Improvement In Material Well-being Research Articles

Economic Legitimation in a New Era: Public Attitudes to State Ownership and Market Regulation in China

AbstractAutocrats typically seek public support on the basis of economic growth-promotion and redistribution policies, and China is no exception. As important as these factors are for authoritarian resilience, we argue that economic legitimation is a more complex phenomenon than has previously been acknowledged. Beyond improvements in material well-being, citizens form judgements about the state's effectiveness in carrying out a variety of economic roles beyond growth promotion and they also care about the fairness of these market interventions. In this study, we use original survey data collected in late 2015 and early 2016 to evaluate Chinese citizens’ perceptions of two economic roles of the state that have been hotly debated in recent years: state ownership and market regulation. We find that while citizens view the ideas of state ownership and interventionist regulation in a generally positive light, suggesting a broad level of agreement in Chinese society about what economic functions the state ought to perform, perceptions of how the state actually carries out these roles are more mixed. Our results show that the urban young are especially inclined to critical evaluations, raising the question of how the Chinese Communist Party's legitimation strategy will fare under conditions of inter-generational value change.

Economic growth and the concept of diminishing marginal governance effect

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine whether good governance across countries, utilising the Rule of Law indicator of the Worldwide Governance Indicators, is associated with economic growth, measured in terms of real GDP. It is to be noted that in this paper both variables are measured in terms of changes, comparing like with like. It is hypothesised that a country with a high level of economic development and a high level of good governance (typically an economically advanced country) tends to find it more difficult to improve these two variables, when compared to a country with lower levels GDP per capita and good governance (typically an economically backward country). This assumption is termed the “diminishing marginal governance effect”.Design/methodology/approachThe paper tests the hypothesis that governance improvements are related to real GDP growth, using the panel data regression approach. In this way both variables are measured in terms of changes, comparing like with like. Relevant control variables are utilised to impose the ceteris paribus condition.FindingsThe paper finds that improvements in good governance are statistically and significantly related to economic growth. This confirms the hypothesised “diminishing marginal governance effect” explained above.Research limitations/implicationsThe main research limitation of this paper is that measuring changes in the “Rule of Law” indicator over time may be subject to errors given that the “Rule of Law” score of each year is an average value with related standard deviations, and the latter vary from one year to another and from one country to another.Practical implicationsThe major practical implication of this paper is that good governance matters for economic growth and that in order to produce evidence for this the governance score must be measured in terms of changes and not in terms of levels. Another implication is that equations that compare economic growth with levels of governance are misspecified as they would not be comparing like with like.Social implicationsThere are various beneficial social implications associated with good governance which is considered as a major pillar for orderly social relationships. Economic growth also has important social implications as it means, if properly distributed, improvements in material well-being of the population.Originality/valueThe originality of this paper is that it measures governance in terms of changes and not of levels. Studies on the relationship between governance and economic growth that measure governance in terms of levels generally do not find a positive relationship between the two variables. In using changes in both governance and real GDP, this paper confirms the “diminishing marginal effect of governance”, hypothesis.

The ROLE OF INSURANCE IN PROMOTING NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT

Development as a concept has attracted definitions by scholars based on their perception of it, since it does not lend itself to universal definition. However, in whatever view held or discipline, development must revolve around improvement in material wellbeing of all citizens, not the most powerful and the rich alone in a sustainble way such that todays consumption does not imperil the fututre. It also demands that poverty and inequality of access to the good things of life be removed or drastically reduced. Therefore, the objective of this paper is to access the role of insurance towards national development in Nigeria. The methodology adopted in this paper is mainly secondary. Therefore, relevant materials were reviewed and opinion formed. By and large experience shows that no meaningful development on national basis can be achieved without insurance as a critical factor. Experience of countries such as South Korea, Japan, Australia, Malaysia among others were considered as a guide for Nigeria. Okonjo-Iweala (2015) reported that the insurance industry is an important component of financial system of countries needed to drive economic development and industrialization that without the required insurance cover, all industrial economic and social activities of the world will obviously come to a grinding halt. The above gave a pointer to the critical role insurance plays in national development. Hence, insurance as a critical role player in the economy deserves much attention from all stakeholdersc (government, community, development and partners and industry) to enable it play its naturally ordained role.

