Composition Of Household Income Research Articles

The effect of participation in ecological public welfare positions on farmers' household income composition and the internal mechanism

The ecological public welfare positions policy, which involves low-income people in ecological conservation work, is an essential practical innovation for China to achieve mutual benefits in ecological protection and poverty alleviation. This study explored the effect of participation in ecological public welfare positions (PEPWP) on farmers' household income composition and clarified the internal mechanism by propensity score matching (PSM) and conditional process analysis, based on the field data from 508 formerly registered impoverished households in Jiangxi Province and Hubei Province, China. Results showed that (1) PEPWP was characterized by “self-selection”, which significantly increased farmers' wage level, planting income in Jiangxi Province, and husbandry income in Hubei Province after the elimination of selectivity bias. However, the effect on other sub-incomes was insignificant. (2) There was a moderated mediating model between PEPWP and agricultural income, which demonstrated that farmer's development motivation (FDM) played a partially mediating effect between PEPWP and FDM, and the frequency of skill training (FST) moderated the first part path of this model. (3) EPWP policy steadily increased farmers' income at the vulnerable livelihood level and greatly improved the regional environment. At the same time, it also played an active role in stimulating FDM and rural governance. Conclusions indicated that it was significant to diversify the channels for promoting growth in rural incomes, and pay attention to skill training and the multi-functional role of ecological custodians, in order to activate FDM and assist farmers in eradicating poverty sustainably.

The Dynamics of U.S. Household Economic Circumstances Around a Birth.

With the arrival of an infant, many households face increased demands on resources, changes in the composition of income, and a potentially heightened risk of income inadequacy. Changing household economic circumstances around a birth have implications for child and family well-being, women's economic security, and public program design, yet have received little research attention in the United States. Using data from the Survey of Income and Program Participation, this study provides new descriptive evidence of month-to-month changes in household income adequacy and the composition of household income in the year before and after a birth. Results show evidence of significant declines in household income adequacy in the months around a birth, particularly for single mothers who live without other adults. Income from public benefit programs buffers but does not eliminate declines in income adequacy. Results have implications for policies targeted at this period, including public benefit and parental leave programs.

Impact of Family Socioeconomic Status on Health-Related Quality of Life in Children With Critical Congenital Heart Disease.

BackgroundSocioeconomic status (SES) is associated with health‐related quality of life (HRQOL) for children with critical congenital heart disease; however, literature from newly industrialized countries is scarce.Methods and ResultsThis cross‐sectional study included 2037 surviving patients operated on for critical congenital heart disease at a tertiary hospital in China between May 2012 and December 2015. All eligible patients were aged 2 to 12 years. HRQOL was measured by the Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory 4.0 generic and 3.0 cardiac modules. Family SES was assessed by a composite of household income in the past year and occupation and education level of each parent in the family. Mean scores of major domains in HRQOL were significantly lower in the low‐SES group than in the medium‐ and high‐SES groups (total generic scores: 71.2±7.9 versus 75.0±8.0 and 76.0±7.9, respectively [P<0.001]; psychosocial functioning: 70.8±9.0 versus 74.4±8.4 and 75.3±8.4 [P<0.001]; physical functioning: 71.6±10.4 versus 76.0±9.7 and 77.1±9.4 [P<0.001]; heart symptoms: 71.9±11.6 versus 75.7±11.0 and 76.8±10.3 [P<0.001]; cognitive problems: 65.4±11.1 versus 69.4±12.1 and 74.6±13.6 [P<0.001]). After adjustment for other clinical and demographic variables in the multivariable linear regression model, family SES significantly affected all dimensions of HRQOL except for treatment barriers, treatment anxiety, physical appearance and communication.ConclusionsFamily SES is an important factor associated with HRQOL in patients with critical congenital heart disease. Further targeted interventions to improve HRQOL that consider the family and environmental issues confronted by those who are economically disadvantaged might help these patients have better outcomes.

