Can Educational Expansion Improve Income Inequality in China? Evidences from the CHNS 1997 and 2006 Data

Rapid education expansion and rising income inequality are two striking phenomena occurring in China during the transitional period. Using the China Health and Nutrition Survey (CHNS) data collected in 1997 and 2006, this paper studies how education affects individual earnings during the transitional process. We find that education accounts for only a small fraction of personal earnings and income gap between different groups. We analyze the underlying mechanism of the impact of education on earnings. More educated people tend to enter state-owned sectors, have a low probability of changing jobs in the labor market and work less time; all of these will have a pronounced impact on earning and income inequality. Quantile regression analysis shows that the low-income group's education return rate is lower, which helps little in narrowing income gap. We decompose the earning gap into four factors: population effect, price effect, labor choice effect and unobservable effect. In explaining the earning gap in China, the price effect is more important than the population effect. The labor choice effect is also significant. We conclude that increasing educational expenditure with no complementary measures such as reforming the education system and establishing a competitive labor market helps less in reducing income inequality.rate of return to education, income gap, education expansion, labor market

The impact of China's Indigenous innovation strategy on the innovation behaviour of automobile enterprises in China

China's indigenous innovation strategy is a government-led innovation strategy in the term of pushing forward the technology development both in the state-owned enterprises and in the private enterprises. It was codified in the "Medium- and Long-Term National Science and Technology development Plan (2006-2020)" which was officially announced in 2006. There are several policy tools as the support to the indigenous innovation strategy.  R&D funding  Mega projects sponsored by government  Public procurement  Tax reduction  Standards and patents Automobile industry is normally regarded as the pillar of the economy as it is both labor intensive and capital intensive. It combines a lot of industries like steel industry, chemical industry, electronics industry, etc. Before 1980s, Chinese automobile industry concentrated on the commercial vehicle manufacture. Since 1980 the government started to be aware of the passenger car industry. Because of shortage of capital and technology, joint-venture was regarded as the only choice to get a rapid development for the passenger car industry at the cost of opening the market to the foreign automobile enterprises. This is a case of the famous "exchange market for technology" strategy, which is generally regarded as an aborted strategy 30 years later even though the Chinese government never officially acknowledges. In the beginning of 2000s, more than half of the Chinese passenger car market was occupied by the China-made foreign brand cars. Before the year of 2000, there are two types of automobile manufactures in China, one is state-owned enterprises, the other is the joint-ventures set up by the state-owned enterprises and their foreign partners most of which were the top automobile enterprises in the world like Volkswagen, GM, Toyota, etc. From 2000, the private capital was permitted to enter the automobile industry and became the third type of automobile enterprises in China. Not only in automobile industry, but also in many other industries, the failure of the "exchange market for technology" happened. Even more is that the advantage of low labor cost is losing under the competition from the emerging countries like India, Vietnam, etc. The Chinese government has the willing to turn from "world factory" to an innovation-driven country for the economic development in the future. The indigenous innovation strategy is put forward to try to solve those problems. After the indigenous innovation strategy being push forward, the new innovation system is emerging. This thesis is to research on the change of the innovation behavior both in industry level and enterprise level under the impact of the indigenous innovation strategy. Key words: indigenous innovation strategy, IPR strategy, patent applications, automobile industr

Palatini formulation of f(R,T)f(R,T) gravity theory, and its cosmological implications

We consider the Palatini formulation of $f(R,T)$ gravity theory, in which a nonminimal coupling between the Ricci scalar and the trace of the energy-momentum tensor is introduced, by considering the metric and the affine connection as independent field variables. The field equations and the equations of motion for massive test particles are derived, and we show that the independent connection can be expressed as the Levi-Civita connection of an auxiliary, energy-momentum trace dependent metric, related to the physical metric by a conformal transformation. Similarly to the metric case, the field equations impose the non-conservation of the energy-momentum tensor. We obtain the explicit form of the equations of motion for massive test particles in the case of a perfect fluid, and the expression of the extra-force, which is identical to the one obtained in the metric case. The thermodynamic interpretation of the theory is also briefly discussed. We investigate in detail the cosmological implications of the theory, and we obtain the generalized Friedmann equations of the $f(R,T)$ gravity in the Palatini formulation. Cosmological models with Lagrangians of the type $f=R-\alpha ^2/R+g(T)$ and $f=R+\alpha ^2R^2+g(T)$ are investigated. These models lead to evolution equations whose solutions describe accelerating Universes at late times.Comment: 22 pages, no figures, accepted for publication in EPJC; references adde

Self-Employment of Rural-to-Urban Migrants in China

This paper focuses on the determinants of self-employment among rural to urban migrants in China. Two self-selection mechanisms are analysed: the first relates to the manner in which migrants choose self-employment or paid work based on the potential gains from either type of employment; the second takes into account that the determinants of the migration decision can be correlated with employment choices. Using data from the 2008 Rural-Urban Migration in China and Indonesia (RUMiCI) survey, a selection model with endogenous switching is estimated. Earnings estimates are then used to derive the wage differential, which in turn is used to model the employment choice. The procedure is extended to account for migration selectivity and to compare individuals with different migration background and employment histories. The results indicate that self-employed individuals are positively selected with respect to their unobserved characteristics. Furthermore, the wage differential is found to be an important driver of the self-employment choice.self-employment, rural to urban migration, selection bias magnets, wages, European Union

Structure and Performance of Spinning Solution Prepared from Liquefied Wood

A new spinning solution was synthesized from liquefied wood in phenol by adding hexamethylenetetramine (HMTA) as a synthesis agent, and was easily spun into fibers by melt-spinning. Structure evolution of the spinning solution from liquefied wood (LWS) was investigated by FTIR spectroscopy. Results show the functional groups of LWS were changed from that of liquefied wood by adding HMTA during synthesizing the spinning solution. The effects of various synthesis conditions on the properties of the spun fibers are discussed. Spun fibers with a tensile strength of 90-129 MPa and modulus of elasticity of 8-24 GPa were obtained at a phenol/wood ratio of 6, synthesis agent content of 5%, synthesis temperature of 120°C, and temperature-rising time of 40 min. It was also found that thermal stability of LWS is better than that of liquefied wood, and that the spun fibers from LWS could be a precursor for carbon fibers

Variations in Pore Structure of Activated Carbon Fibers from Liquefied Wood with Preoxidation Treatment

Preoxidation treatments in air at 200-280°C were introduced in the preparation of activated carbon fiber from liquefied wood (LWACF) with steam activation at 910°C to enlarge its pore size distribution (PSD). LWACF yield was improved 1.14 times with preoxidation at 200°C. With increasing preoxidation temperature, the specific surface area increased from 2592 to 3068 m2/g. Preoxidations at 200 and 240°C predominantly enhanced the microporosity development without significant pore widening, whereas preoxidation at 280°C significantly enlarged the PSD. Mesopore volume increased by 72%, and methylene blue adsorption capacity improved by 34%

Technical Note: Analysis of Mechanical Relaxation Intensity of Wood at Various Moisture Contents

This study analyzed mechanical relaxation data by the well-known Gaussian function from which the relaxation intensity was determined for various moisture contents over a range of temperatures (-81-0°C). These data were used to suggest a range of bonding mechanisms for sorbed water