Individual Socioeconomic Characteristics Research Articles

The adoption of Best Management Practices: empirical evidence from oil palm farming in rural Ghana

ABSTRACT Purpose We examine how farmer characteristics, farm, institutional, perception and shock factors influence the adoption of the Best Management Practices (BMPs). A thorough understanding of how relevant drivers affect the adoption decision of diverse BMPs can contribute to the development of evidence-based policies. Approach We use a household survey of 1031 smallholder oil palm farmers in the forest zones of Ghana to assess the determinants of farmers’ adoption decisions. We employ a seemingly unrelated regression (SUR) model after a principal component analysis is used to extract five latent components. Findings Our findings indicate that different farmer characteristics, farm, institutional, perception and shock factors have differential associations with the adoption of diverse BMPs. Key among these are the positive perception of BMPs, access to mills, perception of soil fertility and pests and diseases. Practical implications Specific BMPs must be tailored to meet the prevailing individual socio-economic characteristics and challenges of farmers to facilitate their adoption and scale-up. Educational programmes and dissemination of information by extension agents and research institutions are needed in the promotion of BMPs to enhance effective uptake. Theoretical implication The paper contributes to the growing literature especially on the uptake of diverse management practices, utilizing both behavioural and socio-economic theories underpinning adoption, thus providing empirical evidence that adoption is influenced by both behavioural and socio-economic factors. Originality/value In the bid to increase agricultural productivity, while preserving ecosystem services, the adoption of sustainable management practices remains key for all stakeholders and policy makers. This paper presents credible information for policy makers in Ghana and Africa in designing polices to influence their adoptions.

Gendered language and gendered violence

This study establishes the influence of sex-based grammatical gender on gendered violence. We demonstrate a statistically significant relationship between speaking a gendered language and the incidence of intimate partner violence in a cross-section of countries. Motivated by this evidence, we conduct an individual-level analysis of the effect of speaking a gendered language on beliefs about the justifiability of intimate partner violence, controlling for a wide variety of individual level socioeconomic characteristics as well as country, religion, language family and ethnicity fixed effects. Speaking a gendered language is associated with the belief that intimate partner violence is justifiable. Our results are consistent with complementarity between the cultural and cognitive effects of language on the attitudes to intimate partner violence.

The TBI Model Systems Neighborhood Socioeconomic Disadvantage Index (TBIMS-NSDI): Development and Comparison to Individual Socioeconomic Characteristics.

To create a census-based composite neighborhood socioeconomic deprivation index (NSDI) from geocoded residential addresses and to quantify how NSDI aligns with individual-level socioeconomic factors among people with traumatic brain injury (TBI). Community. People enrolled in the TBI Model Systems National Database (TBIMS NDB). Secondary analysis of a longitudinal cohort study. The TBIMS-NSDI was calculated at the census tract level for the United States population based on a principal components analysis of eight census tract-level variables from the American Community Survey. Individual socioeconomic characteristics from the TBIMS NDB were personal household income, education (years), and unemployment status. Neighborhood:Individual NSDI residuals represent the difference between predicted neighborhood disadvantage based on individual socioeconomic characteristics versus observed neighborhood disadvantage based on the TBIMS-NSDI. A single principal component was found to encompass the eight socioeconomic neighborhood-level variables. It was normally distributed across follow-up years 2, 5, and 10 post-injury in the TBIMS NDB. In all years, the TBIMS-NDSI was significantly associated with individual-level measures of household income and education but not unemployment status. Males, persons of Black and Hispanic background, Medicaid recipients, persons with TBI caused by violence, and those living in urban areas, as well as in the Northeast or Southern regions of the United States, were more likely to have greater neighborhood disadvantage than predicted based on their individual socioeconomic characteristics. The TBIMS-NSDI provides a neighborhood-level indicator of socioeconomic disadvantage, an important social determinant of outcomes from TBI. The Neighborhood:Individual NSDI residual adds another dimension to the TBIMS-NSDI by summarizing how a person's socioeconomic status aligns with their neighborhood socioeconomics. Future studies should evaluate how both measures affect TBI recovery and life quality. Research studying neighborhood socioeconomic disadvantage may improve our understanding of how systemic adversity influences outcomes after TBI.

