5,841 research outputs found
Private transfers and emerging welfare states in East Asia: Comparative perspectives
Empirical studies on income distribution and poverty have indicated that the public transfer system has been successful in terms of poverty and inequality reduction in welfare states. However, very little attention has been paid to private transfers in this analysis. Recently, while there has been an increasing interest in the unique features of East Asian welfare states/regimes, many scholars have begun to have an interest in the role of the family in their welfare mix. This article aims to widen the scope of comparative income studies, firstly by analyzing 12 Western welfare states and two newly emerging East Asian welfare states, i.e. South Korea and Taiwan, and secondly, by comparing the poverty and inequality reduction effects of private transfers with those of public transfers. The Luxemburg Income Study dataset is used for the analysis. The empirical results indicate that private transfers are much more effective than public transfers in terms of income inequality and poverty reduction effects in both South Korea and Taiwan, in contrast to western counterparts including three Southern European countries. Finally, based on the results, we propose further research questions
Emergence of robust 2D skyrmions in SrRuO3 ultrathin film without the capping layer
Magnetic skyrmions have fast evolved from a novelty, as a realization of
topologically protected structure with particle-like character, into a
promising platform for new types of magnetic storage. Significant engineering
progress was achieved with the synthesis of compounds hosting room-temperature
skyrmions in magnetic heterostructures, with the interfacial
Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interactions (DMI) conducive to the skyrmion formation.
Here we report findings of ultrathin skyrmion formation in a few layers of
SrRuO3 grown on SrTiO3 substrate without the heavy-metal capping layer.
Measurement of the topological Hall effect (THE) reveals a robust stability of
skyrmions in this platform, judging from the high value of the critical field
1.57 Tesla (T) at low temperature. THE survives as the field is tilted by as
much as 85 degrees at 10 Kelvin, with the in-plane magnetic field reaching up
to 6.5 T. Coherent Bragg Rod Analysis, or COBRA for short, on the same film
proves the rumpling of the Ru-O plane to be the source of inversion symmetry
breaking and DMI. First-principles calculations based on the structure obtained
from COBRA find significant magnetic anisotropy in the SrRuO3 film to be the
main source of skyrmion robustness. These features promise a few-layer SRO to
be an important new platform for skyrmionics, without the necessity of
introducing the capping layer to boost the spin-orbit coupling strength
artificially.Comment: Supplementary Information available upon reques
Feminisation of poverty in 12 welfare states: Strengthening cross-regime variations?
The feminisation of poverty is said to have become a common feature in the majority of advanced welfare states, but it is equally true that there has been significant variation in the feminisation of poverty from one country to another. While the concept of the feminisation of poverty remains controversial, there have been very few attempts to reveal a detailed picture from a comparative perspective. Considering this background, this study aims to illustrate the feminisation of poverty in 12 welfare states (Liberal - Australia, Canada, UK, US; Conservative - Austria, France, Germany, Italy; Nordic - Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden) between the 1980s and the 2000s and to analyse whether or not there has been any convergence or divergence between these welfare states. This study will evaluate the scope and depth of the feminisation of poverty by conducting analyses not only in terms of different sex, but in terms of different population groups. Further, the changing role of welfare states will be assessed via an analysis of the antipoverty role of public transfers in each country. The Luxemburg Income Study dataset will be used for empirical analysis. This paper will argue that while the feminisation of poverty has been slowed down and even reversed in certain cases, cross-national differences have been increasingly visible. The results of this study also show that the welfare regime framework can prove to be a useful tool for understanding the similarities and the differences in the feminisation of poverty across different Western welfare state regimes
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