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AbstractThis study explores to what extent the development of democracy affects energy efficiency. This study applies database reference from Freedom House, Polity IV project, International Country Risk Guide (ICRG) and World Development Indicator (WDI) to analyze the relationship between the level of democracy and energy efficiency of 35 countries in Europe from 1990 to 2013. Controlling for manufacturing value-added, price level, and GDP per capita, we find a significant statistical correlation between the level of democracy and the level of energy efficiency in a country. Empirical findings show that a high level of democracy has a significant positive impact on the improvement of national energy efficiency. Further examinations which employ quantile regression estimates indicate that the positive impact of democratic consolidation is stronger when the country is at the stage of relatively low energy efficiency. Empirical research also demonstrates that the consolidation of democratic institutions and economic development has a positive influence on the awareness of environmental conservation, thereby improving the structure of energy consumption and further reinforce the enhancement of energy efficiency.

AbstractMore than 40 years after the end of the Cultural Revolution, does it still affect today’s Chinese laborers? In this study, data from the 2012 Chinese General Social Survey are used to investigate the possible differences between the education and wage levels of the laborers of parents who have experienced the Cultural Revolution and others who have not. Empirical results show that the average education and wage levels of laborers whose parents have experienced the Cultural Revolution and attained at least primary education qualifications are significantly lower than other groups in the labor market. We believe that during the Cultural Revolution, the political and social climate lowered the public’s recognition of the value of education in society and reduced the incentive for human capital investment.

AbstractThis study analyzed the influence of the political cycle on public land transfer. In this paper, the Party Congress is taken as a political cycle, and we construct a model to discuss the relationship between public land sales and the political cycle. The empirical analysis is based on the land transfer panel data of prefecture-level cities from 2002 to 2018. The main results show that the land transfer area and land transfer income show a downward trend in the early stage of the Party Congress, while the land transfer area and land transfer income show an upward trend after the Party Congress. We believe that the political cycle has a significant impact on the supply of public land. The reason is that the political uncertainty in the early stage of the Party Congress is very high, and the impact of the land transfer on tax revenue and economic growth lags behind. Officials reduce the valuation of future income and thus reduce land transfer. As political uncertainty abated after the party congress, local officials joined the promotion race, offering land to attract investment and boost economic growth.

AbstractFollowing the enactment of the Labour Law in 1995, China’s urban labour market witnessed a divergence in both gender wage gap and discrimination against female workers before 2007, and thereafter a convergence in both. Contributions of endowment differentials between male and female workers to wage gap were diminishing because of the consistent improvement in the female workers’ endowments. Discrimination against women, on the other hand, kept increasing and exceeded that of endowment differentials and eventually became the dominating contributor by 2002. Driven by the optimisation of female workers’ endowments, the execution of new labour market legislation, the transformation of previously limitless labour supply into shortage, as well as the reform of income distribution policies, a long-term trend of convergence in both gender wage gap and discrimination has been forming. China has been striding forward into a society with more equity and justice ever since 2007.

AbstractStatistics on Japanese adult video (A.V.) indicated that it is an industry that produces over 4500 videos every month and has recently provided 5.27 hundred million U.S. dollars a year. All related stories and sex toys promote the culture and trades of sex goods in Japan at home and abroad. They even affect the mass in sexual life, knowledge, chats as well as values in both good and bad ways. Nonetheless, almost no empirical analysis exists of this industry. This study investigates empirically the influences of debuting age, risky-sex movies and other related factors on the career life of Japanese A.V. actresses. By analysing data concerning the Japanese A.V. actresses whose careers commenced between 2002 and 2014, the authors found that the larger the cup size of an actress, the more likely she also serves as a model entertainer, and the longer she stays. On the contrary, an A.V. actress has to retire earlier or leave the industry because of a later starting age or the numbers of risky-sex movies she has produced.

Given the importance of promoting renewable energy, the Chinese government has enacted policies to encourage residents to install and use household distributed photovoltaic (PV) systems. However, only a few studies investigated factors influencing residents’ use intention for household PV systems. The present study therefore investigated the influence of Chinese residents’ environmental concern and innovativeness on their use intention for household PV system, as well as the mediating effects of perceived benefits and harm of household PV system in this process. Furthermore, the moderating role of residents’ monthly electricity consumption in the above-mentioned association was also examined. Questionaire data from 400 Chinese participants in Zhejiang Province were used for analysis. Results from structural equation modeling suggested positive associations between environmental concern and use intention, and between innovativeness and use intention, through the mediating of perceived benefits and harm. Residents’ monthly electricity consumption also moderate part of the associations. Based on the results, this paper calls on the government to regulate the safety standard of household PV nationwide to enhance social confidence. Conspicuous consumption, which comes with “traditional customs”, should also be reduced.

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