Love Thy Neighbor: Income Distribution and Housing Preferences

Do homeowners prefer living in an area with a more equal distribution of income? We answer this question by estimating a semi-parametric hedonic pricing model for about 90,000 housing units transacted in Hong Kong between 2005 and 2006. We first identify a hedonic price function by locally regressing the rental price of the housing unit on its intrinsic and neighborhood characteristics, one of which is the Gini coefficient for household income of the constituency area. We then combine the estimates with a log utility function to obtain the heterogeneous preference parameters. Finally, we estimate the joint distribution of the preference parameters and demographics. We find that most homeowners have a strong distaste for inequality in their neighborhood, and the distaste increases with income and goes down with education level. Counterfactual experiments show that reallocating Public Rental Housing by half can increase the welfare of homeowners by about HK$8,000 on average per year, an amount which is equivalent to increasing the housing unit by 20 square feet or reducing the age of the unit by 5 years.hedonic pricing; housing; income inequality

Yoga & Qigong — A Self-reliant Practice for Health of Body & Mind

Yoga originated from India and is becoming popular worldwide. Qigong originated from China and is less known outside China. Interestingly, both Indian Yoga and Chinese Qigong emphasize on three common components in their fundamental practices, viz. (i) stretching of muscles, tendons and ligaments when thousands of proprioceptive receptors which initiate the “gate theory” of neurological control of pain perception are stimulated; (ii) controlled breathing which harmonizes the somatic and autonomic systems of neurological activities; and (iii) the wonderful outcome after such simple voluntary efforts, a state of tranquility of the mind, which could be understood as Meditation. A comprehensive review on the reports on Yoga and Qigong practices affecting the important physiological processes and mental states of the practitioners is completed to provide reliable information about the value of the practices. Result of the review shows that there are sufficient evidences today, after many carefully planned research studies, on the supportive effects of both Yoga and Qigong on not only neuromuscular pathologies but also problems in cardiovascular, pulmonary and most remarkably, mental health. Yoga and Qigong practices are good for both the body and mind

Social movement as cognitive praxis the case of the student and labour movements in Hong Kong /

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香港文學電影片目

《香港文學電影片目》收錄1913至2000年改編自文學作品的香港電影，及文人作家參與編製的電影。我們希望可以編一個齊全的片目，以方便日後的硏究者和有興趣的同學，但目前香港文學及電影的資料散佚仍多，我們盡力而為，工作了多年，但相信仍 有不少可以補充的地方。就算是拋磚引玉好了，希望前輩高明和有識讀者能給我們提供寶貴意見。片目雖説是涵蓋九十年的文學電影資料，但側重是在五、六〇年代的文藝電影資料。這兩個年代改編文學作品的電影較多，文人參與電影製作亦較活躍，香港文學跟香港電影的關係最密切，這個情況似乎不復見了。編出這片目，不知對今天的電影工作者會不會有一點參考作用?https://commons.ln.edu.hk/chr_book/1000/thumbnail.jp

Conductance spectra of metallic nanotube bundles

We report a first principles analysis of electronic transport characteristics for (n,n) carbon nanotube bundles. When n is not a multiple of 3, inter-tube coupling causes universal conductance suppression near Fermi level regardless of the rotational arrangement of individual tubes. However, when n is a multiple of 3, the bundles exhibit a diversified conductance dependence on the orientation details of the constituent tubes. The total energy of the bundle is also sensitive to the orientation arrangement only when n is a multiple of 3. All the transport properties and band structures can be well understood from the symmetry consideration of whether the rotational symmetry of the individual tubes is commensurate with that of the bundle

A social history of industrial strikes and the labour movement in Hong Kong, 1946-1989

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