Abstract

Poverty,RCTsandItsControversy——A Brief Discussion of 2019 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences

LUOBiliang

AbstractThe 2019 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences was awarded to three economists:A. Banerjee,E. Duflo and M. Kremer. This paper introduces the research and contribution of the laureates on poverty and development issues,briefly describes the application and value of RCTs in micro-economic research,and evaluates the disputes caused by RCTs. It emphasizes that despite the experimental methodology of economics having been repeatedly criticized,it should be acknowledged that the technicality or technical tendency of the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences is becoming increasingly obvious,which runs counter to the initial aim to encourage basic theoretical breakthroughs or originality in knowledge. Empirical research in economics is important and so is the RCTs approach in deepening insight into the real-world,but it is not omnipotent to solve all the issues on development or poverty.

KeywordsNobel Prize in Economic Sciences；poverty；RCTs；controversy

Connotation,ObjectivesandReformEmphasisof“ThreeRightsSeparation”inPastoralAreas——Based on the Theory of Land Ownership in “Capital”

BAIXueqiu,BAOYunna

Abstract“Three rights separation” in pastoral area should not copy the experience in farmland completely owing to its particularity. Based on the land ownership theory in “Capital”,the application of analysis method of concreteness to abstraction,and the analysis on the characteristics of pasture resources in China,this paper elaborates on the institutional arrangement of the three rights separation of pastoral pastures. It further illustrates the three levels of connotation of the “three rights separation” of grassland in China’s pastoral areas from the decomposition of rights to the property right relationship on the basis of ownership,ultimately to its special production relations and communication relations. It then reveals the multiple goal orientations beyond the pursuit of exchange value,including the modernization of animal husbandry by marketization of land element,the realization of continuity of co-creation and co-sharing of pastoral grassland benefits,and economic and social transformation based on the protection of fundamental interests of pastoralists. It is pointed out that it is necessary to clarify the boundary of the collective ownership,the herdsmen’s contracting rights,and the management rights of the capital owner as the key points of reform to improve the actual system performance of the pastoral area.

Keywordspasture; three rights separation; land ownership; reform emphasis; rights boundary

TheIncomeEffectofLandTransferundertheBackgroundof“DivisionofThreeRights”——Based on the Survey of Farmers in 10 Counties of 3 Major Grain-producing Provinces

XUCaihua，YUJin

AbstractBased on the data of 10 counties of 3 major grain-producing provinces (Shandong,Henan and Anhui),this paper uses Propensity Score Matching (PSM) method and the calculation of Gini coefficient to analyze the impact of land transfer on farmers’ income level,income structure and income inequality. The results are as follows:1) From the perspective of income level,land transfer raises farmers’ income with the per capita income of farmers involved in land transfer being 26.11% higher than that of those excluded; 2) From the perspective of income structure,the land use right acquirers’ agricultural production income and property income increase significantly,while their transfer-payment income obviously reduces. For the land use right sellers,their property income and transfer-payment income improves,yet the agricultural production income reduces significantly. The non-agricultural workers’ income does not pass the significance test for both transfer peasants; 3) From the perspective of income gap,land transfer aggravates the income gap among rural households,and the Gini coefficients of land use right acquirers and sellers increase by 49.83% and 24.93% respectively after the land transfer. Results above show that land transfer is a new way to increase rural household income.

Keywordsland transfer；income effect；PSM model；Gini coefficient

TheImpactofaNewRoundCertificationonFarmer’sProtectionBehaviorstoCultivatedLandQuality——Empirical Evidence from Guangxi Province

QIANLong,MIAOShuchao,LUHualiang

AbstractThe quality of cultivated land is related to the sustainable development of agriculture. Based on 818 questionnaires from the Guangxi Autonomous Region,this paper explores and verifies the impact of a new round certification on farmers’ cultivated land quality protection behavior. The results show that this certification can effectively encourage farmers to adopt the behavior to improve soil fertility and nutrient balance and more protective tillage behavior. Specifically,land certification can increase farmers’ probability to apply organic fertilizer,soil-testing formula fertilizer and lime,and possibility to adopt straw returning,no-tillage and sub-soiling technologies. Considering the possible endogenous traits and connections between different farmland quality protection behaviors,this paper uses PSM models and Mvprobit models to conduct the robustness test,and the above conclusions are still supported. Further analysis shows the stagnation of policy effect of certification. Specifically,farmers holding certification for a long period are prone to adopt behaviors protecting cultivated land quality,compared with those with certification for a short period. Moreover,the impact of land certification on the quality protection of some types of arable land is negatively regulated by the experience of land adjustment,which is expected to weaken the incentive effect of the new round certification on land consolidation on farmers to apply organic fertilizer,lime and no-tillage technology.

