Social Capital Inequality and Subjective Wellbeing of Older Chinese

Using longitudinal data from the China Family Panel Studies (CFPS), this study provides insights on comparative wellbeing outcomes for older people who are institutionally segregated into clusters that produce uneven social capital. We present the first study that examines how institutionalized social capital inequality,measured by the social capital gapgenerated by hukou(household registration) statusin China,affects the wellbeing of older people. Our results showthat high levels of social capital inequality are associated with lower subjective wellbeing, measured by life satisfaction. This general conclusion is robust to a number of sensitivity checks including alternative ways of measuring subjective wellbeing and inequality. We also find that the negative relationship between social capital inequality and subjective wellbeing is strongest for people with a non-urban hukouliving in urban areas.Our findings highlight the need for policies aimed at narrowing the social capital gap and the dismantling of institutional structures that hinder upward social capital mobility

Theorizing consumption and markets in the context of religion : a commentary section on Appau's (2021) "divine economic system"

This commentary section presents a dialogical discussion on Appau's (2021) "Toward a divine economic system", an article in which he explores religious exchanges in the context of a Pentecostal Church in Ghana and proposes "the divine economy" as an alternative economic system to interrogate and extend scholarship on the relationship between the market and religion. In a thought-provoking conversation, four commentators (including Appau) engage in a critical discussion aimed at generating new ideas on theorizing the complex relationship between the market, consumption, and religion

Social Capital Inequality and Subjective Wellbeing of Older Chinese

Using longitudinal data from the China Family Panel Studies (CFPS), this study provides insights on comparative wellbeing outcomes for older people who are institutionally segregated into clusters that produce uneven social capital. We present the first study that examines how institutionalized social capital inequality, measured by the social capital gap generated by hukou (household registration) status in China, affects the wellbeing of older people. Our results show that high levels of social capital inequality are associated with lower subjective wellbeing, measured by life satisfaction. This general conclusion is robust to a number of sensitivity checks including alternative ways of measuring subjective wellbeing and inequality. We also find that the negative relationship between social capital inequality and subjective wellbeing is strongest for people with a non-urban hukou living in urban areas. Our findings highlight the need for policies aimed at narrowing the social capital gap and the dismantling of institutional structures that hinder upward social capital mobility

Social Capital Inequality and Subjective Wellbeing of Older Chinese

Using longitudinal data from the China Family Panel Studies (CFPS), this study provides insights on comparative wellbeing outcomes for older people who are institutionally segregated into clusters that produce uneven social capital. We present the first study that examines how institutionalized social capital inequality, measured by the social capital gap generated by hukou (household registration) status in China, affects the wellbeing of older people. Our results show that high levels of social capital inequality are associated with lower subjective wellbeing, measured by life satisfaction. This general conclusion is robust to a number of sensitivity checks including alternative ways of measuring subjective wellbeing and inequality. We also find that the negative relationship between social capital inequality and subjective wellbeing is strongest for people with a non-urban hukou living in urban areas. Our findings highlight the need for policies aimed at narrowing the social capital gap and the dismantling of institutional structures that hinder upward social capital mobility

The Platformed Money Ecosystem: Digital Financial Platforms, Datafication, and Reimagining Financial Well-being

Digital financial platforms have become an integral part of consumers\u27 lives–resulting in the datafication of everyday life and potential for uniquely impacting financial well-being. Extending previous transformative consumer research, we suggest financial well-being must center the ways digital financial platforms and their resulting data are increasingly enmeshed with financial decision making and consumption. Drawing on a theoretical lens of platformization, we propose the Platformed Money Ecosystem, which accounts for increased embeddedness of digital financial platforms within consumers\u27 lives and the subtlety of how everyday life is transformed into data: producing data at the micro-level, monetizing data at the meso-level, and regulating data at the macro-level. In conceptualizing the Platformed Money Ecosystem, we identify three data-informed considerations for scholars and policymakers to reimagine financial well-being: protecting consumer data, limiting data biases, and supporting data literacy

Gift systems and the divine economy of the poor

© 2016 Dr. Samuelson Kwabena AppauGift giving constitutes a significant phenomenon in consumer research. However, the current literature does not address gift giving within religious contexts. Yet more than half of the world’s consumers are religious and billions of dollars are donated annually to religious organizations. What factors drive such high and committed gifting to religious institutions and their members? Do religious gifting practices conform to the same gifting practices as more secular gift exchanges? Additionally, the gift giving literature in consumer research does not give much consideration to contexts of scarcity. There exists a gap in understanding pertaining to gift exchanges among low-income consumers and/or consumers in low-resource contexts. Do the same exchange practices, norms of reciprocity, and relations govern gift exchanges where resources are low (versus high), and hence the amount of personal sacrifice in a gifting situation is high (versus low)? This thesis addresses these questions by investigating gift giving to religious bodies within contexts of scarce economic resources. Specifically, I investigate the practice of monetary donations to churches among low-income consumers. The research question problematizes the practice of monetary donations by low-income consumers, which has significant economic implications for their livelihoods. Making monetary donations to the church infers sacrificing significant portions of income that would otherwise have been spent on food, health care, and clothing for these low-income consumers and their families. However, this practice remains widespread in very religious contexts despite the economic implications on the consumers’ livelihood. I therefore sought to understand the nature, meanings, and outcomes of church donations among low-income consumers. To investigate this agenda, I undertook a five-month ethnographic study of Salvation Baptist Church (SBC), a small Pentecostal/Charismatic Church (PCCs) in Ghana, whose members were mostly poor. I chose PCCs as my context because they advance a distinct Prosperity Gospel theology that encourages church donations in return for material prosperity. My findings revealed seventeen different donation funds within SBC, which had complex and intricate donation rituals and meaning. Building upon these seventeen donation funds and their practices in SBC, I theorize the divine economy of the poor. The divine economy presents a system of community, institutional, and divine gift systems overseen by the overarching hand of God, as understood in Pentecostal theology and ideology. In this divine economy, I trace various forms of consumer gift exchanges and rituals built around social solidarity, institutional impersonality, and religious sacrifice. However, the divine economy also produces church and personal moral obligations that often conflict. Due to their low incomes, informants sometimes struggle to give to the church and also provide for themselves and their families. In response, consumers in this divine economy adopt many tactics, afforded by the indeterminacy of Pentecostal theology, to negotiate these conflicts, without leaving the divine economy. This thesis contributes to the understanding of gift systems, and the role of religious ideology and poverty in gift exchanges and consumer resource circulation. Implications for consumer research, marketing practice, and church management are discussed

Energy poverty, children's wellbeing and the mediating role of academic performance : evidence from China

Using data from the China Family Panel Studies, we examine the effects of energy poverty on children's subjective wellbeing. We find that energy poverty reduces children's subjective wellbeing: a standard deviation increase in energy poverty is associated with 0.353 standard deviation decrease in subjective wellbeing. This general conclusion is robust to alternative ways of measuring subjective wellbeing and energy poverty, a suite of estimation techniques, and other sensitivity checks. Additionally, we find that academic performance is an important channel through which energy poverty lowers children's subjective wellbeing. Our findings point out the need to involve children both in household practices and policy decisions that seek to address energy poverty, especially when it pertains to the children's wellbeing. © 2021 Elsevier B.V