On the importance of internet access for children’s health and subjective well-being: the case of China

ABSTRACT Digital technology is transforming children’s daily routines and can potentially have long-lasting effects on their lives. This paper studies the impact of internet access on the health and subjective wellbeing of Chinese children. To conduct such analysis, we employ data from the China Education Panel Survey (CEPS), a longitudinal dataset of Chinese seventh-year students representative of the whole country. This database allows us to control for unobserved individual heterogeneity and socio-economic characteristics. We use two alternative methods to address endogeneity concerns. The first one employs a recursive system of equations that allows unobserved individual heterogeneity to simultaneously affect both health outcomes and digital access. The second approach exploits the fact that Chinese students cannot choose which school to attend and employ the proportion of students owning a computer in the same school as an instrumental variable. Regardless of the method, we find that internet access improves health. We also find some positive impact of digital access on subjective wellbeing, albeit the evidence is weaker. This stands in stark contrast to prior research, which has found a negative effect of internet use on mental health in Western countries.

Dietary Rhythmicity and Mental Health Among Airline Personnel

Misaligned dietary rhythmicity has been associated with metabolic diseases; however, its association with mental health remains largely unexplored. To examine the association between dietary rhythms and the mental health condition of shift workers, specifically airline crew members. This cross-sectional study analyzed data collected from the Civil Aviation Health Cohort of China, an ongoing large-scale health survey of pilots, flight attendants, and air security officers employed by major airline companies in China. Participants aged 18 to 60 years were invited through text messages to complete a web-based survey. The data collection period was December 2022 to March 2023. Statistical analysis was performed from July 24, 2023, to April 12, 2024. Data on timing of breakfast and dinner on workdays and rest days, daily time windows for food intake, and meal and eating jet lags were collected and calculated. Anxiety and depressive symptoms were measured using the 7-item Generalized Anxiety Disorder Assessment and the 9-item Patient Health Questionnaire. Multivariate logistic regressions were performed to evaluate the associations of anxiety and depression with meal timing, eating window time, meal jet lag (ie, delayed meals), and eating jet lag (ie, delayed eating). All models were adjusted for individual socioeconomic, demographic, and lifestyle characteristics. Of the 22 617 participants (median [IQR] age, 29.1 [26.3-33.7] years; 13 712 males [60.6%]), 1755 (7.8%) had anxiety and 2768 (12.2%) had depression. After controlling for confounding factors, having dinner after 8 pm on morning-shift days was associated with increased odds of anxiety (adjusted odds ratio [AOR], 1.78; 95% CI, 1.53-2.05) and depression (AOR, 2.01; 95% CI, 1.78-2.27), compared with consuming dinner before 8 pm. Similar results were observed on night-shift days and rest days. An eating window of less than 12 hours was associated with reduced odds of anxiety (AOR, 0.84; 95% CI, 0.75-0.93) and depression (AOR, 0.81; 95% CI, 0.75-0.89) on morning-shift days; the results remained significant on rest days. Delayed dinner on morning-shift days was associated with increased odds of anxiety (AOR, 1.32; 95% CI, 1.13-1.54) and depression (AOR, 1.39; 95% CI, 1.22-1.58). On night-shift days, delayed dinner was associated with higher odds of anxiety (AOR, 1.22; 95% CI, 1.06-1.39) and depression (AOR, 1.21; 95% CI, 1.08-1.36). On morning-shift days, delayed eating rhythms were associated with higher odds of depression (AOR, 1.35; 95% CI, 1.13-1.61), whereas advanced eating rhythms were associated with lower odds of anxiety (AOR, 0.78; 95% CI, 0.70-0.87). This cross-sectional study found that meal timing, long eating window, and meal jet lags were associated with increased odds of depression and anxiety. These findings underscore the need for interventions and supportive policies that help mitigate the adverse implications of shift work and irregular working hours for the mental health of shift workers.

Ethnic Grocery Retailing and Health: A Case Study of Chinese and South Asian Immigrants in Toronto

This article investigates whether shopping at ethnic grocery retailers and the level of access to these stores relate to healthy eating and associated health outcomes among Chinese and South Asian immigrants in Toronto, Canada. Based on an online survey of 600 immigrants’ grocery behaviors and a location database of ethnic and mainstream grocery stores in Toronto, a series of accessibility measure scores were generated and linked to the survey data. Using a combination of logistic regression and chi-square analysis, this study finds that access to and the frequency of shopping at ethnic grocers are not significant factors explaining fruit, vegetable, and whole grain consumption or obesity levels among Chinese and South Asian immigrants. The research underlines the blurred lines between ethnic and mainstream grocery stores, with major retail chains increasingly catering to the growing ethnic market in Toronto. Although access and frequency of shopping were not significant, a set of demographic and socioeconomic characteristics of individuals were found to have significant relationships with healthy eating and obesity level outcomes. Further geographic research is needed to understand the spatial dynamics of ethnic grocery shopping behaviors related to immigrant well-being, including social and mental health, community life, and affirming cultural identity.

