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Synthetic biology (SB) has the potential to deliver various novel agri-food applications. However, a mapping review of the existing literature on public attitudes indicated that agri-food applications may be less acceptable to the public, compared to medical and environmental applications. Research into public attitudes, at present, is limited, and is mainly focused on SB per se rather than on its specific applications. This research seeks to address this knowledge gap. As scientific experts in the area of SB contribute to innovation trajectories and regulatory frameworks linked to SB, semi-structured interviews were conducted to understand how Chinese (n = 9) and EU experts (n = 13) think the public may respond to SB applications. The results suggested that experts were concerned about public rejection of SB in the agri-food sector. In contrast, according to the focus group research (6 groups) among Chinese citizens (n = 32), most participants evaluated SB agri-food applications on a case-by-case analysis, and did not reject SB as an enabling technology. Subsequently, online surveys were conducted to investigate Chinese public responses to genetically modified (GM) (n = 1,411) and SB-based (n = 1,330) agri-food applications, respectively. The results showed that participants had positive general attitudes towards SB food, despite the influence of their prior beliefs about GM food. A framework that explained public attitude formation towards SB agri-food applications was developed and tested using structural equation modelling. The results demonstrated that benefit perceptions were the most important in predicting participants' application acceptance compared to general attitudes, affective responses and risk perceptions. Future SB-related agri-food policy- and communication strategy-making, as well as application development, should consider public attitudinal differences across applications and contexts. Co-production of applications and polices with the public was identified as an important part of the technological innovation process.

Financial inclusion, defined as the access to and use of formal financial services, has gained growing interest among regulators, governments and researchers. A wide range of literature revealed that financial inclusion is imperative for financial stability and economic growth. The concepts and measurements of financial inclusion vary among past studies and the level of financial inclusion is different across regions and economies. Only a few studies have focused on the level of financial inclusion in rural China where financial deprivation is most prevalent. Research on its associated determinants and pathways from inclusive finance to household welfare at the micro-level is scarce and lacks empirical support. This study uses the probit model and ordinary least squares method with the China Household Finance Survey (CHFS) data carried out across 29 provinces in China to construct a comprehensive financial inclusion index to examine the extent of financial inclusion in rural China. We investigate the factors underpinning financial inclusion at the household level. The results demonstrate that the use of formal financial services is minimal among rural households and there is substantial inconsistency across regions. The eastern provinces exhibit the highest level of financial inclusion and the central region displayed the lowest level. Rural household characteristics such as family size, household head’s education level, income level, employment status and financial literacy are significant determinants of financial inclusion whereas factors like household head’s age, gender and communist party membership are insignificant. The OLS results reveal that being financially included has a significant positive impact on household welfare measured by household annual consumption expenditure. For each financial service usage indicator, the use of a savings account, mobile payment account, credit card and commercial insurance raise household consumption expenditure by 7.8, 34.5, 29.2, and 22.4 percent, respectively. These provide an insight into the trajectory of economic inclusion that can emerge from an inclusive financial system at the household level.

With the transition of the economy in China, migrants start holding a more and more important position in the labor market. Therefore, from this dissertation, we try to explore different topics related to the migrants in China. This dissertation consists of three essays on who chooses to migrate, how networks affect migrants' outcomes, and what is the intergenerational impact of parental migration on children's risk preferences. In the first chapter, we briefly introduce the motivation and contribution, and then we provide the methods and detailed findings in the following chapters. Chapter 2 examines the impact of the endogeneity of the decision to migrate on the wage differentials between migrants and non-migrants in China. We find that migrants are self-selected from the upper tail of the income distribution in their home location. Consistent with a theoretical model of migration choice, we show that the size of the selection effect on wage depends on the wage differences between the prefectures of origin and destination as well as migration cost. The selection effect also differs among workers with different education and in different cities. Chapter 3 studies how networks affect migrants' migration decisions, employment, and wage levels by using 2005 China's mini-census. Different from existing studies, this paper takes into account the existence of self-selection in the labor market. With the help of a theoretical model, we have a better understanding of the mechanism of networks as well as the different network effects on rural and urban migrants. We find out that networks affect both rural and urban migrants' migration decisions positively. In terms of employment, networks exert positive impacts on rural migrants but not on urban ones, which is due to the different quality drops between rural and urban migrants when the networks increase. Such employment effects also lead rural migrants to face a more severe negative wage impact than urban migrants. Chapter 4 investigates how parental migration affects left-behind underage children's risk preferences. By focusing on migrant parent groups, we are able to estimate whether the influence of nurture could also affect children's risk preference levels or not. The findings suggest that besides the intergenerational transmission of risk preferences between parents and children, parental migrations do have an influence on girls' risk preference levels. In addition, in terms of adult children's risk-related outcomes, we are able to find a positive parental migration impact on daughters' self-employment decisions. Findings help us have a better understanding of the relevant factors of risk preferences, and also confront the impact of the separation of parents and children.

It is well known that boronic acids can bind with diols and can be further applied as chemosensors for biomolecules such as carbohydrates and dopamine. Carbohydrates are known to mediate a large number of biological and pathological events. Small and macromolecules capable of carbohydrate recognition have great potentials as research tools, diagnostics, vectors for targeted delivery of therapeutic and imaging agents, and therapeutic agents.