Search

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) has been identified as a critical factor influencing consumer decision‐making. However, there has been little empirical research on whether and how CSR affects consumer outcomes in the context of natural disasters. Against the backdrop of the Erke donation event that occurred during the flood in Henan Province, China, the present study examined the relationship between perceived corporate social responsibility (PCSR) and consumer purchase intention/behavior during a special period. We found that PCSR was positively related to consumers' purchase intention and purchase behavior. We also found that while national identity partially mediated the association between PCSR and purchase intentions, this mediating effect was not found in the path from PCSR to purchase behavior. Additionally, we found that herd mentality moderated the direct relationship between PCSR and purchase intention, but not the mediated path. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explored the impact of mobile broadband use on smallholders' entrepreneurial engagement and willingness using data from a household survey collected from three provinces in China. We used an endogenous switching probit model to account for the potential selection bias associated with mobile broadband use. The empirical results indicated that mobile broadband use exerted positive and statistically significant impacts on smallholders' entrepreneurial engagement and willingness. In particular, we found that mobile broadband use increased the probability of smallholders' entrepreneurial engagement and willingness by 15.1 and 50.9% points, respectively. Further analysis revealed that the effects of mobile broadband use on smallholder entrepreneurship were heterogeneous across regions. Additionally, we found that while the impact of mobile broadband use on entrepreneurial engagement was the largest for smallholders with high income, its impact on entrepreneurial willingness appeared to be the greatest for smallholders with low income. This study extended the literature by analysing smallholder entrepreneurship and provided evidence on the effect of mobile ICT on smallholder entrepreneurship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although much attention has been paid to subjective well-being (SWB) in prior literature, the nexus between multidimensional inequality and SWB has yet to be understood. This study attempted to address the gap and examined the effect of multidimensional inequality on SWB, using the generalized ordered logit model and a nationally representative survey data from China. We employed Maasoumi index to measure multidimensional inequality and found that multidimensional inequality of the rural sample was higher than that of urban respondents. Moreover, the comparison analysis suggested a geographical difference in the level of multidimensional inequality across western, central and eastern parts of China. The results of the generalized ordered logit model presented that multidimensional inequality had heterogeneous effects on SWB. In particular, while the econometric analysis showed negative impacts of multidimensional inequality for respondents with lower levels of SWB, the effect of multidimensional inequality on happiness was positive for individuals who self-rated "happy". This study extended the existing literature on the inequality-SWB link by measuring inequality in a multidimensional setting and provided evidence on the effect of multidimensional inequality on SWB. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using nationally representative data from China, this paper investigated the impact of internal migration on sexual attitudes and whether this relationship is moderated by Internet use. We provide evidence that internal migration had a significantly positive impact on attitudes toward the acceptance of premarital sex, extramarital sex, and homosexuality. We also found that the positive nexus between internal migration and sexual attitudes was moderated by Internet use. The results further indicated that internal migration influenced sexual attitudes through extrication from traditional gender role values, the deterioration of subjective well-being, and the improvement of economic status. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using nationally representative data from the 2017 National Internal Migrants Dynamic Monitoring Survey, this paper examines the nexus between social integration and the political participation of internal migrants in China. We document a positive association between social integration status and internal migrants' political participation. The study further examines the political participation differentials from two perspectives: between migration types and between migration distances. Our Oaxaca–Blinder decomposition analysis suggests that while only about 5.2% of the political participation differential between urban‐to‐urban migrants and rural‐to‐urban migrants is attributable to the difference in social integration status, the difference in social integration status explains about 12.0% of the participation gap between intra‐provincial migrants and inter‐provincial migrants. Our findings suggest that regionally diverse social integration policies may have unintended consequences for the political participation of migrant workers in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While there is a large literature on the determinants of generalized trust, few studies have explored the impact of internal migration and attempted to tackle potential endogeneity issues. Using nationally representative data from the latest five rounds of the China General Society Survey, this paper estimates the impact of internal migration on generalized trust by exploiting arguably exogenous, historical changes in the GDP growth target set by the government and the share of migrants at the county level. We find evidence of a significant negative impact of internal migration on generalized trust. We also investigate the moderating role of Internet use, and find that whilst Internet use significantly attenuates the