Оценка перспектив вовлечения территорий упраздненных поселений в туристско-рекреационное хозяйство (на примере Республики Карелия)

This article emphasizes the relevance of exploring import substitution strategies in the Russian tourism and recreational market. Special attention is given to the need to satisfy the demand for unique travel experiences. As it is necessary to integrate unused territories into the economy, the article proposes to increase the involvement of abandoned settlements in the tourism and recreational sector. To identify the most promising villages, a goal was set to develop and test a scoring scale based on the system of indicators proposed by the authors. The Republic of Karelia was chosen as the research site. Criteria were identified to determine the attractiveness and feasibility of including abandoned settlements in tour itineraries. Based on these criteria, villages such as Keret, Loushki, Pulozero, Pegrema, Kashalilamba, Lagilamba, Kharitonova Gora, Gafostrof Rebolskoy, and Kolodozero were selected. Using the assessment system presented in the article, these villages were assigned points, and the integral indicator was calculated. The results show that Keret, Gafostrof Rebolskoy, Kashalilamba, Kakkarovo, and Pegrema are the most promising ones, which is confirmed by practice: Keret, Gafostrof Rebolskoy, and Pegrema have already been included in tour itineraries. Future research prospects involve improving the presented methodology, as it requires adaptation to factor in individual socio-economic and natural characteristics of other regions. It is also possible to expand the list of factors influencing the attractiveness of abandoned settlements. Theoretical developments in this direction can serve as a basis for the successful integration of abandoned villages in the tourism and recreational market in the Russian North.

Increased farmer willingness to pay for quality cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz) planting materials: evidence from experimental auctions in Cambodia and Lao PDR

AbstractVarietal turnover is a major mechanism for farmer adaptation to rapidly changing environmental and market conditions. Understanding factors related to varietal turnover is critical for safeguarding food security in the face of increasingly rapid changes to production contexts. Preference elicitation methods like experimental auctions reveal farmers’ willingness to pay (WTP) for seeds with different characteristics. We engaged farmers growing cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz) across a wide geographic scope in Cambodia (n = 321, 4 provinces) and Lao PDR (n = 391, 5 provinces) in modified second-price experimental auctions to determine WTP for three cassava seed classes: farmer-produced planting stems of an undescribed variety, farmer-produced planting stems of an elite variety with lower susceptibility to Cassava Mosaic Disease (CMD), and virus-free tested planting stems of the same elite variety. In Lao PDR, mean auction bids for a bundle of 20 planting stems were 0.54, 0.92, and 1.40 USD for farmer, elite, and elite tested stems, while in Cambodia the analogous mean bids were 0.58, 0.77, and 1.16 USD, respectively. A significantly higher WTP associated with elite variety and tested stems in both countries was influenced by both geographic location (province) and individual socioeconomic farmer characteristics. In Lao PDR this included lower WTP of women, higher WTP of ethnic minorities, and, for improved stems, lower WTP of farmers with increased cassava growing experience. In Cambodia fewer socioeconomic variables affected WTP. Our results indicate significant increases in WTP for clean planting materials and new varieties, supporting market-based clean seed approaches as a component of regional control strategies for the CMD epidemic currently threatening a global agri-food value chain.

Implementation of Digital Policy Experimental Analysis in Higher Education on The Level of Graduates' Absorption in Industry

This research aims to analyze the impact of deregulation of the university system on the labor market. We used a sample of 100 people in this research. The research results indicate that without deregulation, most individuals who access university studies would likely only pursue their education. This study uses the year or birth cohort as an exogenous characteristic to implement the instrumental variable strategy. This makes it possible to estimate the causal impact of university education on several employment outcomes, especially wages and labor informality. An admitted university estimates that each year of study will increase the salary. We estimate the cumulative impact of access to university studies. However, the effect of university education on wages turns out to be heterogeneous, depending on individual socio-economic characteristics. The effect tends to be higher in women and individuals in the highest family income quintile. The evidence aligns with other international research regarding the salary premium of university education and its impact on human capital. The results show that for each year of university study, the probability of informality in employment decreases, notably reducing the probability of not having an employment contract. However, we found no significant impact on the probability of not having a pension fund affiliation, suggesting a structural dimension of informality in the labor market that may not be dependent on workers' education level.