Keywordsnew round certification; land quality protection behavior; organic fertilizer; soil testing formula fertilizer; land adjustment

AResearchontheEffectofFarmers’Part-timeEmploymentonOutsourcingService——Based on the Empirical Research of Hunan and Anhui Provinces

ZHAOPeifang,WANGYubin

AbstractOutsourcing service is considered an effective path to achieve capital substitution for labor,which plays an important role in rural revitalization and agricultural modernization. Based on the household survey data of 302 rice farmers in Hunan and Anhui provinces,this paper used Probit model and IV-probit instrumental variable to analyze the impact of farmers’ part-time employment on the decision of outsourcing service. The results show that:(1) Both farmer’s labor part-time degree and income part-income degree are expected to impose a significant positive effect on the decision of outsourcing service. Compared with the technology-intensive service,farmer’s labor part-time degree plays a greater role in promoting the outsourcing of labor-intensive links. (2) Different types of rural households show different characteristics in the outsourcing behavior of technology-intensive links. Large-sized households tend to increase the expenditure on technology-intensive outsourcing services,while low-part-time households tend to reduce the expenditure in this link. After using instrumental variable to correct the endogenous issue between farmers’ part-time employment and agricultural production link outsourcing through instrumental variables,the results remain robust. Therefore,this paper proposes to further improve the productive service system,support the disadvantaged links,differentiate regulations for various outsourcing services and give full play to the scale economic effects of outsourcing service during production.

Keywordsfarmers’ part-time degree; labor-intensive; technology-intensive; multiple occupations; outsourcing service during production

StudyontheConsistencyofFarmers’StrawReturningWillingnessandBehaviorundertheDualDriveofAbilityandOpportunity——A Case Study of Hubei Province

JIANGWeijun，YANTingwu

AbstractThe inconsistency of farmers’ willingness to return straw and adoption behavior restricts the promotion of straw returning technology. Based on MOA extension model,this paper unifies the subjective cognition and external conditions of farmers within an analytical framework,and analyzes the dual drive effect of ability and opportunity on transforming farmers’ willingness to adopt the straw returning technology. It further explores the relationship between willingness and behavior,and the regulating function of ability and opportunities on willingness-behavior relationship under the Chinese culture. The findings suggest that：(1) The plight in the demand side of straw returning is the incapacity of converting farmer’s willingness to demand,and that in the supply side is the unmatch betweeen technology and farmers’ needs; (2) Farmers’ production habits and ecological knowledge,and the availability of technology can promote their return to the field; (3) In the high consistency group,the availability of technology and ecological knowledge positively regulate the will-action relationship of farmers,in sharp contrast to the low consistency group where production habits positively regulate willingness and behavior relationship. Therefore,the supply side is critical in promoting straw returning to the field,given optimizing straw returning technology based on the actual situation of agricultural and rural farmers. Meanwhile,government should renew ways and contents for propaganda,identify farmers’ differences to optimize production,improve farmers’ ecological knowledge,increase infrastructure construction,and improve mechanical working conditions so as to realize the match between supply and demand in returning fields.

Keywordsstraw returning to field; willingness-behavior relationship; regulating effect; group consistency; MOA extension model

AnalysisofFarmers’Environmentally-friendlyTechnologyAdoptionBehavior——An Empirical Study from the Perspective of Credit Demand Restraint

WEIHao,XIAYing,LIYun

AbstractBy constructing a theoretical framework of two-period dynamic investment,this paper theoretically analyzes the influence of credit demand restraint and non-farm income on farmers’ adoption of environment-friendly agricultural technology,and further conducts an empirical test by using IV-Heckit,CMP and Fisher Permutation test models based on data on 957 farmers in Heilongjiang,Zhejiang,Henan and Sichuan provinces. The number of financial projects taken by other family members is used as an instrumental variable. The research shows that the credit demand restraint is prevalent in rural China. To be specific,it has a significant negative impact on farmers’ adoption of environmentally friendly agricultural technology. The non-farm income has an obvious mitigating effect on farmers’ adoption of environmentally friendly agricultural technology. To be specific,its impact is remarkable on the application of organic fertilizer which is featured by large funds and high popularity yet limited on returning straw to fields which requires little on funds. Therefore,some policy suggestions are proposed,including channel construction,promoting rural green financial service and financial innovation.

