Urban Social Security Research Articles

Political doctrine, economic growth, and the development of urban social security: Lessons from post-reform China

This study provides an empirical examination of the design and modification of China’s urban social security programme. In doing so, this study complements the popular assumption regarding the correlation between economic growth and social security development. Focusing on the economic and political motivations behind the ruling party’s decision to implement social security, this study first discusses the modification of urban social security and welfare in China. It then empirically demonstrates the mechanisms behind the system’s operation. This study proposes the following hypothesis: in a country like China, a change in the doctrine of the ruling party will affect government alliances, negating the positive impact of economic growth on the development of social security. In demonstrating this hypothesis, this study identifies a political precondition impacting the explanatory power of popular conceptions of social security development.

The impact of place-based policy: evidence from a multiple synthetic control analysis of the northeastern revitalization program in China

We examine the effect of a place-based policy in China, the Northeastern Revitalization Program. In 2003 the State Council of the People’s Republic of China initiated the program in northeastern China by removing an agricultural tax, enhancing the urban social security system, facilitating foreign investment, and restructuring state-owned enterprises in the region. Using the synthetic control method, we find that the program had no significant effect on GDP per capita in all three regions. Liaoning had slightly worse GDP per capita post-treatment, as did Heilongjiang (albeit to a lesser extent). While the multiple synthetic control analysis shows that economic outcomes were worse post-treatment, the impact of this program was heterogeneous across the three regions. We argue the lackluster performance likely comes from the continuing dominance of inefficient state-owned enterprises in the provinces.

The Development of China’s Urban Social Security System, 1949–1988

This study examines the records of urban social security in China between 1949 and 1988 to test the applicability of the popular theory on social security development, thereby elucidating the impact of a country’s politics on the modification of the design, operation, and transformation of its social security. This study complements existing theories and questions regarding the correlation between industrialisation and the development of social security and tests the utility of popular theories of social security development for understanding the Chinese case. In order to conduct cross-period comparison and identify the changes in China’s urban social security, the study period—namely, 1949 to 1988—is divided according to changes in the doctrine of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Focusing on the emergence of and modifications to China’s social security system before its reform in 1988, this study identifies the structural features and philosophy of its institutional design and analyses its development using statistical data. More specifically, this study reveals how changes in the doctrine of the CCP decisively impacted the development of China’s urban social security. In doing so, this study demonstrates a new means of predicting a country’s social security development.

Comparison and Evaluation of China’s Urban Social Security Financing System Before and After the Reform

The sustainability of China’s urban social security financing system has recently been seriously questioned. This article divides the financing system’s development into two periods (before and after reform). It compares the capital collection and the distribution and circulation structures and reviews the financing system before and after reform. In this study, we also discuss and explain the ‘empty account’ phenomenon, which severely undermines the financing system’s sustainability. We allege that the money accumulation system adopted after reform, which correlates personal accounts with the social pool, is not running as designed but as a ‘pay-as-you-go’ system. After evaluating the efficiency and cost performance of both periods, testing the financing system’s sustainability and correlating the system during both time periods with economic and social development, we find that the financing systems’ operation after reform corresponds with theories proved by case studies in other advanced states.

Urban integration of land-deprived households in China: Quality of living and social welfare

This study finds that the land-deprived households who have migrated from rural to urban areas (the land-deprived urban households) in all regions of China are not well integrated into urban society, which is reflected by their lower quality of living and inferior social welfare compared to normal urban households. However, we find an anomaly that land-deprived urban households, compared to the normal urban households, have lower quality of living and lower participation rate in urban social security, but have similar level of self-evaluated happiness. This anomaly can be explained by the fact that the land-deprived urban households self-select into inferior communities with neighbors of similar living and social conditions, and their happiness and social utility depend more on their status relative to their neighbors than on their status relative to the whole urban society. In addition, this study finds that land acquisition raises the quality of living and social welfare of the land-deprived households, migrating into urban areas does not improve their quality of living or social welfare, but better education and younger age facilitate their integration into urban society.

Urban social security survey

The article is devoted to security topics, which is one of the key requirements for improving the quality of life. The article presents the results of a study aimed at improving the safety of people in the area of the largest cities. Questionnaires were prepared and data were collected among residents of the study area on identified security problems as a result of field observations of the vicinity of Tehran (Iran). The study area is Lashkar district in Tehran 8 and east of Tehran where security is very low and the environment is relatively worn and width. The method of this research is descriptive-research. For the purpose of analyzing and assessing the security at the neighborhood level, a set of indicators are used, such as quality of passages, lighting, texture compaction, openness and closure of space, physical form. The following tables are presented in the article: Types of Security, The four theories of crime and violence in urban space, in the context of Swat Lashkar District. The study presented specific proposals (Solutions and Suggestions to create security in the Lashkar neighborhood) for measures of urban planning policy of the study area in Iran.