Factors associated with food security in rural communities across the globe

Food security is a global issue that affects millions of people worldwide. Several studies have been carried out to understand the dynamics of food security resulting from emerging issues across the globe such as climate change, conflict, etc. The authors have reviewed in this article the factors associated with food security in rural communities considering the socio-economic characteristics of individuals, livelihood concerns, inflation in the economy and purchasing power of households, the use of technology, governmental or non-governmental support and the effect of food insecurity on individuals and households. The studies have shown that lack of employment opportunities, low income of households, climate change, inflation and instability of food prices, poor rural infrastructure, inefficient government policies, and lack of technology at household level are major contributing factors to rural food insecurity. Moreover, one of the key conclusions of the published studies is that food insecurity negatively impacts health in both adults and children.

Factors and age-related drivers that influence self-rated bad health in police officers: A cross-sectional study

ObjectiveAlthough some previous studies have investigated health in police officers, investigations of related factors have been limited to work-related associations or those affecting certain police officers. To address this gap, this study investigated relationships between sociodemographic factors, work-related factors, health behaviors, health conditions, and self-rated bad health (SRBH) in Korean police officers. MethodsIn 2021, we conducted a cross-sectional survey in cooperation with the Korean National Police Agency (KNPA). The respondents were 6,591 police officers aged 21–60 years, all of whom agreed to complete the survey online using the police agency’s intranet. After collecting data, we conducted a multiple logistic regression analysis to examine factors that were associated with SRBH, with calculations for adjusted odds ratios (ORs) and 95 % confidence intervals (CIs). The study model included a range of individual socioeconomic characteristics, work-related variables, health behaviors, and health conditions. ResultsAlthough the associated factors varied according to age group, several factors generally related to SRBH, including the lack of exercise, stress, having one or more chronic diseases, and work-related pain. By contrast, neither sex nor sleep duration were associated with SRBH of respondents. Monthly night work, smoking, and alcohol consumption were only associated with SRBH of certain age groups. ConclusionsSeveral variables clearly related to SRBH of police officers. In this context, health-related associations, especially stress and chronic diseases, tended to differ according to age, including those that should be considered to improve health. These findings have important implications for relevant healthcare programs and interventions.

Exploring the changes of individuals’ travel behavior in response to COVID-19 and their influencing factors based on mobile phone data

IntroductionThe COVID-19 pandemic has produced a profound impact on travel behavior. Yet, few studies explored how individuals resist such impact to maintain their daily life from the perspective of people's responses. A comprehensive theoretical framework to elucidate individual travel behavior changes and a quantitative analysis of the pivotal factors driving these changes was lacking. MethodsThis study constructed a framework for individuals' travel behavior in response to COVID-19 and utilized anonymized mobile phone trajectory data before and during COVID-19 in Guangzhou to explore the changes of individuals’ travel behavior on workdays. Gradient boosting decision trees was used to quantify the degree of the factors driving travel changes. ResultsDuring the pandemic workdays, non-essential trips experienced a reduction of 51.4%, while essential trips decreased by 30.94%; Subway trips decreased by 1.63%, whereas motorized trips increased by 8.75%. The most significant decrease was observed in travel duration (50.92%), followed by travel frequency (41.28%), and travel distance (39.19%). The three travel indices displayed significant social disparities and spatial disparities. However, the relative relationships among these three travel indices did not vary with groups and spaces. Risk perception and intervention measures, emerged as primary drivers of individuals’ travel changes, contributing to 27%–35% of the total impact, while individual socio-economic characteristics and built environment accounting for less than 10%. ImplicationsThe results indicated that individuals curtailed both their essential and non-essential trips and adjusted their travel mode in response to the epidemic. These changes in travel purpose and mode led to differing reduction rates in travel frequency, duration, and distance. These findings contribute to individual travel changes prediction and fine-grained epidemic modelling during other public health emergencies like COVID-19.

Analyzing the relationship between the experience of intimate partner violence and female internet use in Nigeria

Female internet use is abysmally low (17.48%) in Nigeria, and it has become an issue of serious concern due to its negative impact on their health and economic well-being. While most of the scholarly debates centers on the influence of individual socio-economic characteristics and geographical factors to understand and improve female internet use, this study contributes to the literature by interrogating the role of women's experience of intimate partner violence (IPV) and other socio-economic and geographical factors based on the social theory of internet use. We conduct spatial and logistic regression analyses using the 2018 cross-sectional Demographic and Health Survey of 41,821 women aged 15–49. The spatial analysis shows a significant concentration of female internet non-use in the Northern region relative to the South, while the binary logistic regression analysis indicates that the experience of IPV, age, wealth status, education, being married, urban location, and residing in Northern Nigeria are significant predictors of female internet use. The study recommends tailoring support systems and interventions that acknowledge the unique challenges faced by survivors of IPV and the improvement of the socio-economic conditions of women to achieve greater internet use.

