Asset-Based Policy in Rural China: An Innovation in the Retirement Social Insurance Program

In response to the growing rural-urban inequality, China is undertaking a series of policy initiatives to promote rural development. In addition to redistributive policies aiming at social protection, asset-based policy, which integrates social protection and social investment, is another viable option for progressive rural development. In 1998, the Hutubi local government in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region of China implemented an innovative retirement program which allows account holders to use accounts as legal collateral to borrow small loans and invest in productive assets such as farming supplies and equipment, education, and small businesses. Using the data gathered by the program and in-depth interviews with program participants, this case study closely examines the Hutubi Program. Strengths and limitations of the loan program are discussed, followed by a closer look at the program’s key features that have effectively encouraged asset building in a rural community. The success of the Hutubi Program has implications for asset-based policy development in rural China

Dual Incentives and Dual Asset Building: The Hutubi Rural Social Security Loan Program in China

The Hutubi Rural Social Security Loan program is a policy innovation in a rural area of China by loaning savings in social security accounts back to peasants for them to purchase assets for agricultural and other development. In contrast to the nationwide recession in rural social security, this program has shown its success in proliferating rural social security funds and retaining social security participants. With a focus on the administrative data of the loan program, this study aims to provide an in-depth understanding of the loan program and examine how asset building is possible for the poor when institutional incentives are offered. The findings show that when proper policy incentives are provided, poor peasants can build assets. The Hutubi program may be a good model for other rural areas in China and other developing countries

Asset-Based Policy in China: Applied Projects and Policy Progress

Since the Center for Social Development (CSD) at Washington University in St. Louis introduced the idea of asset building in China in 2004, asset-based projects and policy discussion have drawn great attention from the central government and mainstream media. CSD research and consultation have played a central role in these developments

Asset Poverty in Urban China: A Study Using the 2002 Chinese Household Income Project

Defining asset poverty as insufficiency of assets to satisfy household basic needs for a limited period of time, the study examines asset poverty rates in urban China using the 2002 survey data from the Chinese Household Income Project (CHIP). We find that asset poverty rates in urban China are lower than those of developed countries, in part due to Chinese households’ strong commitment to precautionary savings and the low poverty standards. However, the liquid asset poverty rate is five times that of the income poverty rate in urban China. Notably, the asset-poverty-gap ratio shows that most households in asset poverty have zero liquid assets or negative net worth. Given the increasingly common trend for lower-income individuals to experience transient poverty and income uncertainty, asset building ought to be an integral part of the anti-poverty agenda to protect the poor from economic hardship and provide them with opportunities for economic growth

中国农村资产社会政策: 社会养老保险制度的变革 [Asset-based policy in rural China: An innovation in the Retirement Social Insurance Program]

In response to the growing rural-urban inequality, China is undertaking a series of policy initiatives to promote rural development. In addition to redistributive policies aiming at social protection, asset-based policy, which integrates social protection and social investment, is another viable option for progressive rural development. In 1998, the Hutubi local government in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region of China implemented an innovative retirement program which allows account holders to use accounts as legal collateral to borrow small loans and invest in productive assets such as farming supplies and equipment, education, and small businesses. Using the data gathered by the program and in-depth interviews with program participants, this case study closely examines the Hutubi Program. Strengths and limitations of the loan program are discussed, followed by a closer look at the program’s key features that have effectively encouraged asset building in a rural community. The success of the Hutubi Program has implications for asset-based policy development in rural China

中国呼图壁养老保险质押贷款项目双重激: 励和双重资产积累 [Dual incentives and dual asset building: The Hutubi Rural Social Security Loan Program in China]

The Hutubi Rural Social Security Loan program is a policy innovation in a rural area of China by loaning savings in social security accounts back to peasants for them to purchase assets for agricultural and other development. In contrast to the nationwide recession in rural social security, this program has shown its success in proliferating rural social security funds and retaining social security participants. With a focus on the administrative data of the loan program, this study aims to provide an in-depth understanding of the loan program and examine how asset building is possible for the poor when institutional incentives are offered. The findings show that when proper policy incentives are provided, poor peasants can build assets. The Hutubi program may be a good model for other rural areas in China and other developing countries

Statefinder Parameters for Five-Dimensional Cosmology

We study the statefinder parameter in the five-dimensional big bounce model, and apply it to differentiate the attractor solutions of quintessence and phantom field. It is found that the evolving trajectories of these two attractor solutions in the statefinder parameters plane are quite different, and that are different from the statefinder trajectories of other dark energy models.Comment: 8 pages, 12 figures. accepted by MPL

Constraints on modified Chaplygin gas from recent observations and a comparison of its status with other models

In this Letter, a modified Chaplygin gas (MCG) model of unifying dark energy and dark matter with the exotic equation of state $p_{MCG}=B\rho_{MCG} -\frac A{\rho_{MCG}^\alpha}$ is constrained from recently observed data: the 182 Gold SNe Ia, the 3-year WMAP and the SDSS baryon acoustic peak. It is shown that the best fit value of the three parameters ($B$,$B_{s}$,$\alpha$) in MCG model are (-0.085,0.822,1.724). Furthermore, we find the best fit $w(z)$ crosses -1 in the past and the present best fit value $w(0)=-1.114<-1$, and the $1\sigma$ confidence level of $w(0)$ is $-0.946\leq w(0)\leq-1.282$. Finally, we find that the MCG model has the smallest $\chi^{2}_{min}$ value in all eight given models. According to the Alaike Information Criterion (AIC) of model selection, we conclude that recent observational data support the MCG model as well as other popular models.Comment: 8 pages, 1 figur