Subnational Differences Research Articles

East vis‐à‐vis West: The evolution of work values within China regions

Numerous studies have investigated between‐country cultural differences. However, the subnational cultural differences, particularly in emerging markets, have remained an underexplored research topic despite its importance. Likewise, multiperiod studies in the cross‐cultural management area have also remained an underexplored topic. This study concurrently addresses both of these voids in the literature. Specifically, we examine changes in work values of businesspeople in the economically developed East region and the less developed West region of China over the first decade of the 21st century (2000–2010). Our findings show that, across the eight work values dimensions analyzed in this study, three exhibited static crossvergence, while the other five value dimensions exhibited conforming crossvergence. An implication of these findings is that the dissimilar work values, which had been found across the regions of China of the past century, are moving toward a more countrywide set of homogeneous values among the workforce professionals of China.

New Rulers in the City: Local Political Institutional Transition and International Entrepreneurship

This study explores how subnational political institutional differences affect where within an economy multinational enterprises decide to locate new ventures. Previous research has shown that cross-national political institutional differences affect a multinational firm’s new venture location strategy. However, we know little about how subnational institutional differences affect multinational enterprise new venture location strategy within the same economy. This is an important question because vastly different formal and informal rules of the game may prevail in different subnational regions within the same economy, affecting not only new venture strategies, but also the effectiveness of those strategies. We develop a theoretical framework proposing that local political institutional transitions create opportunities, but also uncertainties, for new ventures. Whether opportunities outweigh the uncertainties depend on the content, frequency and political-structural consequences of the transition. The the...

RobertaPace and RobertoHam-Chande (Eds.) Demographic Dividends: Emerging Challenges and Policy Implications Springer International, 2016. 184 p. $99.99.

“Demographic dividend” refers to a net macro-economic boost when population age structures are weighted toward the prime working ages. Age structures with this feature are typically a transitory phenomenon during demographic transition, with the duration and magnitude of the dividend conditional on the pace of the transition (and especially the rapidity of fertility decline). This edited volume contains concise essays on various facets of the demographic dividend in seven populations: India, Latin America, Mexico, sub-Saharan Africa with global comparison, countries bordering on the Mediterranean Sea, New Zealand, and Italy. The populations differ widely in their stage of demographic transition, from early transition (sub-Saharan Africa) to post-transition (New Zealand and Italy). The seven chapters offer a mix of global, regional, and national perspectives. Four are national studies, and three of these (Mexico is the exception) emphasize sub-national differences according to administrative unit (India, Italy) or ethnic group (New Zealand). In a similar vein, the chapter on Latin America focuses on variation by sex, defining the “gender dividend” as the macro-economic gain from increased labor force participation by women (itself one common consequence of fertility decline). All of the chapters are data-rich, with numerous tables and figures, largely descriptive in character. The chapter on Mexico is distinctive in containing more formal modeling (of life-cycle savings, drawing on household survey data). A major theme throughout is that the size of the demographic dividend is conditional on human capital investment, specifically in education and health. This relatively common theme in contemporary discourse about the demographic dividend is given added force in this volume by the variation in stage of demographic transition: the requirements and payoffs from human capital investment vary considerably among populations at early, middle, and late stages of transition. Index.

Prospects for Fertility Decline in Africa

Prospects for Fertility Decline in Africa

Economic resilience in Great Britain: the crisis impact and its determining factors for local authority districts

The 2008 recession has had a prolonged and varying effect both across and within countries. This paper studies the crisis impact on Great Britain’s Local Authority Districts (LADs) using the concept of economic resilience. This country is an interesting case study as the impact varied significantly among LADs. The focus is on employment, and a new method is proposed for comparing pre- and post-recession conditions in order to assess the recession impact. The influence of a number of determining factors is examined, and the study finds a significant effect for initial economic conditions, human capital, age structure, urbanisation and geography. Policy makers need to take into account subnational differences in these factors in order to design and implement better targeted policies.