Effect of family socioeconomic status on the prognosis of complex congenital heart disease in children: an observational cohort study from China

Low socioeconomic status is associated with increased mortality for patients with cardiovascular disease; however, the effect of family socioeconomic status on the prognosis of children with congenital heart disease remains unclear, particularly in low-income and middle-income countries. We aimed to examine the association between family socioeconomic status and postoperative outcomes for paediatric patients with complex congenital heart disease (CCHD). In this observational cohort study, we enrolled children (aged <7 years) who had CCHD surgery at Fuwai Hospital (Beijing, China) between May 1, 2012, and Dec 31, 2015. Patients who were discharged alive were followed up for up to 60 months, until May 4, 2017, for all-cause mortality and unplanned readmission events. Baseline family socioeconomic status was established using a composite of household income in the past year, and occupation and education level of each parent in the family. Cox proportional hazards regression was used to evaluate the relationship between socioeconomic status and prognosis. Of 2555 patients (median age at operation 0·88 years, IQR 0·56-1·92) enrolled, 2485 (97%) were discharged alive and were assessed at a median follow-up of 32·1 months (IQR 19·6-44·7). During follow-up, 180 (7%) patients died, and 748 (30%) patients had 1477 unplanned readmissions. Children with low family socioeconomic status (n=899) had higher unadjusted all-cause mortality and more unplanned readmission events than children with middle (n=819) or high (n=767) family socioeconomic status; 3-year overall survival was 88·5% (95% CI 86·3-90·7), 93·1% (91·1-95·1), and 96·3% (94·7-97·9), and 3-year unplanned-readmission-free survival was 56·3% (52·8-59·8), 68·4% (64·9-71·9), and 82·4% (79·5-85·3) across the socioeconomic tertiles (both log-rank p<0·001). After adjustment for demographic factors, weight, cardiac diagnostic categories, operation types, and characteristics of the index hospital stay, hazard ratios were 2·66 (1·62-4·35) for all-cause mortality and 4·17 (3·31-5·25) for unplanned readmission for low versus high family socioeconomic status, and 1·95 (1·18-3·22) and 2·44 (1·94-3·07), respectively, for middle versus high family socioeconomic status. Low and middle family socioeconomic status is associated with worse prognosis after CCHD surgery than high family socioeconomic status. Measures to alleviate socioeconomic disparities are needed to improve postoperative prognosis of paediatric patients with CCHD in China. National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars and National Key R&D Program of China.

The Economics of Smallholder Rubber Farming in a Mountainous Region of Southwest China: Elevation, Ethnicity, and Risk

While the expansion of smallholder rubber farming in southwest China has contributed to the local rural economy, it has also had negative environmental consequences. The economics and potential risks of smallholder rubber farming remain unclear due to the lack of quantitative evidence. Based on data collected in a comprehensive survey of 612 smallholder rubber farmers in Xishuangbanna, this paper quantifies economic aspects of rubber farming including land use, inputs and outputs, household income composition, and risks. In particular, we compare differences in these parameters associated with ethnicity and elevation. Our results suggest that rubber has taken over the rural economy in the rubber-planting region of Xishuangbanna, where almost 80% of agricultural land is devoted to rubber. On average, rubber farming provides over 40% of smallholder incomes. While smallholder rubber farming is generally highly profitable, it is also highly vulnerable to price fluctuations. Rubber expansion has also reduced diversification and thereby increased household income risk. Most importantly, our analysis shows that the economic performance of smallholder rubber farming differs for different ethnic groups and at different elevations. The results of this study provide important quantitative information on smallholder rubber farming that can inform policymaking and guide future research.

Composition of Household Income and Child Nutrition Outcomes Evidence from Uganda.

This study targets the empirical space between cross-country analyses exploring links between income and nutrition without insights on micro-level determinants, and relevant microeconomic studies hindered by small sample size and/or incomplete data. We use the rural samples of the three waves of the Uganda National Panel Survey, and estimate panel regressions of child height-for-age z-scores (HAZ) controlling for time-invariant child-level heterogeneity. On the whole, we find no impact of short-term changes in total gross income on HAZ but document small positive correlations for younger children. Sector-differentiated analyses indicate that compared to wage earnings, only share of income from non-farm self-employment correlates positively with HAZ. Within agriculture, shares of income from consumption of own crop production and from low-protein crop production underlie the negative effect of share of income from crop production. While we cannot claim causal relationships, our findings suggest the possibility of "stickiness" of crop production to own consumption.

Labor supply, income, and welfare of the farm household

Considering family labor and hired labor as heterogeneous inputs, we present a theoretical framework in which the optimal decisions of a farm household on on-farm family and hired labor, off-farm labor supply, and leisure are determined uniquely and endogenously. Focusing on two alternative settings with and without off-farm employment constraints, we show that imperfect substitutability between family labor and hired labor is not critical to the separation of household production and consumption. The validity of the separation proposition is shown to depend crucially on whether or not the availability of off-farm job opportunities is limited. We further examine how changes in external economic conditions and government policies affect the time allocation decisions of the household, as well as the composition of household income (i.e., on-farm income and off-farm labor earnings).