negative impact on generalized trust of internal migration, this moderating effect is much stronger for urban-to-urban migrants than it is for rural-to-urban migrants. The results further indicate that internal migration in China has led to the deterioration of subjective well-being, changing perceptions of fairness, increased likelihood of downward social mobility, and deterioration in social relations, which we interpret as potential mechanisms behind our findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although reducing poverty has become an important issue for rural development in China, few studies have analyzed the role of mobile Internet use in multidimensional poverty. To fill this gap, this study investigated the impact of mobile Internet use on multidimensional poverty, using data collected from a household survey in rural China. Because households generally decide whether to use mobile Internet by themselves, an endogenous switching regression model was employed to control for potential selection bias. In total, 9.63% of the households were identified as multidimensionally poor and the adjusted multidimensional poverty incidence was 5.47%. The results also showed that mobile Internet use has a significant negative impact on multidimensional poverty. Further, we provide evidence of heterogeneity in the effect of mobile Internet use across regions. These findings highlight the importance of mobile Internet use in multidimensional poverty reduction strategies for rural households. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although mobile Internet has become an integral part of people's daily life in the world today, research on whether and to what extent mobile Internet use (MIU) affects the subjective well-being (SWB) of older adults is scant. This paper focuses on the SWB-MIU gradients among older Chinese adults and contributes to the literature by exploring the relationship between MIU and SWB across the entire distribution of older adults' SWB. Using nationally representative data from the China Family Panel Studies, we find that MIU has a significant positive impact on the SWB of older adults in China. Employing an instrumental variable quantile regression approach, we provide robust evidence of an asymmetric distributional impact of MIU on SWB among older Chinese adults. In particular, we find that individuals with lower levels of SWB benefit more from the usage of mobile Internet. The results further indicate that MIU can improve the relationship between older adults and their adult children, and is conducive to the maintenance of kin ties, which we interpret as potential mechanisms through which MIU positively affects SWB among older Chinese adults. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous studies examining the impact of social trust on happiness often face the difficulties of tackling the problems of potential endogeneity. Using an instrumental variables strategy and a two-stage residual inclusion approach, this paper explores the causal impact of social trust on individual happiness in China. We find robust evidence that a positive, causal relationship between social trust and happiness exist in China. We also find significant heterogeneity in the impact across genders and places of residence. The happiness of males and urban residents is more likely to be affected by social trust, compared to the happiness of female and rural residents, respectively. We further show that the key mechanisms through which social trust affects happiness are changes in self-reported health, social ties, perceived fairness of the society and subjective socioeconomic status. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although the Internet has had a profound influence on China's economy and society, the empirical research pertaining to political consequences of the Internet is highly sparse. This paper investigates the potential relationship between Internet use and trust in government of Chinese netizens. We find robust evidence of a significant positive effect of Internet use on trust in government of netizens in China. The beneficial impact of Internet use on trust in government is found to be heterogeneous across genders and age groups. We also find that the source of information plays a role in explaining Chinese netizens' attitudes towards their governments. In addition, we find that the key mechanisms through which Internet use affects trust in government are the changes in netizens' appraisal of government performance, deference to government authority and internal efficacy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous studies investigating the health consequences of migration often face difficulties choosing a proper comparison group and tackling the problems of potential endogeneity and self-selection bias. Using propensity score matching difference-in-differences and an instrumental variable approach, this paper examines the impact of internal migration on the health of rural migrants in China. We find robust evidence of a significant negative effect of internal migration on rural migrants' health. We also find significant heterogeneity in the impact across different age groups. Younger migrants aged between 16 and 35 are most likely to experience health decline following migration. In addition, we find that the key mechanisms through which internal migration affects the health of rural migrants are the changes in emotional state and social trust. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using nationally representative data from the 2017 China Migrants Dynamic Survey, this study investigated the mediating role of place attachment and the moderating role of spatial pattern in the association between local network ties and urban settlement intentions among rural-to-urban migrants. We found that local ties were positively associated with urban settlement intention measured by permanent settlement intention (PSI) and place attachment served as a mediating mechanism of this relationship. Results from the moderated path analysis showed that spatial pattern of migration positively moderated the linkage between local ties and PSI, indicating that beneficial role of local ties in urban settlement was more pronounced for inter-provincial migrants than for intra-provincial migrants. This study enhances our understanding of the association between social ties and migrant settlement, elucidating the conditions under which these effects are more pronounced in the context of internal migration. We thus call for a more targeted policy design aimed at integrating rural-to-urban migrants into local communities and eliminating the welfare gaps between migrants and local residents through appropriate intervention measures. • This study explored the linkage between local ties and urban settlement intentions. • Local ties were positively associated with permanent settlement intention (PSI). • Place attachment served as a mediating mechanism. • The positive association between local ties and PSI was more pronounced for inter-provincial migrants. • Local ties ranked second, following the impact of college education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although social capital has been regarded as valuable for organizations, some scholars have noticed that the effect of social capital on economic performance is nonlinear and depends on formal governance. This article examines the role of social capital and the interaction of social capital and formal governance in influencing the economic performance of farmer cooperatives. An empirical exploratory study is conducted based on a data set of 147 farmer cooperatives in China, and an ordinary least squares regression model is used to estimate the results. The results show that the stock of social capital can enhance the economic performance of farmer cooperatives and that social capital has a larger impact when there is stronger formal governance with regard to income distribution. Social capital and formal governance are therefore complementary. An improvement in some aspects of formal governance is favorable to the outcome of social capital. Cooperative practitioners need to consider the creation of both social capital and formal governance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes the academic peer influence of disabled students in the classroom, exploiting the random student–classroom assignment within middle schools in China. We show that the share of disabled students in a class has a significant negative impact on the academic achievement of their non-disabled classmates. This adverse influence remains largely stable over time when the classroom composition stays constant. We further find that the social spillovers of disabled students are attributable to their disability status rather than to their disability-correlated characteristics. An investigation into the mechanisms shows that disabled children lead to worsened learning environment and increased social interactions of their classmates with disruptive peers at school. There is no evidence that disabled children impair the learning efforts or the educational aspirations of non-disabled students in the same classroom. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Migration experience is considered to be an important factor affecting mental health. With the increasing number of rural-to-urban migrant workers returning to their hometowns, the impact of migration experience on rural residents is worthy of noting. Using the data from the 2018 China Labor Dynamics Survey, this paper took migration experience as the identification criteria for returning migrant workers and empirically examined the impact of migration experience on rural residents' mental health. Our results indicated that migration experience had a significant negative impact on the mental health of rural residents. That is, returning migrant workers had a worse mental health status than that of rural residents who never left their hometowns. Mechanism analysis showed that social support and social comparison played an intermediary role in the impact of migration experience on the mental health of rural residents. We also detected considerable heterogeneity in the effects of migration experience: the short-term returning migrant workers and the passive returning migrant workers are more likely to be negatively affected by the migration experience. Our results emphasized the mental health problem faced by returning migrant workers. The policy makers should strengthen psychological education and mental health consultation according to the intergenerational differences and individual characteristics of returning migrant workers.

Background: While several studies have found that lower levels of social integration may lead to a deterioration in the health status of migrants, previous research on the nexus between social integration and health has generally ignored the potential endogeneity of social integration. This paper examines the heterogeneous impact of social integration on the health of rural-to-urban migrants in China by exploiting plausibly exogenous, long-term, geographic variation in dialectal diversity., Methods: Drawing on nationally representative data from the 2017 China Migrants Dynamic Survey (n = 117,446), we first regressed self-reported health on social integration using ordinary least squares estimation and then used an ordered probit model as a robustness check. Additionally, to rule out the potential endogeneity of social integration, we relied mainly on an instrumental variable approach and used dialectal diversity as a source of exogenous variation for social integration., Results: We found that social integration has a significant positive impact on rural-to-urban migrants' health. We also detected considerable heterogeneity in the effects of social integration across gender, generation, and wage levels: the health status of women, more recent generation migrants, and migrants with wages in the middle of wage distribution are more likely to be affected by social integration., Conclusions: We confirmed the beneficial impact of social integration on migrants' health, which has some important policy implications. Successful migration policies should take the fundamental issue of migrants' social integration into account.