Faecal contamination of household drinking water in Rwanda: A national cross-sectional study

Unsafe drinking water is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality, especially among young children in low-income settings. We conducted a national survey in Rwanda to determine the level of faecal contamination of household drinking water and risk factors associated therewith. Drinking water samples were collected from a nationally representative sample of 870 households and assessed for thermotolerant coliforms (TTC), a World Health Organization (WHO)-approved indicator of faecal contamination. Potential household and community-level determinants of household drinking water quality derived from household surveys, the 2012 Rwanda Population and Housing Census, and a precipitation dataset were assessed using multivariate logistic regression. Widespread faecal contamination was present, and only 24.9% (95% CI 20.9–29.4%, n=217) of household samples met WHO Guidelines of having no detectable TTC contamination, while 42.5% (95% CI 38.0–47.1%, n=361) of samples had >100TTC/100mL and considered high risk. Sub-national differences were observed, with poorer water quality in rural areas and Eastern province. In multivariate analyses, there was evidence for an association between detectable contamination and increased open waste disposal in a sector, lower elevation, and water sources other than piped to household or rainwater/bottled. Risk factors for intermediate/high risk contamination (>10TTC/100mL) included low population density, increased open waste disposal, lower elevation, water sources other than piped to household or rainwater/bottled, and occurrence of an extreme rain event the previous day. Modelling suggests non-household-based risk factors are determinants of water quality in this setting, and these results suggest a substantial proportion of Rwanda's population are exposed to faecal contamination through drinking water.

Rise of a Japanese Chinatown, Yokohama, 1894–1972, by Eric C. Han

Rise of a Japanese Chinatown, Yokohama, 1894-1972, by Eric C. Han. Cambridge, Harvard University Asia Center, 2014. xvi, 250 pp. $39.95 US (cloth). In Rise of a Japanese Chinatown, Yokohama, Eric Han knits together a riveting account of Chinese migration, settlement, and the more elusive subject of identity. The Chinatown in the modern port city of Yokohama has enjoyed continuous existence since the late nineteenth century, but it has drawn relatively little attention from scholars, whether Japanese or non-Japanese, compared to other contemporary settlements established by the migrant Chinese around the Pacific. The monograph is a welcome addition to the growing literature on the Chinese Diaspora now that concerned scholars have begun probing the less familiar streams of Chinese migratory activities beyond the traditional focus on Southeast Asia and North America. For historians of China and Japan, the present study offers an uncommon perspective on Sino-Japanese relations through the prisms of Chinese migrant experience on Japan's home front. Han presents his account chronologically starting from the treaty port era--for Yokohama, in 1859--all the way to the establishment of diplomatic ties between Japan and the People's Republic in 1972, with a conclusion that reflects on the 1980s and beyond. The treatment covers the major developments, beginning with the First Sino-Japanese War of 1894-95 and the ensuing era of expatriate nationalism activated by exile political figures like Kang Youwei, Liang Qichao, and Sun Yatsen, followed by the two decades of simmering conflict between the two countries in 1912-1932 (that also witnessed the destruction wrought by the catastrophic earthquake of 1923). The second half of the study examines the tumultuous, heart-wrenching years preceding and during the Pacific War, and then the Cold War period of diplomatic anomaly during which Yokohama Chinatown blazed its path of economic recovery. The author is primarily concerned with the question of identity. In an era marked by nation-building projects and rising nationalisms around the globe, individuals and communities engaging in migration increasingly used an ethnic-national optic to view their own worlds, and found themselves being viewed by others through that same lens. It subsumed subnational differences and fixated on the prerogative of and pride associated with the nation. Such was the experience of the Chinese migrants landing on Japanese shores who went on to build their families, businesses and communities in Yokohama. The first generation of merchants and labourers arrived with a local identity tied to their native places in Guangdong, Jiangsu, and Zhejiang; over time, they and their descendants became Chinese. The change in self-understanding and the consciousness of being huaqiao (patriotic Chinese in diaspora) had to do in part with the cultivation by political activists and later on agents of the Guomindang government. …

Outworking of the Second Demographic Transition: National Trends and Regional Patterns of Fertility Change in Poland, and England and Wales, 2002-2012