Comparative effects of migrants’ remittances on composition of recipient household income in two small, island economies

We use unique household survey data from Fiji and Tonga to estimate and compare the combined impact of migration and remittances on the composition of household income. A two-step methodology is followed employing a migration prediction model followed by the estimation of a Three Stage Least Squares (3SLS) remittances and income equation system. We find that remittances contribute to growth in productive capital and entrepreneurial activity in the longer-established migrant economy, but have yet to impact on business activity in the more recently remittances-oriented economy, despite it having a more developed, market economy. In the latter case, remittances seem more linked to supporting consumption through supplementing low wage income. These findings suggest that the duration and intensity of remittance-driven migration, and the structure of economic activity within a community are important in understanding the influences of migration and remittances on household resource allocation and production decisions.

The Labeling Effect of a Child Benefit System

Child benefit systems exist in many countries. While they show a lot of differences in terms of eligibility rules, amounts involved, and implementation (tax deduction, tax credit, or direct benefit), the common motivation for their existence is to increase children's welfare. In the Dutch child benefit system-the case I focus on in this paperone of the parents, usually the mother, is entitled to an untaxed child benefit amount which only depends on the child's age and the number of children in the household. Thus, child support does not depend on household income, marital status, or labor-market status. As a result, child benefit is exogenous to the household given the presence of children. This is in contrast with the situation in many other countries, including Germany, France, the United Kingdom, and the United States, where government-provided child support is (partly) means-tested; see Jonathan Bradshaw et al. (1993). In The Netherlands, child benefit is generally a nonnegligible addition to the household income; the median share of child benefit in the total net income of households with children is 8 percent. On the national level, expenditures on child benefits amount to 1.2 percent of GNP. The use of the child benefit is completely at the discretion of the parent. There are no legal requirements that a certain amount be spent on particular goods or services, nor does the government provide any guidelines regarding expenditure on children. A policy question that arises is to what extent children benefit from child benefits. Standard microeconomic demand theory allows no role for effects of the composition of income. Given the fungibility of income sources, it is only the sum of income components that is relevant in explaining expenditure patterns. Thus, within that framework, the answer would be that the marginal propensity to consume child goods from one guilder of child benefits is no different than from one guilder of any other income source. In the more general class of gametheoretic models of household behavior, however, the composition of household income will generally affect expenditure patterns; see, e.g., Shelly J. Lundberg and Robert A. Pollak (1993) and Martin Browning et al. (1994). If fathers and mothers have different preferences, and mothers have control over child benefits, the effect of child benefits on expenditures will differ from the effect of other income sources. Lundberg et al. (1997) provide empirical evidence showing that a transfer of control over child benefits from fathers to mothers in the United Kingdom due to a change in legislation resulted in a significant increase in expenditures on child clothing. Daniela Del Boca and Christopher J. Flinn (1994) have analyzed the effect of income composition on expenditure decisions of divorced mothers. They find that the coefficients associated with child support and alimony income differ from those for other income in Engel curves for expenditures on childspecific goods. Their results can be explained in terms of a noncooperative Nash model in which the child support transfer decisions of the noncustodial father and the expenditure decisions of the mother are determined simultaneously. In contrast to Del Boca and Flinn's analysis, in which child support is a decision variable, the present paper focuses on the possible differential effect of government-provided child support which is truly exogenous. In this paper I analyze the effects of child benefits on expenditures by running regressions in which child benefit enters as a separate explanatory variable. The enipirical analysis is based on a time series of 17 cross-section consumer expenditure surveys in The Netherlands, covering the period 1978 through 1994. It is important to note that in a single cross-section it * Department of Economics, University of Groningen, P.O.B. 800, 9700 AV Groningen, The Netherlands (e-mail: p.kooreman@eco.rug.nl). I am indebted to two anonymous referees for constructive comments. Helpful comments were also provided by Rob Alessie, Maarten Allers, Chris Bojke, Werner de Bondt, Bert Schoonbeek, and Tom Wansbeek. I thank Vincent Linderhof for organizing the data. Financial support was provided by the Dutch Organization for Scientific Research, NWO (HOMES-project grant).

New perspectives on farm household incomes

Traditional farm classification schemes in the European Union are strongly oriented towards the role of the farm business in generating income for the farm household. This is increasingly being viewed as too partial a view of farm households, especially by those concerned with the study of rural household adjustment and survival strategies. The paper presents an approach to the construction of a household income typology. A total of 2200 broadly defined agricultural households in three peripheral regions of the European Union — Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland and Greece — are classified into policy relevant typology groups based on the composition of household income and on their total income relative to a Minimum Income Requirement. Associations are made between the typology groups, farm business types and household lifecycles. Although there was significant variation between the three regions, only 28% of the total sample were classified as ‘farm-based’, i.e. generated a household income above the Minimum Income Requirement based mainly on farming. Poor households, i.e. those below the Minimum Income Requirement, represented 44% of the total, or about 50% if the ‘retired’ group is excluded.

