probit model for empirical analysis, the main conclusions are as follows. Benchmark regression results show that the improvement of financial literacy can significantly promote urban households to make risky financial investments and can significantly broaden the types of risky financial investments. Based on the IV-probit model and two-stage least square method, the endogeneity test using the economic and financial information attention degree as the instrumental variable showed that the model results were credible. The robustness test showed that the model results were basically correct. Furthermore, the mechanism analysis found that the use of fintech played an intermediary effect in the process of financial literacy affecting urban household risky financial investment and the amount of investment. This indicates that the improvement of financial literacy can improve the probability of using fintech, thus promoting the household risky financial investment behavior. Heterogeneity analysis based on risk attitude showed that financial literacy had a greater effect on the improvement in the risky financial investment behavior of risk-inclined families, followed by risk-neutral families, and had the least effect on risk-averse families. The research conclusions of this paper are of practical significance to solve the problems related to urban household financial market investment. Therefore, this paper puts forward some suggestions for reference, especially in terms of financial education and the digital economy. Full article

In the context of China’s forest rights reform, promoting forest land circulation is the key to revitalizing forest land resources and promoting the development of the forestry industry. Based on the theoretical analysis of the effect of farmers’ cognition on forest land transfer behavior, data from 790 farmers in typical areas of Chengdu were used for empirical testing with the binary logit model. At the same time, the effects of the cognitive differences of the farmers with different education levels on forest land circulation are discussed. Finally, appropriate instrumental variables were selected to modify the model, and the IV probit model was used to test the endogeneity of the model. The results showed that the (1) farmers’ cognition had a significant positive effect on the forest land transfer behavior. Among them, in the order of the degree of impact, were the following: ecological cognition, policy cognition, risk cognition, social regulation, and benefit cognition. (2) Among the groups with different education levels, farmers with lower education levels will consider more aspects than farmers with higher education levels when choosing to transfer forest land. By broadening the research into the cognitive composition of farmers, this study deepens our understanding of the influence of farmers’ cognition on forest land transfer behavior. Moreover, it is found that Chinese farmers have strong ecological rationality in addition to economic rationality, and ecological cognition plays a greater role in forest land transfer behavior than benefit cognition, which is of considerable significance for further research on forest land transfer behavior. Full article

Compared with the urban aging population, the rural aging population in China is larger, and is subject to a lower per capita income, lower social security coverage, and insufficient security capacity. Therefore, ensuring the health of middle-aged and older farmers is an inevitable requirement for maintaining the stability of rural areas and society. This study uses data from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Survey (CHARLS) 2018, an ordered probit model and instrumental variable approach to empirically analyze the effect of land circulation out on the physical health of middle-aged and older farmers over 45. The results indicate that land circulation out positively and significantly affects farmers’ health. Again, farmer’s non-agricultural work and household income play a significant role in this positive relationship between land circulation out and farmers’ health. Thus, the promotion of non-agricultural work for farmers and household income enhancement could alleviate household budget constraints while increasing health investment. The findings provide policies advocating for rural health development from land circulation perspectives. Full article

This study presents nonlinear evidence of the effects of a microcredit program implemented in poverty-stricken villages in China on rural public health using multivariate-ordered Probit and IV-ordered Probit models. The results, which were based on a unique set of data gathered from two rounds of official tracking statistics obtained through investigation (2015 and 2018) at a household level, suggest that rural residents’ health levels and health insurance demands are related to the formal credit amount that they receive from the microcredit program. Further, the amount of debt that remains to be paid is a negative mediator and the poverty reduction degree is a positive mediator for the health impact of credit. After dividing the sample into subgroups according to income, credit rating and social network, the results show heterogeneity: the health outcomes of groups with a low income, a high credit rating and a strong social network are more significantly improved by loans. The estimations are still robust after using network and village clan numbers as instrumental variables to address endogeneity. Although most of the existing literature demonstrates that credit and indebtedness have negative impacts on health, our results supplement previous findings of the positive causality between access to formal credit and rural public health by showing that the former can exert positive effects by relaxing individuals’ external constraints and increasing health spending. Full article

Improvement in pesticide application and efficiency structure has long been recognized as having great significance in reducing pollution, ensuring food safety, and promoting green agricultural development. Based on theoretical analysis, using the survey data of 766 farmers in key tea areas in Shaanxi, Sichuan, Zhejiang, and Anhui provinces in China, the study empirically analyzes the influence of market incentives and livelihood dependence on farmers’ multi-stage pesticide application behavior. More specifically, the study employed ordered probit analysis to craft its findings. The dependent variable of this study is the multi-stage pesticide application problem of farmers, and the core independent variables are market incentives and livelihood dependence, and the judgment is based on the core variable coefficients of the econometric model of farmers at each stage. The study found the following: (i) Market incentives significantly prompted some farmers to give up synthetic pesticide application and farmers tend to choose green pesticides in the type of pesticide application. (ii) Livelihood dependence meant that the proportion of tea income significantly prompts farmers to apply pesticides, and also creates a tendency for farmers to choose green and low-toxic pesticides in the type of pesticide application. The planting period tends to have a moderate impact on applying green and low-toxic pesticides. (iii) The interaction term of market incentives and the proportion of tea income has no significant impact on farmers’ multi-stage pesticide application behavior. The interaction term of market incentives and planting years has impacted negatively on whether farmers apply pesticides, and has no significant impact on farmers’ choice of pesticide application types, but makes farmers increase the amount of green and low-toxic pesticides. (iv) The education level of the household head significantly promotes farmers to choose green and low-toxic pesticides. Seemingly, the brand effect of pesticides significantly encourages farmers to choose green and low-toxic pesticides. In external support, technical training significantly encourages farmers to choose green and low-toxic pesticides. Furthermore, better infrastructure and local market conditions significantly encourage farmers to reduce the use of conventional pesticides. Full article