One of the main indicators of the second demographic transition (SDT) is the decline of fertility to below the replacement level (2.1 births per woman). The onset of the SDT in Europe spread across Western Europe in the 1960s and subsequently diffused to other parts of the continent. In Eastern Europe, a fall in total fertility rates below the replacement level was recorded at the beginning of the 1990s and was associated by some researchers with the collapse of the communist system and the introduction of a market economy. At present, countries of Eastern Europe record the lowest total fertility rate values (at 1.3–1.4), whereas a fertility recovery has been observed in Northern and Western Europe. Regional, subnational differences in fertility within particular countries associated with uneven dispersal of changes linked with the SDT, especially between urban, suburban, and rural areas, are known to exist but are less well articulated. This paper offers a comparative study of changes in spatial patterns of selected fertility indicators between Poland, and England and Wales, part of the UK, at the beginning of the 21st century. Despite apparent differences at the national level, the paper identifies similarities in the spread of SDT from core to peripheral areas and presents a reduction in the demographic divide between Western and Eastern Europe. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Cause-specific neonatal mortality: analysis of 3772 neonatal deaths in Nepal, Bangladesh, Malawi and India

ObjectiveUnderstanding the causes of death is key to tackling the burden of three million annual neonatal deaths. Resource-poor settings lack effective vital registration systems for births, deaths and causes of...

Telling a Similar Story Twice? NCVS/UCR Convergence in Serious Violent Crime Rates in Rural, Suburban, and Urban Places (1973–2010)

This study examines UCR and NCVS serious violence crime trends in urban, suburban, and rural areas, and assesses the extent to which discrepancies in the two data series are due to victim reporting or police crime-recording practices. Particular attention is paid to the dynamics of the rural data series. NCVS data for 1973–2010 are used to estimate subnational rates of serious violence and comparable rates for crimes that victims said were reported to police, and these estimates are compared to subnational UCR data. Time-series cointegration analysis is used to assess convergence in the NCVS and UCR series along with descriptive comparative analyses. The degree of convergence in UCR and NCVS trends was found to vary across areas; however this was not due to differences in rates of reporting to police. Suburban and urban UCR and NCVS trends converged with and without adjustment for police reporting. Little evidence of NCVS/UCR series convergence was found in rural areas even after victim reporting was taken into account. The recording and production of crime data by the police appears to contribute to subnational differences in the convergence between the UCR and NCVS series. The findings suggest rural crime trend analysis should not be based solely on UCR data. To illustrate the difference between conclusions based on UCR and NCVS rural violence trends, we find that poverty rates have a large, significant association with rural violence as measured in the NCVS, but are unrelated to UCR rates.

Explosive connections? Mass media, social media, and the geography of collective violence in African states

Growing evidence indicates that the diffusion of information and communication technologies (ICTs) can substantially alter the contours of collective violence in developing nations. However, empirical investigations of such effects have generally been hampered by an inability to systematically measure geographic variation in ICT penetration, across multiple technologies and multiple countries. In this article, I show that geo-referenced household surveys can be used to estimate subnational differences in the spatial reach of radio and cellular communications infrastructures in 24 African states. By combining these estimates with geo-referenced measures of the location of disaggregated events of collective violence, I show that there are important differences between centralized ‘mass’ communication technologies – such as radios – that foster vertical linkages between state and society, and decentralized ‘social’ communication technologies – such as cell phones – that foster horizontal linkages between the members of a society. The evidence demonstrates that the geographic reach of mass media penetration generates substantial pacifying effects, while the reach of social media penetration generates substantial increases in collective violence, especially in areas lacking access to mass media infrastructure. I argue that these findings are consistent with a theory of ICT effects which focuses on the strengthening and weakening of economies of scale in the marketplace of ideas.

Tuberculosis case-finding in Cambodia: analysis of case notification data, 2000 to 2013.