Keywordsenvironmentally-friendly technology; credit demand restraint; non-farm income; dynamic investment and financing theory; IV-Heckit model; CMP model; green finance

TheImpactofIncomeInequalityonRiskCopingStrategiesofRural-UrbanMigrants——Based on the Field Survey of Hubei and Guangdong

CHENLiangmin,DINGShijun,LIUGuoshun

AbstractApplying the individual relative deprivation index,this paper used the sample of 950 rural-urban migrants surveyed by the research group in 2017 to measure the individual income inequality with Kakwani index and explore the impact of individual income inequality on the risk coping strategies of rural-urban migrants. The results show that the individual income inequality of rural-urban migrants is in low-level deprivation range with an average index value at 0.277,among which the statistics for male and female migrant workers are respectively 0.348 and 0.227. The index value of the old generation of migrant workers is higher than that of the new generation. Educational level is negatively correlated with the index value. The index value of ordinary workers is higher than that of other technical managers. Migrant workers with high individual deprivation index tend to adopt high-cost risk coping strategies,such as lowering basic living standards,reducing education and medical expenses,etc.,whereas those with low inde tend to adopt low-cost risk coping strategies such as getting loans from formal institutions and formal social support. Women,the unhealthy,the poorly-educated and the new generation of migrant workers are in a relatively disadvantaged position among migrant workers,and they are prone to adopt high-cost risk coping strategies in face of risks. These conclusions provide empirical evidence for the study of risk management of migrant workers and provide a reference for improving the urban social security system and promoting the process of civilization and urbanization.

Keywordsrural-urban migrants; risk coping strategy; individual income inequality; relative deprivation index; relative poverty

TheImpactofEducationandSocialCapitalonInter-generationalMobilityinRuralChina——An Empirical Analysis Based on CHIP Data

ZHUYueji,ZHANGYing,CHENXinfeng

AbstractGood inter-generational mobility can narrow the income gap between urban and rural areas in China. The education and social capital of family members are important channels for inter-generational mobility of rural families in China. Based on the China Household Income Survey (CHIP) data in 2013,this paper explores the impact mechanism and regional differences on rural inter-generational mobility in China from the perspectives of education and social capital. The results show that the educational level of male offspring has a remarkable positive impact on inter-generational mobility,while that of female offspring has no significant effect. The educational level of the father plays a full mediating role in the inter-generational mobility of male offspring though it does not directly affect the rural households’ inter-generational mobility; The role of social capital in inter-generational mobility presents differences on the offspring’s gender. The fact that the male offspring seeks employment through social capital can promote the upward inter-generational mobility. However,this is not true for the female offspring. The further regional comparative study shows that there is no obvious inter-generational mobility in rural China. The rural households in the first-level and second-level regions show a slightly downward trend of inter-generational mobility yet those in the third-level region show the opposite. So it is proposed to improve the quality of rural education,enhance the social network of rural families,strengthen rural civilization construction,broaden the channels for farmers to increase income,and provide more non-agricultural job information for farmers.

Keywordsinter-generational mobility; social capital; education; rural China; China Household Income Survey (CHIP)

TheHistoricalContextofChangesinUrban-RuralRelationsinChina:FromSegmentationtoIntegration

LIUJunjie

AbstractSince the founding of new China,the relationship between urban and rural areas in China has undergone profound changes. From the early days of founding of the People’s Republic of China to the period before the reform and opening up,China gradually established the dual system of urban and rural division to serve the strategy of industrial development. After the reform and opening up,the dual system of urban-rural division has been gradually broken with transformation of the development mode,and the urban-rural relationship has continued to integrate. Summarizing the evolution between urban and rural areas since the founding of new China,it is not difficult to find the law of development throughout it:the mode of development is the fundamental factor that affects the urban-rural relationship; the institutional arrangement is the direct factor that affects the urban-rural relationship; market-oriented reform orientation is an important means to break the urban-rural dual system; the continuous empowerment to farmers is an important way to improve the coordination of urban and rural development. Overall,the integration of urban and rural areas is a long-term,gradual and interactive developing process. Under the new era,to promote the coordinated development of urban and rural areas,we need to focus on further reform and innovation,urban-rural integration,and the protection of farmers’ rights and interests. Meanwhile,we must maintain strategic strength and historical patience for steady,stable and continuous achievements.

