Explore the vast range of titles available.

Rural electrification can have many benefits-not only bringing lighting, but improving the quality of health care, spreading information and supporting productive enterprises. The extent of these benefits has been questioned, arguing that they may be insufficient to justify the investment costs. This book quantifies these benefits. It finds that the benefits can indeed be high, substantially outweighing the costs, and that consumer willingness to pay is generally sufficient to achieve financial sustainability. However, benefits could be increased further by providing smart subsidies to assist connections for poorer households, promote productive uses and further consumer education.

We use administrative records on the incomes of more than 40 million children and their parents to describe three features of intergenerational mobility in the United States. First, we characterize the joint distribution of parent and child income at the national level. The conditional expectation of child income given parent income is linear in percentile ranks. On average, a 10 percentile increase in parent income is associated with a 3.4 percentile increase in a child’s income. Second, intergenerational mobility varies substantially across areas within the United States. For example, the probability that a child reaches the top quintile of the national income distribution starting from a family in the bottom quintile is 4.4% in Charlotte but 12.9% in San Jose. Third, we explore the factors correlated with upward mobility. High mobility areas have (i) less residential segregation, (ii) less income inequality, (iii) better primary schools, (iv) greater social capital, and (v) greater family stability. Although our descriptive analysis does not identify the causal mechanisms that determine upward mobility, the publicly available statistics on intergenerational mobility developed here can facilitate research on such mechanisms.

Rural e-commerce, as a new form of digital economy, is of great significance in promoting the income of rural households and realizing common prosperity. Based on the 2021 China Rural Revitalization Survey (CRRS), the impact of rural e-commerce on farmers’ income and the intra-rural income gap is explored using quantile regression. The results found that (1) rural e-commerce can effectively promote the level of farm household income and alleviate the intra-rural income disparity, with this finding still holding after addressing the potential endogeneity problem and conducting robust-type tests. (2) Rural e-commerce has the most pronounced income-generating effect on low-income households in the southern region; participation in rural e-commerce has a more “center-expanding” effect on households in the secondary education and high material capital groups. (3) Saving production and operation costs, shortening the product circulation chain, and improving access to information are channels through which rural e-commerce affects households’ income. It is recommended to actively promote the deep integration and development of rural e-commerce in rural areas, establish a sound mechanism for bridging the “digital divide”, encourage e-commerce “leaders” to build a perfect industrial chain, and guide smallholders to integrate into the rural e-commerce industrial chain to enjoy the digital dividend.

The travel accessibility problems resulted from the lack of transportation facilities and socioeconomic opportunities. These are often called travel impedances. At remote locations, the travel impedances severely affect the decision-making processes of households to satisfy basic needs. Thus, this study aims to highlight the impedance factors of rural households, using the trip generation regression model as an optimum accessibility measure. The study area was selected as Badin, the deprived subregion of southern Pakistan. Pakistan is the 5th most populous country in the world recently beating Brazil. More than 60% of Pakistan’s total population is living in rural areas without essential transportation services. The truancy of a rural transport policy can be said as one of the reasons behind the vulnerability of rural Pakistan. Hence, the household’s trip purposes were anticipated to the income, size, distance, and travel time. With the help of cluster sampling, the questionnaire survey was performed from a random sample of 100 households. The model, regional household trips by purpose (RTp), revealed strong-positive correlation values of R = 0.998 and R2 = 0.997. The larger household size and lower household income were found as acute impedances compared to travel time and distance. In other words, the higher population size and lack of economic opportunities were reported as the main findings of this study. This research deliberated the concept of a trip generation that is rarely executed to underline impedances of rural households. The study's findings can assist transport planners to formulate policy proposals for not only rural subregions but also urban centers of developing and developed countries.

Understanding households’ resilience-building strategies is vital for the domains of humanitarian assistance, economic development, and poverty reduction, especially in the places where are vulnerable to shocks. In this study, we offer the first trial that takes into account the correlation between households’ risk attitude and their resilience-building strategies, namely savings as an absorptive capacity and income diversification as an adaptive capacity. We examine the effects of these resilience strategies on reducing the impacts of shocks and poverty. We use a panel data of 1227 identical households for Vietnam in two waves of the Thailand–Vietnam Socio-Economic Panel project to investigate the above issues. We address the endogenous problems of households’ risk attitude, savings, and income diversification. Our results show that more risk-averse households tend to save more and diversify their income portfolios. These precautionary strategies to build up their resilience capacity help prevent them from reducing consumption caused by shocks and from falling into poverty in absolute, relative, and multidimensional measures. We suggest that rural development policies in developing countries should focus on facilitating more income generation and employment opportunities. Furthermore, the development of rural education and infrastructure for information and communication technology should be taken into account of designing poverty reduction programs.

