Relative income, network interactions and social stigma

Blood donation with compensation is considered as a social stigma. However, more people in the reference group donate blood often leads to less moral concern and more followers. Therefore, the behavior is likely to be influenced through one's interactions with neighbors, friends and relatives. Meanwhile, relative income may affect the motives for blood donation through increasing mistrust and stress. The motives might be stronger for households of lower social rankings. Utilizing three-wave census-type panel data in 18 villages in rural western China, two identification strategies, instrumental variable and network-based identification, are implemented to estimate the effect of social interactions. Both community-specific and household-specific relative income measures are employed to test whether blood donation is more sensitive towards the less well-off in a society. We find strong evidence in support of the effects of social interactions, no matter whether instrumental variables or network centrality measures are adopted. Household-specific measures of relative income show more salient effects on blood donation than community-specific inequality. --Blood Donation,Social Interactions,Inequality,Relative Income,China

Peer Effect, Risk-Pooling and Status Seeking: Which Matters to Gift Spending Escalation in Rural China?

This paper is based on our ongoing joint work with Ravi Kanbur. Xi Chen is grateful to Ravi Kanbur for invaluable comments, guidance and encouragement. For comments and suggestions, please direct correspondence to Xi Chen at [email protected] Network, Peer Effect, Risk-pooling, Status Seeking, Gift-giving, Ceremony, Agricultural and Food Policy, Agricultural Finance, Community/Rural/Urban Development, Consumer/Household Economics, Demand and Price Analysis, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, Food Security and Poverty, Institutional and Behavioral Economics, International Development, Public Economics, Research Methods/ Statistical Methods, Risk and Uncertainty, I32, J22, D13, D63,

Costly posturing: Relative status, ceremonies and early child development

Though social spending facilitates risk-pooling in the impoverished regions, too many resources devoted to social occasions may impose negative externalities and hinder efforts to alleviate poverty for households living close to subsistence. Conducting three waves census-type panel survey in rural western China with well-defined reference groups and detailed information on social occasions, gift exchanges, nutrients intake and health outcomes, we find that the squeeze effect originated from lavish ceremonies is associated with lower height-for-age zscore, higher probability of stunting and underweight in early child development. The lasting impact suggests that 'catch up' is limited. The squeeze is stronger for the fetal period and towards the lower tail of the distribution. Specifically, 39.2%, 33.3% and 64.6% of the sampled households suffer from net squeeze effect on stunting, underweight and lower height-for-age zscore, respectively. The squeeze effect is stronger for 1-3 age cohorts and between 2007 and 2009. We provide suggestive evidence on the intermediate pathways linking social events with poor health outcomes, such as share of food expenditure and basic nutrients intake. Our findings suggest more efficient policy interventions that target the households with pregnant women and of lower social rankings. --Relative Status,Squeeze Effect,Nutrients Intake,Stunting,Underweight,Gender

The Distribution of Income and Well-Being in Rural China: A Survey of Panel Data Sets, Studies and New Directions

This paper reviews the recent literature on inequality and income distribution in rural China utilizing panel datasets. We begin by briefly summarizing and comparing available panel datasets for rural China that can be employed to explore issues on inequality and income distribution, and major data issues that might act as obstacles to research and policy enforcement are then analyzed. The paper then reviews the trend and spatial decompositions of rural income inequality, its major determinants, and its relationship with household welfare. Dimensions other than income inequality, such as income mobility and income polarization, are categorized and reviewed respectively. A recently developed branch of literature on inequality and health is summarized. On the basis of the review, this paper concludes by identifying new research areas with existing panel data sets and a new panel dataset that could shape future research.Inequality；Income Distribution；Rural China；Panel Data

Thermal effects on bipartite and multipartite correlations in fiber coupled cavity arrays

We investigate the thermal influence of fibers on the dynamics of bipartite and multipartite correlations in fiber coupled cavity arrays where each cavity is resonantly coupled to a two-level atom. The atom-cavity systems connected by fibers can be considered as polaritonic qubits. We first derive a master equation to describe the evolution of the atom-cavity systems. The bipartite (multipartite) correlations is measured by concurrence and discord (spin squeezing). Then, we solve the master equation numerically and study the thermal effects on the concurrence, discord, and spin squeezing of qubits. On the one hand, at zero temperature, there are steady-state bipartite and multipartite correlations. One the other hand, the thermal fluctuations of a fiber may blockade the generation of entanglement of two qubits connected directly by the fiber while the discord can be generated and stored for a long time. This thermal-induced blockade effects of bipartite correlations may be useful for quantum information processing. The bipartite correlations of a longer chain of qubits is more robust than a shorter one in the presence of thermal fluctuations