Keywordsurban-rural relationship; urban-rural segmentation; urban-rural integration; institutional characteristics; basic laws

HowDoestheCollectiveBehaviorHappen?StudyontheTwo-factorEvolutionMechanismofVillagers’OverbuildingBehaviorintheProcessofUrbanization

TIANBeihai,WUJingyi,ZENGXinyu

AbstractRegarding villagers’ overbuilding behavior in the process of government land acquisition in urbanization as a collective behavior,this paper analyzes the function of government’s intervention and information dissemination in the evolution process of villagers’ overbuilding behavior by using the event history analysis method. The study found that under the condition of government non-intervention and information fragmentation,the demonstration effect and opinion leadership effect of rural elites promoted the fermentation of overbuilding behavior. Under the condition of weak government intervention and information mutation,the normative flexibility behavior in the governmental administrative intervention strengthened villagers’ cognitive bias on the income and risk of overbuilding,and the mutated spread of information strengthened villagers’ income expectation on overbuilding behavior,and obscured the corresponding risk information,which in turn intensified the overbuilding behavior. Under the condition of strong government intervention and information restoration,villagers realized the cost of overbuilding was greater than the expected income and then stopped. Above all,the delay of government intervention and information asymmetry are crucial causes of collective behavior like overbuilding. It is supposed to strengthen the foresight of land planning,improve emergency response mechanism and reinforce the governance norms.

Keywordsoverbuilding; collective behavior; governmental intervention; information dissemination; governance

AStudyoftheImpactofSocialComparison,TemporalComparisonontheSubjectiveWell-beingoftheElderly

CHENXin,YANGHongyan

AbstractBased on the data of China comprehensive social survey in 2015,the influence of comparison on the subjective well-being(SWB) of the elderly was tested and analyzed by using the standard ordered logistic model. The results show that:SWB is a comparative concept with the emphasis on comparison. Social comparison,and temporal comparison impose a significant positive impact on the SWB of the elderly. Contrast effect is the psychological mechanism to explain the SWB of the elderly. The impact of temporal comparison on the SWB of the elderly is heterogeneous,which can be illustrated by the evidence that SWB is more influential to the elderly who are psychologically unhealthy,prolific,economically dominant in family or less-educated. Macro institutional factors like life security and social equity also have a significant impact on the SWB of the elderly. Therefore,it is proposed to promote the continuing education and reemployment of the elderly to enhance their sense of gain,to strengthen the construction of people’s livelihood for the enrichment of the spiritual and cultural life of the elderly,to focus on vulnerable groups among the elderly through policy inclination and humanistic care,and to reinforce the macro-system construction like life security and social equity.

Keywordssubjective well-being; social comparison; temporal comparison; contrast effect; psychological mechanism

RuralWasteManagementfromthePerspectiveofEnvironmentalJustice

CAOHaijing,DUJuan

AbstractRural garbage management highlights the different infrastructure supply and basic systems in China’s urban and rural areas,reflecting the environmental injustice between urban and rural areas,exposing the imbalance of rural garbage management resources,the lack of rural waste control decision-making procedures,and the inequity imposed on farmers when taking governance responsibilities. To prevent the occurrence of rural garbage pollution,we must implement the concept of environmental justice in rural garbage management from perspectives below,namely,to achieve environmental distribution justice to eliminate the bottlenecks in governance work by improving the investment mechanism and long-term supervision mechanism of rural waste treatment infrastructure construction,to promote environmental procedural justice to increase farmers’ enthusiasm for participation by promoting the diversification of rural waste governance and rationalization of decision-making procedures,and to achieve environmental corrective justice to ensure pleasant living environment for farmers by strengthening the rule of law and garbage treatment to protect farmers’ rights and interests of the rural environment.

Keywordsrural waste management; environmental justice; farmers environmental rights；rural environment

StudyontheThirdPartyGovernanceinEnvironmentalPollutionSociety

ZHANGFeng

AbstractEnvironmental pollution risk is characterized by mobility,uncertainty,time-and-space span,immeasurability and irretrievability,thus leading to institutional limitations in the national governance mechanism and market governance mechanism in face of environmental pollution,so it is urgent to build a third-party governance mechanism of environmental pollution society. The third party of environmental protection society is characterized by publicity,public welfare,professionalism,neutrality and organization. The third party governance of environmental pollution society can achieve the system performance in interest demand,interest development,interest coordination and interest protection. In view of the bottlenecks restraining the third-party governance in environmental pollution society,such as the structural imbalance of macro power,the overall imbalance of meso mechanism,and the systematic anomie of micro behavior,this paper proposes to optimize the structural equilibrium mechanism,the overall implementation mechanism and the systematic regulatory mechanism of the third-party governance in environmental pollution society in China.