Can Inequality Be Reformed?

Three limitations in standard method measurement of income redistribution are considered: that redistribution is seen as a matter of global rather than marginal effects, that structural effects on the distribution of factor income are not accounted for, and that cross-section and life-cycle effects are conflated. Evidence from recent research is introduced. It is argued that standard method results are reasonably robust in spite of limitations in the methodology. A positive association in advanced industrial companies between tax/transfer policy and income inequality is argued to be a firmly established conclusion. This suggests both that if government wants to modify income inequality it has a tool for so doing in tax and transfer policy, and that if it should want to reshape transfers or taxes for other reasons it must expect there to be distributional consequences. Czech Sociological Review, 1996, Vol. 4, (No. 1: 19-28) Comparative research on income distribution in advanced industrial societies over the last ten to fifteen years has produced at least two findings which can now be characterised as firmly established. The first is that there are considerable differences between nations in the distribution of income. This has been demonstrated above all in the Luxembourg Income Study [Smeeding et al. 1990]. Before the co-ordinated LIS estimates there was uncertainty about this and the tendency was to emphasise similarity more than difference. It has also been shown in more limited comparisons, for example of the Nordic countries [Ringen 1986, 1991; Gustafsson and Uusitalo 1990a, 1990b; Ringen and Uusitalo 1992] and of Australia and New Zealand [Saunders, Stott and Hobbs 1991]. The second finding is that there have been considerable and systematic shifts within countries in income inequality over relatively short periods of time. Here I refer to studies by Jenkins [1991], Coulter et al. [1993], Atkinson [1993], and Goodman and Webb [1994] for Britain, to the works cited above for Finland, Sweden, Australia and New Zealand, to Ringen [1993] on the composition of household income in Norway, to Fritzell [1993] for a five-country comparison, and to official poverty estimates in Britain and the United States. Previously, the tendency was to regard income inequality as relatively stable over time and such changes as were observed as mainly fluctuations around a stable underlying trend. Through these findings, income inequality has become established as a sensitive indicator of social life. Whereas established conclusions have been reached on the descriptive facts, there is less agreement about what the relevant underlying pressures are, in particular: to what degree are transfer and tax policies a factor in accounting for variations in income inequality? The question is of obvious policy relevance, but there is also a more general relevance. There are strong theories, in particular in sociological writing, of an inherent *) Direct all correspondence to Stein Ringen, Department of Applied Social Studies and Social Research, University of Oxford, Wellington Square, Oxford 0X1 2ER, United Kingdom. 19 This content downloaded from 157.55.39.4 on Fri, 09 Sep 2016 04:42:03 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms Czech Sociological Review, IV, (1/1996) tendency to social stability through mechanisms in which society strikes back against attempts to impose an arbitrary order on it. One such mechanism may be the ability of those in privilege to confound attempts to undermine their relative advantage. It is suggested that social inequality sits too deep in the fabric of society to be reachable by cautious after-the-fact redistributional measures [cf. eg. Goldthorpe et al. 1980]. The implication is that the choice for society is between drastic market regulations or laissezfaire, with no middle ground for reformist and piecemeal strategies. I am not concerned here with the question of what the distribution of income should be. Nor do I consider such major controversies as equality vs. liberty vs. efficiency. I am concerned only with the power of transfer and tax policies for influencing income inequality, if society should want to move towards more equality than is generated in the market. This needs to be known for considerations of what government can do, but knowing this is not necessarily of much consequence for considerations of what government should do. It is the potential I am concerned with, and the paper does not offer a comprehensive review of actual country experiences. A recent review of this kind is available in [Atkinson et al. 1995]. Obviously, it is the normative distribution between persons or households that is considered, and not macro-distributions, for example between labour and capital.

Differentiation and inequality in the bantustans: Evidence from Kwazulu∗

In the absence of suitable data, the extent of social and economic differentiation in the bantustans and the specific form which it takes, has not been examined quantitively. Drawing upon survey data gathered in KwaZulu, this paper attempts to make some contribution towards the analysis of inequalities within rural areas. The distribution and composition of household income, access to the subsistence factors ofproduction, and stage in the development cycle are factors which are considered. The paper concludes that it is possible to identify a process of differentiation within KwaZulu, although it is difficult to ascribe this process as class formation given the available data.