Building a wall around the welfare state, or around the country? Preferences for immigrant welfare inclusion and immigration policy openness in Europe

Existing research on welfare chauvinism, which involves preferences about the inclusion or exclusion of immigrants in welfare programmes, often overlooks individual preferences regarding immigration policy openness (the number of immigrants allowed into a country). This article posits that these two dimensions should be considered together. The reason is that the implications of including or excluding migrants in welfare programmes vary significantly depending on whether a country admits few or many immigrants. Utilizing data from two waves of the European Social Survey across 23 European countries, we develop a typology of individual stances that encapsulate attitudes towards both immigration policy openness and immigrant inclusion in the welfare state. Our analysis reveals that the distribution of these stances varies considerably across European nations. We further examine how the probability of endorsing one of these typologies correlates with individual socio-economic characteristics, especially education. We find that higher education levels are linked to a higher likelihood of supporting either a combination of openness and inclusion or, to a lesser extent, openness paired with welfare exclusion. Additionally, more exclusionary attitudes are observed in countries where welfare usage by migrants is higher.

Adherence to a healthy lifestyle in Russia according to the ESSE-RF study: is there a COVID-19 trace?

Aim. To assess adherence to a healthy lifestyle depending on the individual and socio-economic characteristics of the Russian population (according to the Epidemiology of Cardiovascular Diseases and their Risk Factors in Regions of Russian Federation-3 (ESSE-RF3) study), followed by a comparative analysis with ESSE-RF2 (2017).Material and methods. The analysis was carried out based on research data from ESSE-RF2 in 2017 and ESSE-RF3 in 2020-2022. The healthy lifestyle adherence index included following parameters: no smoking; sufficient consumption of vegetables and fruits; physical activity; no excessive salt intake and alcohol abuse. Three following categories of adherence to a healthy lifestyle were analyzed: high, satisfactory, low. From individual variables, individual socio-economic characteristics with the highest evidence level of influence on healthy lifestyle were taken.Results. In the ESSE-RF3 sample, 47,2% of respondents had low adherence to a healthy lifestyle, 37,2% — satisfactory, and 15,6% — high. Women are more committed to healthy behavior compared to the male population — 19,6 vs 11,1% (p<0,001). The lowest adherence to a healthy lifestyle was found among men with low incomes who do not have higher education and is typical for younger people. Analysis of changes from 2017 to 2020-2022 revealed that adherence to a healthy lifestyle among the population decreased mainly due to a decrease in the proportion of people with high adherence.Conclusion. The study made it possible to characterize the current level of healthy lifestyle among the population and demonstrated the most promising strategies aimed at improving adherence to a healthy lifestyle among the Russian population.

Effects of cultural origin on entrepreneurship

This paper investigates the effects of cultural origin on entrepreneurship. Using Swedish registry data on second-generation immigrants and risk appetite measures from the Global Preference Survey (GPS), we investigate whether risk preferences in parents’ home countries affect entrepreneurship. We find that children of immigrants from more risk-loving cultures are more likely to start up a business, although of poorer quality. We also find that entrepreneurs with parents from cultures with higher risk appetite earn a lower personal income. Our analysis demonstrates that culturally transmitted risk appetite has significant effects beyond individual and parental socioeconomic characteristics.

The inequality effects of public transport fare: The case of Lisbon's fare reform

Spatial segregation of social groups within cities and inadequate transport conditions are frequently pointed to as major barriers to improving urban livelihood conditions for disadvantaged groups. For that reason, accessibility measures have increasingly been used as a tool to measure inequality. However, traditional accessibility measures fail to capture both travel costs and individual characteristics, which are central to equity. Therefore, in this paper, we discuss the importance of incorporating fare cost, fare affordability, and individual socio-economic characteristics of transport users into accessibility equity measurements. Given the April 2019 fare policy change introduced in the Lisbon Metropolitan Area (LMA), this study examines how the fare restructuring, the integration of all public transport (PT) modes into a single pass with a maximum cost of 40€ per month, affects inequality levels. Using survey data collected in June and July 2020, we compare the self-reported trip modes and travel costs under Lisbon's previous and current public transport fare systems. We first define 4 benefits associated with the reform and calculate them for all survey respondents. We then used statistical analysis to determine which sociodemographic and locational groups benefited the most from the reform. Finally, using a pseudo-Palma ratio, we compare accessibility inequality levels for income and spatial subgroups before and after the fare price change.Results show that fare reform had positive effects on commuter accessibility levels, when interpreted as the reduction of generalized costs. Income, age, gender, and transport modal choice were found to be the main characteristics that distinguish the most benefited groups, while other characteristics played a more modest role. These effects, when interpreted from a spatial perspective presented a clear positive association with public transport supply levels. Relative to the impact of the fare reform on equity of benefit distribution, results reinforce that price policies can reduce inequalities.