Keywordsenvironmental pollution; third party governance; interest mechanism; structural imbalance; mechanism optimization

AnalysisontheSpatialEffectsofAgriculturalIndustrialStructureonAgriculturalGreenTotalFactorProductivity

JINFang,JINRongxue

AbstractBased on the panel data of 31 provinces in China from 1997 to 2016,this paper comprehensively measured the green total factor productivity of agriculture,and used the spatial Durbin model to examine the direct effects and indirect spillovers of agricultural industrial structure on agricultural green total factor productivity. It found that China’s agricultural green total factor productivity has increased continuously from 1998 to 2016,mainly driven by technological progress. To be specific,the overall level of agricultural green productivity in the eastern and central provinces is the highest,closely followed by the northeast and then the west. And the agricultural green total factor productivity between provinces has a relatively obvious spatial dependence. The agricultural industrial structure is an important factor affecting the increase of the agricultural green total factor productivity,which is affected directly by the optimization and upgrading of the local agricultural industrial structure and indirectly by the upgrading of structure of the agricultural industry in the neighboring regions. Therefore,the rational optimization and orderly upgrading of agricultural industrial structure in the growth of agricultural green productivity should be highlighted so as to improve the overall quality of agriculture.

Keywordsagricultural industrial structure; DEA; agricultural green total factor productivity; spatial Durbin model

CanKnowledgeChangethePublicAttitudetoGMFood?——Examining Attitudinal Polarization in Science Controversies

JIAHepeng

AbstractThis paper discusses the relationship between the knowledge of biotechnology and public attitude towards genetically modified food. By examining the survey data of different times and different national conditions,it could be found that so far there hasn’t been a relatively stable positive correlation between the biotechnology knowledge in general and people’s attitude towards GM food or GM technologies. On the contrary,in different countries,as well as at different stages of the GM debates,the roles of biotechnology knowledge and the relevant audience education seem to be completely different in influencing people’s attitudes towards GM food. Through a systematic study of the media factors and psychological mechanism of the GM food controversy,this paper concludes that the major contributor to this difference is that in the controversial situation,people’s various instinctive psychological cognitive mechanisms have been greatly activated to replace their cognitive means of rational measurement via knowledge. This study provides an explanation framework to interpret the formation of polarization attitudes in scientific and technological disputes.

KeywordsGM technology; GM food; knowledge; trust; psychological cognitive mechanism; confirmation bias; motivated reasoning

TheDislocationBetweenSendingandReceiving:ContentAnalysisoftheCommentsofanOnlineSciencePopularizationArticle

YANGJing,JINJianbin

AbstractThe dissemination of scientific issues has become more complex due to the advent of various new media in “post-normal” era. User-generated content provides scientists and science advocates with more ways to work on science popularizations,and meanwhile greatly facilitates the public to participate in the social debates of scientific issues,thus providing ample research materials for learning the Game Theory and tension between the sending and the receiving. The landscape of science communication has profoundly changed. And the dislocation of the sending and the receiving is of vital importance to the effective dissemination of scientific issues. This study took one GMO-themed speech article published in two social media platforms as the case to investigate the tension between scientific communicators and their assumed target audience. The content analysis revealed the overlap and dislocation between transmission and reception of the speech manuscript from two levels,theme and interpretation. It was found that at the theme level,there was a large overlap between the speech manuscript and comments,with only two exceptions,namely,“ethics and morality” and “expression of opinions through opinion leaders”. However,at the level of interpretation,there was a big difference. Although both sides agreed upon the uncertainty of science and technology,they expressed their views in quite opposite ways. In addition,trust in government regulations varied. And there was a dislocation in the interpretation of GM in terms of its social impacts and significance to scientific popularization. There was also suspect about the legitimacy of the science popularizers.

Keywordsscience communication; GMO; online comments; social media; tension; uncertainty

ExperienceandEnlightenmentofPublicParticipationintheFormulationoftheNationalBio-engineeredFoodDisclosureStandard(Regulations)

LIUXuxia,FENGGuannan

AbstractEffective public participation in legislative activities can promote the democracy of legislation and improve the feasibility of legal rules. In December 2018,the US National Bioengineered Food Disclosure Standard was published in the Federal Register. In addition to the specific provisions,there are detailed records of public participation in the formulation of the rules. The analysis of the whole stage of the US public participation in legislation reveals that the public participation in the legislative process is relatively complete and strong. Considering the current situation of public participation in legislation in China,this paper proposes to introduce “notice of proposed rule making ” program,expand the entity scope of public participation,increase the ways for public participation in legislation,extend the time span for public to make judgement and comments,perfect the feedback system of public comment and disclose the legislative information fully so as to ensure the public’s sense of gain in participation of the process of legislation,promote democratic and scientific legislation and help to build the legal system in China.

Keywordspublic participation; public comment; feedback to public comment; disclosure of the legislative information