The routine tuberculosis (TB) surveillance system in Cambodia has been strengthened under the National TB Programme (NTP). This paper provides an overview of the TB surveillance data for Cambodia at the national level for the period 2000 to 2013 and at the subnational level for 2013. The proportion of the total population that were screened for TB rose from 0.4% in 2001 to 1.1% in 2013, while the smear-positivity rate decreased from 28.9% to 8.1% in the same period. The total number of notified TB cases increased steadily from 2000; this has stabilized in recent years with 39 055 cases notified in 2013. The proportion of all TB cases that were smear-positive decreased from 78% in 2000 to 36% in 2013. Case notification rates (CNRs) for all forms of TB and new smear-positive TB in 2013 were 261 and 94 per 100 000 population, respectively. Higher CNRs were found in the north-western and south-eastern parts of the country and were higher for males especially in older age groups. The increase in TB screening, decline in the smear-positive rate and decline in notified smear-positive TB cases likely reflect a long-term positive impact of the NTP. A negative correlation between the proportion of the population screened and the smear-positivity rate at the subnational level helped identify where to find undiagnosed cases. Subnational differences in case notification of the elderly and in children provide more specific targets for case-finding and further encourage strategic resource allocation.

Subnational differences and R&D-performance relationship in an emerging economy context

This study explores how subnational differences in a large emerging economy can moderate the relationship between research and development (R&D) and firm performance. Using a sample of Russian firm...

Determinants of the Recent Rise in Childhood Mortality in Sub-Saharan Africa: Evidence from Kenya Demographic and Health Surveys, 1990 – 2003

Childhood mortality rates in Kenya increased in the 1990s and early 2000s. Evidence from Kenya Demographic Health Survey (KDHS) data shows increase in under-5 mortality rate by 26 percent from 91 in 1993 to 115 in 2003. This study examined factors associated with the rise in childhood mortality in Kenya. Micro-level data were obtained from KDHS. Macro-level data were gathered from government administrative records and comprised indicators of access and utilization of health services. Proportional hazards model was used to deconstruct factors associated with rise in childhood mortality. The results showed that that macro factors, particularly high HIV/AIDS prevalence and the general deterioration in the quality of childcare, were largely responsible for the rise in childhood mortality in the 1990s and early 2000s. Other factors believed to be also strongly associated with early childhood deaths during this period include malaria prevalence and subnational differences in culture and child care practices.

Assessment of spatial variation in drinking water iodine and its implications for dietary intake: A new conceptual model for Denmark

Iodine is essential for human health. Many countries have therefore introduced universal salt iodising (USI) programmes to ensure adequate intake for the populations. However, little attention has been paid to subnational differences in iodine intake from drinking water caused by naturally occurring spatial variations. To address this issue, we here present the results of a Danish nationwide study of spatial trends of iodine in drinking water and the relevance of these trends for human dietary iodine intake.The data consist of treated drinking water samples from 144 waterworks, representing approx. 45% of the groundwater abstraction for drinking water supply in Denmark. The samples were analysed for iodide, iodate, total iodine (TI) and other major and trace elements. The spatial patterns were investigated with Local Moran's I. TI ranges from <0.2 to 126μgL−1 (mean 14.4μgL−1, median 11.9μgL−1). Six speciation combinations were found. Half of the samples (n=71) contain organic iodine; all species were detected in approx. 27% of all samples. The complex spatial variation is attributed both to the geology and the groundwater treatment. TI >40μgL−1 originates from postglacial marine and glacial meltwater sand and from Campanian–Maastrichtian chalk aquifers. The estimated drinking water contribution to human intake varies from 0% to >100% of the WHO recommended daily iodine intake for adults and from 0% to approx. 50% for adolescents. The paper presents a new conceptual model based on the observed clustering of high or low drinking-water iodine concentrations, delimiting zones with potentially deficient, excessive or optimal iodine status.Our findings suggest that the present coarse-scale nationwide programme for monitoring the population's iodine status may not offer a sufficiently accurate picture. Local variations in drinking-water iodine should be mapped and incorporated into future adjustment of the monitoring and/or the USI programmes.

White paper on how to go forward with cell-based advanced therapies in Europe.

The current White paper summarizes the discussions and exchange of experiences during the first European Interdisciplinary Summit on Cell-Based ATMPs held in Vienna, Austria, May 02-03, 2013. The meeting was supported by the Research Networking Programme REMEDIC (regenerative medicine) funded by the European Science Foundation and by the British Medical Research Council. To improve the competitiveness of Europe in the field of cell-based Advanced Medicinal Therapy Products (ATMPs), the following key issues were identified during the meeting: removal of national hurdles in the European Union, harmonization of national and subnational differences in Hospital Exemption rules, improved treatment algorithms for reimbursement, better knowledge on the mode of action, predictive preclinical efficacy and safety testing, need for innovative systems for preclinical testing, appropriate product characterization, manufacturing with cost of goods in mind, and appropriate design of clinical trials.