Is the Chinese Communist Party Becoming a Victim of Its Own Success? Performance Legitimacy As Dilemma

Autocrats typically seek public support on the basis of economic growth-promotion and redistribution policies, and China is no exception. As important as these factors are for authoritarian resilience, we argue that economic legitimation is a more complex phenomenon than has previously been acknowledged. Beyond improvements in material well-being, citizens form judgments about the state’s effectiveness in carrying out a variety of economic roles beyond growth-promotion and they also care about the fairness of these market interventions. In this study, we use original survey data collected in late 2015 and early 2016 to evaluate Chinese citizens’ perceptions of two economic roles of the state that have been hotly debated in recent years: state ownership and market regulation. We find that while citizens view the ideas of state ownership and interventionist regulation in a generally positive light—suggesting a broad level of agreement in Chinese society about what economic functions the state ought to perform—perceptions of how the state actually carries out these roles are more mixed. Our results show that the urban young are especially inclined to critical evaluations, raising the question of how the Chinese Communist Party’s legitimation strategy will fare under conditions of inter-generational value change

Drivers of nutritional change in four South Asian countries: a dynamic observational analysis.

This paper quantifies the factors explaining long‐term improvements in child height for age z‐scores in Bangladesh (1996/1997–2011), India (1992/1993–2005/2006), Nepal (1997–2011) and Pakistan (1991–2013). We apply the same statistical techniques to data from a common data source from which we have extracted a set of common explanatory variables that capture ‘nutrition‐sensitive’ factors. Three are particularly important in explaining height for age z‐score changes over these timeframes: improvements in material well‐being; increases in female education; and improvements in sanitation. These factors have comparable associations across all four countries.

Environmental resettlement and development, on the steppes of Inner Mongolia, PRC

The World Bank, other development institutions and a few countries, like China, have elaborated resettlement policies which envisage Resettlement with Development (RwD). However, the understanding of Development embodied in the discourse of RwD is confused. After distinguishing between the concepts of development as outcome and development as process, we investigate two projects of environmental resettlement in Inner Mongolia, PRC. The planning and implementation of these projects reveal the state's interpretation of RwD. There has been some Development (outcome) in some places, notably improvements in material well-being. However, the processes of development have been more extensive, involving increased participation in markets for produce and labour. The state, we conclude, identifies involvement with markets as the principal means of achieving material Development outcomes.

The aims of scientific education in the coming decades

Since the Second World War, our technical, biological and social environment has changed considerably; man has taken a prodigious step forward in his knowledge and in his mastery of nature. This achievement is due to a great extent to the development of basic and applied research, which in some countries takes up over two per cent of the gross domestic product. A knowledge-based social system has become an essential power factor, even more so than the possession of raw materials and energy sources. It is not easy to distinguish between the two types of research, since nowadays a large part of basic research stems from practical problems, particularly of a military kind. Conversely, many discoveries of the basic sciences are immediately used in technical applications (e.g. lasers). Only scientific research, that is, the study of deterministic relations between objects, independent of human undertakings, will be considered here. In many cases, change has taken the form of a considerable improvement in material well-being, as symbolized by the motor car, as well as better health, the eradication of certain diseases, longer life expectancy, and declining hunger despite an increase in the population. On the other hand, the all-out drive for production stimulated only by the desire for profit or power has brought about an uneven distribution of wealth, the rapid depletion of natural resources in terms of raw materials and energy, increasingly widespread pollution, the threat of nuclear war, the greenhouse effect and other climatic changes, so that the very survival of the human species is at risk.