Recent developments and future trends in China’s urban social security

China’s urban social security system has recently undergone extensive modification, though the future of this system’s structure and benefit level are still in question. This study aims to explore whether the development of China’s urban social security system is converging with or diverging from the western model by comparing its structure, both in principle and reality, and the modification mechanism of this system with the arguments presented by the generally accepted theories. By using the general model as a reference, the features of China’s urban current social security system, both structurally and statistically, have been explored. The quantitative modification mechanisms in different periods have also been compared to demonstrate that changes in the legitimacy of governance could directly influence the modification of China’s urban social security system, and thus is the decisive factor that changes the expression of the correlation between social security and economic development.

Linguistic and Cultural Adaptation of Mongolian Ecological Immigrants in the Border City

This is a case study in Erenhot City, InnerMongolia Autonomous Region on Mongolianecological immigrants’ linguistic and culturaladaptation as well as the cultural psychologyand related identity issues according to theattitudes towards residence patterns,marriage, language, culture and othervariables. Based on the data analysis, the studyputs forward the suggestions of the currentwork with regard to ethnic groups. To solve theproblems of the immigrants’ adaptation, thevital method is the economic and socialdevelopment, including improving the systemof urban social security, raising the quality ofethnic education and vocational training,increasing the intensity of culture projects, andenriching the cultural life of border cities tosatisfy the spiritual and cultural needs ofecological migration. Proper handling therelationship between language and culturemakes a significant contribution to theconsolidation and development of theharmonious ethnic relationship.

An empirical study on the modification of China's current urban social security system

ABSTRACTThis study challenges the conventional correlation between economic performance and the level of the development of social security systems. By focusing on China's urban areas, we provide an overview of the components and benefits, from a comparative perspective, of China's current social security system. We also create a comprehensive and generally applicable method using factors such as economics and population, among others, as standards to evaluate the efficacy of China's system. In order to demonstrate our primary hypothesis – that the Chinese Communist Party government has to modify its social security system to adapt to or bring about changes in the basis of its legitimacy – we analyse Chinese social security records and other related data after 1949 by statistical methods. The formula we provide in this study can be used to forecast China's expenditure on its urban social security system, and other scholars can apply our methods to countries in which conditions are broadly similar.

Research on Optimization of China’s Urban Indemnificatory Housing Supply

The contradiction between the effective supply and the uncertain demand in housing security system, which is an important part of the urban social security system, has been a major obstacle to urban sustainable development since 1998, and how to effectively deal with it is becoming more and more important. In this paper, the uncertain demand of indemnificatory housing, which was caused by the rapid urbanization, is considered, and the models for indemnificatory housing provision under box constraints, ellipsoid constraints and polyhedral constraints are constructed respectively by using distributional robust optimization, and at the same time, the reliability of optimal models in theory is proved in the form of theorem. In the end, as application of models, the paper takes Beijing as an example, and conducts empirical research on provision of indemnificatory housing during the past five years (2006-2010), which shows the effectiveness of the method.

State, Collectivism and Worker Privilege: A Study of Urban Health Insurance Reform

Since 1998, the central government has focused its attention on social security. Among other things, it has created a ministry for social security, pressed for the extension of health and unemployment insurance to larger numbers of the urban working population, and increased spending. Does this mean that the party-state is rebuilding the eroded urban social security system and re-asserting its role in ensuring collective provision? Do recent initiatives repair or damage the interests of urban workers? This article examines these questions through a study of urban health insurance reform. It argues the state has taken over from work units the responsibility for health insurance, that collectivism has been partially preserved through redistributory “risk-pooling” systems, and that the party-state is moving away from its traditional state enterprise-centred working-class base and widening participation to include workers in the private and rural industrial sectors. However, continued prioritization of economic growth means that the party-state's role is limited, while collectivist provision is restricted to the non-agricultural working population. In practice, government officials and workers in successful state enterprises are still the most likely to be insured.

Characteristics and policy issues in the aging of China's population

Based on recent years' national and local census and survey data, the present paper analyzes the characteristics of aging in China's population, and investigates important policy issues involved in dealing with these issues. Some emphasis is given to the reform of the urban social security system in China.