Regionalisation of global insights into dryland vulnerability: Better reflecting smallholders’ vulnerability in Northeast Brazil

Global analyses of vulnerability reveal generic insights into the relation between socio-ecological systems and the stress impacting upon them including climate and market variability. They thus provide a valuable basis for better understanding and comparing the evolution of socio-ecological systems from a broad perspective. However, even when reflecting sub-national differences, global assessments necessarily aggregate regional variations in the underlying conditions of vulnerability. Refinements are therefore necessary to better accommodate context-specific processes and hence facilitate vulnerability reduction. This study presents a novel methodology to refining global insights into vulnerability at a regional scale. It is based on a spatially explicit link between broad patterns of vulnerability and modelled regional smallholder development. Its application in order to better represent the drylands of Northeast Brazil reveals specific facets of smallholders’ vulnerability at the municipio level, reflecting non-linear dynamics. The results show that smallholders’ vulnerability was widely exacerbated in the most vulnerable areas. One key mechanism causing such a vulnerability increase involved intensifying resource degradation and the related potential for impoverishment as modelled at the regional scale. In addition, by subsequently re-orienting their livelihoods towards off-farm activities, smallholders became more sensitive to fluctuations and competition in the labour market. In contrast to these critical trends, living and environmental conditions improved in only some areas, thus indicating a decrease in vulnerability. Altogether, in differentiating the heterogeneity of resource management and smallholders’ livelihoods, the regional refinement presented in this study indicates necessary adjustments to generic strategies for vulnerability reduction gained at the global scale.

Subnational Differences and Firm Strategies during Institutional Transitions

This study explores subnational differences in Russia and how they can change the effects of institutions on firm strategies. Drawing on institutional theory and institutional transitions perspectives, we show that firms’ propensity to use market-based strategies is affected by the quality of the development of market institutions in different subnational regions. Specifically, our results show that, while older (incumbent) firms in general tend to use market-based strategies less, this relationship is weakened in more market-friendly Russian regions. Overall this study extends the institutional transitions perspective and contributes to the literature on subnational differences, as well as to research on Russian business and management.

Nurses across borders: global migration of registered nurses to the US

Like many other global north countries, the US is facing a nursing shortage. In the last few years, such nursing shortages have been identified as part of a broader ‘global crisis’ in nursing. Resorting to importing internationally educated nurses is a popular strategy to address the shortfall. Importing nurses into the US is not new. However, the current shortage is different because of greatly intensified efforts to recruit nurses from overseas, and because of the unprecedented scale of global nurse migration. This article uses an analysis of Census data to track the trends and geographies associated with internationally educated registered nurses (IERNs) in the US since 1980. I show that there are important subnational differences in the distribution of IERNs; most are concentrated in a few states. By paying particular attention to subnational geographies within the US, I draw attention to the variations in and implications of the distribution of IERNs and how this impacts public policy discourses associated with the transnational migration of IERNs into and within the US.

Does Societal Culture Affect Public Service Motivation? Evidence of Sub-national Differences in Switzerland

ABSTRACT This article explores societal culture as an antecedent of public service motivation. Culture can be a major factor in developing an institution-based theory of public service motivation. In the field of organization theory, culture is considered a fundamental factor for explaining organization behavior. But our review of the literature reveals that culture has not been fully integrated into public service motivation theory or carefully investigated in this research stream. This study starts to fill this gap in the literature by using institutionalism and social-identity theory to predict how the sub-national Germanic and Latin cultures of Switzerland, which are measured through the mother tongues of public employees and the regional locations of public offices, affect their levels of public service motivation. Our analysis centers on two large data sets of federal and municipal employees, and produces evidence that culture has a consistent impact on public service motivation. The results show that Swiss German public employees have a significantly higher level of public service motivation on the whole, while Swiss French public employees have a significantly lower level overall. Implications for theory development and future research are discussed.