Association between neighborhood availability of physical activity facilities and cognitive performance in older adults

The existing evidence on the contextual influence of the availability of local facilities for physical activity on the cognitive health of elderly residents is sparse. This study examined the association between neighborhood physical activity facilities and cognitive health in older individuals. A cohort study of community-dwelling older adults was performed using baseline data and follow-up data from the Taiwan Biobank. Cognitive health was measured in 32,396 individuals aged 60–70 years using the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) with follow-up information on 8025 participants. The district was used as the proxy for local neighborhood. To determine neighborhood physical activity facilities, school campuses, parks, activity centers, gyms, swimming pools, and stadiums were included. Multilevel linear regression models were applied to examine the associations of neighborhood physical activity facilities with baseline MMSE and MMSE decline during follow-up, with adjustment for individual factors and neighborhood socioeconomic characteristics. Multilevel analyses revealed that there was a neighborhood-level effect on cognitive health among older adults. After adjusting for compositional and neighborhood socioeconomic characteristics, baseline MMSE was higher in individuals living in the middle- (beta = 0.12, p-value = 0.140) and high-density facility (beta = 0.22, p-value = 0.025) groups than in the low-density group (p-value for trend-test = 0.031). MMSE decline during follow-up was slower in the middle- (beta = 0.15, p-value = 0.114) and high-density facility (beta = 0.27, p-value = 0.052) groups than in the low-density group (p-value for trend-test = 0.032). Greater neighborhood availability of physical activity facilities was associated with better cognitive health among older residents. These findings have implications for designing communities and developing strategies to support cognitive health of an aging population.

The rural–urban poverty gap in England after the 2008 financial crisis: exploring the effects of budgetary cuts and welfare reforms

ABSTRACT A rural–urban poverty gap exists in most countries around the world, and this paper employs a novel approach to explain this difference, using logistic regression to examine the effects of rural–urban residence type, individual socio-economic and demographic characteristics, and changes in government policies on the likelihood of being poor in England. Unusually, rural areas in England have lower poverty rates than urban areas, so the direction of the typical rural–urban poverty gap is reversed, but the method employed here would be applicable in either direction. We disaggregate micro-data from the Understanding Society Survey (USS) into three residence types (predominantly rural; significantly rural and predominantly urban), and combine these USS data with information on changes in councils’ spending power, in service spending and in per capita income lost from cuts to welfare benefits since 2010. The results demonstrate that rural residence provides a buffer against poverty in England, a so-called ‘rural advantage effect’, but this is reduced or becomes non-significant after controlling for individual socio-economic and demographic characteristics and changes in government policies. Furthermore, working-age poverty has increased more rapidly in rural areas than urban between 2010 and 2018. Our analysis also reveals how national policies have differential spatial impacts on local populations according to their diverse characteristics.

Understanding Social Inequality in Individual Perceived Exposures to Air Pollution in Residential and Visited Neighborhoods: A Study Using Association Rule Mining

Using individual-level data collected from two communities in Hong Kong, this study proposes a significant association rule mining method to identify the complex associations between individual socioeconomic characteristics and perceived air pollution in people’s daily life. It defines a measure, namely the rule inequality index, to assess the social inequality in perceived exposure to air pollution in both residential and visited neighborhoods. The results indicate that the associations between individual socioeconomic characteristics and perceived air pollution are not always consistent over communities, nor are the value ranges of perceived air pollution. Further, the tendency of different social groups to perceive high levels of air pollution can differ considerably depending on whether they are in their residential or visited neighborhoods. We also find that social groups based on different socioeconomic variables typically experience varying degrees of neighborhood effects on the associated social equalities. Our findings emphasize the importance of considering nonstationary associations and human mobility in research on social inequality related to mobility-dependent environmental exposure.