Unlocking opportunities for migrant workers in China: Analyzing the impact of health insurance on hukou switching intentions

The Chinese urban–rural binary health insurance structure has contributed to a significant urban–rural segmentation and regional fragmentation, which will affect labor mobilization and urbanization. The purpose of this research is to study whether and how urban–rural binary health insurance impacts the intentions of migrant workers to switch between rural and urban hukou. Pooled data were drawn from China Migrants Dynamic Survey, collected by the National Health Commission of China. The study applied the instrument variable model due to the existence of the endogeneity; and the IVprobit model to conduct the empirical analysis. Our findings are as follows: (1) the urban–rural binary health insurance affects migrant workers’ intentions to switch to urban hukou significantly. (2) The negative impact of originally rural health insurance on migrant workers’ intention of switching to urban hukou is relatively large for low-education-level migrant workers. (3) Compared with new generation of migrant workers, old migrant workers have higher health insurance dependency levels. Finally, our research suggested several policy implications, such as accelerating the establishment of a unified urban–rural health insurance system, increasing the urban health insurance participation rate of migrant workers in their working cities, and including migrant workers in the scope of equal access to urban public services, etc. All the policy suggestions are essential in order to accelerate the citizenization of migrant workers, improve the quality of urbanization, and promote the construction of a unified national labor market.Web of Science158art. no. 699

Characteristics, risk management and GMP standards of pharmaceutical companies in China

The Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) is one of the gold standards by which governments worldwide judge modern pharmaceutical companies’ production processes and product-safety standards. However, in all the nations, it is di cult to obtain real data about GMP inspection results, so conducting the related research is impossible. Taking advantage of a rare chance to obtain the on-site GMP inspection results in China, we have been able to initiate an empirical analysis of how company characteristics and risk management aWeb of Science11art. no. 110355

DNA Checkpoint and Repair Factors Are Nuclear Sensors for Intracellular Organelle Stresses-Inflammations and Cancers Can Have High Genomic Risks.

Under inflammatory conditions, inflammatory cells release reactive oxygen species (ROS) and reactive nitrogen species (RNS) which cause DNA damage. If not appropriately repaired, DNA damage leads to gene mutations and genomic instability. DNA damage checkpoint factors (DDCF) and DNA damage repair factors (DDRF) play a vital role in maintaining genomic integrity. However, how DDCFs and DDRFs are modulated under physiological and pathological conditions are not fully known. We took an experimental database analysis to determine the expression of 26 DNA D

Finishing the euchromatic sequence of the human genome

The sequence of the human genome encodes the genetic instructions for human physiology, as well as rich information about human evolution. In 2001, the International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium reported a draft sequence of the euchromatic portion of the human genome. Since then, the international collaboration has worked to convert this draft into a genome sequence with high accuracy and nearly complete coverage. Here, we report the result of this finishing process. The current genome sequence (Build 35) contains 2.85 billion nucleotides interrupted by only 341 gaps. It covers ∼99% of the euchromatic genome and is accurate to an error rate of ∼1 event per 100,000 bases. Many of the remaining euchromatic gaps are associated with segmental duplications and will require focused work with new methods. The near-complete sequence, the first for a vertebrate, greatly improves the precision of biological analyses of the human genome including studies of gene number, birth and death. Notably, the human enome seems to encode only 20,000-25,000 protein-coding genes. The genome sequence reported here should serve as a firm foundation for biomedical research in the decades ahead

Exploring the effect of internet usage on the urban-rural income gap: empirical evidence from China

China has witnessed remarkable ongoing digitalization with the rapid spread and adoption of the Internet. However, this remarkable development remains uneven between urban and rural populations, and hence result in different impact on their income. Employing data China General Social Survey 2018, this study explores how internet usage affects income gap between the urban and rural China. Relying on the instrumental variables approach to regression analysis, we prove that internet usage contributes to higher increase in annual income for the urban employed compared to their rural counterparts. The RIF decomposition regression results then reveal the effects of differential urban-rural internet usage ratios, explaining the widened income gap between the urban and rural employed in various income levels. The difference in the returns to urban and rural internet usage narrowed the urban-rural income gap for low - and high-income employed, but further contributed to the urban-rural income gap for the middle-income employed.Web of Science45446645

Effects of Off-Farm Work on Farm Household Production Choices

Using a unique panel of rice-producing Chinese households, this paper tests off-farm employment’s effects on agricultural production. We find the sizable rural out-migration in the past two decades has had negligible effects on China’s rice production. This cannot be explained by farm labor market perfection or any technological improvements financed by off-farm income; rather, evidence points to the persistence of disguised unemployment in 21st century China

Healthy migrant and salmon bias hypotheses: A study of health and internal migration in China

The existing literature has often underscored the “healthy migrant” effect and the “salmon bias” in understanding the health of migrants. Nevertheless, direct evidence for these two hypotheses, particularly the “salmon bias,” is limited. Using data from a national longitudinal survey conducted between 2003 and 2007 in China, we provide tests of these hypotheses in the case of internal migration in China. To examine the healthy migrant effect, we study how pre-migration self-reported health is associated with an individual’s decision to migrate and the distance of migration. To test the salmon bias hypothesis, we compare the self-reported health of migrants who stay in destinations and who return or move closer to home villages. The results provide support for both hypotheses. Specifically, healthier individuals are more likely to migrate and to move further away from home. Among migrants, those with poorer health are more likely to return or to move closer to their origin communities

How Internet usage contributes to livelihood resilience of migrant peasant workers? Evidence from China

Access to employment through the Internet matters a great deal to stabilise the livelihood of migrant peasant workers in Chinese cities. This study examines how Internet usage affects the off-farm income of migrant peasant workers by constructing a random effects model for the period 2010-2016. Research findings corroborate that Internet usage has significantly increased the off-farm income of migrant peasant workers and the positive impact of Internet usage on income is stronger for migrant peasant workers than for their urban flexible -employed counterparts. The positive impacts of Internet usage on migrant peasant workers' income vary regarding region, gender, and educational level. It is concluded that Internet usage has helped improve the livelihood resilience of migrant peasant workers in China.Web of Science9612011