The United Nations (UN) has identified the promotion of cleaner energy and improving women’s health as two important elements in achieving the global sustainable development goals. However, the impact of household clean energy consumption on women’s health needs to be further analyzed and improved based on new methods, new data, and new perspectives. This paper used the data from the 2018 China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study as the sample, and the Ordered Probit model, the instrumental variable (IV) approach, the conditional mixed process (CMP) method, and the mechanism analysis model were applied to empirically investigate the impact of cleaner household energy consumption on women’s health. The findings are the following: (1) It is found that cleaner household energy consumption improved women’s health, and after selecting “respondent’s regions of residence” as an IV to overcome endogenous issues, the estimated results remained significant. (2) The mechanistic estimation showed that air quality, social contact, and well-being play a mediating role in the effects of cleaner household energy consumption on women’s health, while digital ability plays a moderating role in the cleaner household energy consumption impact on women’s health. (3) This study further explored that cleaner household energy consumption significantly reduced the likelihood of women being diagnosed with hypertension, hyperlipidemia, cancer, lung disease, asthma, and depression. The conclusion of this paper that “cleaner household energy can enhance the level of women’s health” supports the viewpoints of some present literature. At the same time, this paper puts forward four policy recommendations based on the research conclusions. Full article

The land system of state-owned farms in China is different from that in rural areas. Whether the land tenure of state-owned farms can play a role in protecting cultivated land is an important issue for the high-quality development of state-owned agriculture in China. This article develops a dynamic model to examine how land tenure influences farmers’ decisions on land improvement. It then analyzes this relationship based on cotton farmers’ household-level data from state-owned farms of Xinjiang in China. We applied methods that take into account the possible endogeneity of the land tenure. The results reveal that the stability of land tenure in the past will not affect the current behavior of farmers for they have a relatively stable expectation of current land tenure and a high degree of trust in the government and its policies. The intergenerational transfer of land tenure is not the key factor that affects farmers’ land conservation, and the relatively long-term duration of land tenure (possibly five years or more) during their careers is more important. Our findings also reveal that non-property factors, such as government intervention (e.g., technology promotion) that alleviates the limited rationality of farmers, cannot be ignored because they played a crucial role in past land improvement when land tenure was less stable. Full article

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the National New-type Urbanization Plan (2014–2020) put forward the novel principle of “people-oriented” policy. Has the Chinese government’s plan achieved the expected results? To answer this question, the present study evaluates the impacts of New-type Urbanization on the subjective well-being (SWB) of residents. Based on the IV Ordered Probit Model and the data of Chinese General Social Survey (CGSS), we determined that (1) living in cities has a positive impact on SWB, and this impact is significant at a statistical level of 1%; (2) urban household registration (hukou) has no significant impact on SWB; and (3) “Gender”, “Income”, “Job”, “Politics”, “Education”, “Marriage”, and “Health” have significant effects on SWB. To improve residents’ SWB, the government should enhance the attractiveness of the city and significantly reform the household registration system. Full article

We used data based on the China Labor-Force Dynamics Survey 2016 to examine the relationship between the work value awareness and the physical health of rural-to-urban migrant workers. The work value awareness was characterized by five dimensions: awareness of the emotional value, social value, respect value, ability value and interest value. Physical health was measured by a self-rated health assessment. The results from an IV-ordered probit model show that the awareness of work value has a statistically significant impact on the self-rated physical health of rural-to-urban migrant workers. The results also show that the impacts of work value awareness on rural-to-urban migrant workers’ physical health are heterogeneous to genders and ages. Mental health plays a mediating role between the awareness of work value and the physical health of rural-to-urban migrant workers. It is beneficial for rural-to-urban migrant workers to improve awareness of the value of work to enhance their physical health. The findings of this paper have policy implications for improving the health and welfare of Chinese rural-to-urban migrant workers as well as temporary migrants to cities in many developing countries. Full article

This is the first study in China that looks at the impact of credit constraints from formal financial institutions on Chinese rural residents’ health. We use the Chinese Household Income Project (CHIP) data collected by the Annual Household Survey Office of Integration of Urban and Rural in the National Bureau of Statistics in 2014. We measure rural residents’ health status with self-rated health assessment and the number of sick days in 2013. The results obtained from using the ordered probit model show that, in general, credit constraints from formal financial institutions significantly and negatively affect the self-rated health of Chinese rural residents. When an endogeneity issue is addressed using the instrumental variable (IV) approach, this paper’s results are still robust. The results also show that the impact of credit constraints from formal financial institutions on rural residents’ self-rated health is significant in male, female, married, and unmarried sub-groups. Further, we find that credit constraints from formal financial institutions impact rural residents’ health through income and economic vulnerability. The findings have implications for preventing rural residents from falling into a health trap due to credit constraints from formal financial institutions. Full article