Understanding the mechanism by which internal migrants evaluate their quality of life is essential for understanding the social integration of migrants into Chinese cities. A few studies have examined the linkages between internal migrants’ objective socioeconomic status and subjective wellbeing in the Chinese context, but they assume that migrants compare themselves with either their sending communities or receiving cities when evaluating their working and living conditions. This paper examines the effect of internal migrants’ objective socioeconomic status on subjective wellbeing in Chinese cities, with a particular focus on the mediating role of perceived living standards relative to multiple reference groups and the differences between first- and second-generation migrants. Multi-level structural equation models are used to analyse data from the 2014 China Labour-force Dynamic Survey. Results from baseline regressions indicate that migrants’ family income is positively associated with their subjective wellbeing in both a direct and an indirect manner, while homeownership in the host city is only related to it in an indirect way. The relationship between family income, homeownership in the host city and subjective wellbeing is significantly mediated by perceived living standards relative to the reference groups of schoolmates, neighbours and local urban residents in the destination city. Results from the comparison between two generations of migrants indicate that only family income is positively associated with the subjective wellbeing of first-generation migrants. By contrast, for second-generation migrants, homeownership in the destination city is indirectly related to subjective wellbeing through perceived living standards relative to local urban residents. 理解国内移民评估其生活质量的机制对于理解移民在国城市的社会融合至关重要。一些研究考察了中国国内移民的客观社会经济地位与主观幸福感之间的关系，但这些研究假设，在评估自己的工作和生活条件时，移民会将自己与原籍社区或接收城市的人们进行比较。本文考察了中国城市中国内移民的客观社会经济地位对主观幸福感的影响，特别关注相对于多个参照群体的感知生活水平的中介作用以及第一代和第二代移民之间的差异。我们采用多层次结构方程模型对2014年中国劳动力动态调查数据进行分析。基线回归的结果表明，移民的家庭收入与其主观幸福感有直接和间接的正相关关系，而在接收城市拥有住房与主观幸福感之间只是间接相关。相对于接收城市的同学、邻居和当地城市居民等参考群体而言的感知生活水平，对于家庭收入、在接收城市的住房所有权和主观幸福感之间的关系发挥着显著的中介作用。两代移民的比较结果表明，只有家庭收入与第一代移民的主观幸福感呈正相关。相比之下，对于第二代移民来说，接收城市的住房所有权通过相对于当地城市居民的感知生活水平与主观幸福感间接相关

Large changes have taken place in smallholder farming systems in South Asia’s coastal areas in recent decades, particularly related to cropping intensity, input availability, climate risks, and off-farm activities. However, few studies have investigated the extent to which these changes have impacted farm-level crop productivity, which is a key driver of food security and poverty in rainfed, low-input, rice-based systems. The objective of this study was to conduct an integrated assessment of variables related to socioeconomic status, farm characteristics, and crop management practices to understand the major factors influencing crop productivity and identify promising leverage points for sustainable development in coastal Bangladesh. Using a panel survey dataset of 32 variables from 502 farm households located within polder (coastal embankment) and outside polder systems during 2005–2015, we employed statistical factor analysis to characterize five independent latent factors named here as Farming Challenges , Economic Status , Crop Management Practices , Asset Endowment , and Farm Characteristics . The factor Farming Challenges explained the most variation among households (31%), with decreases observed over time, specifically households located outside polders. Individual variables contributing to this factor included perceived cyclone severity, household distance to main roads and input-output markets, cropping intensity, and access to extension services. The most important factors for increasing crop productivity on a household and per unit area basis were Asset Endowment and Crop Management Practices , respectively. The former highlights the need for increasing gross cropped area, which can be achieved through greater cropping intensity, while the latter was associated with increased fertilizer, labor, and pesticide input use. Despite the importance of these factors, household poverty trajectory maps showed that changes in off-farm income had played the strongest role in improving livelihoods in this coastal area. This study can help inform development efforts and policies for boosting farm-level crop productivity, specifically through agricultural intensification (higher cropping intensity combined with appropriate and efficient use of inputs) and expanding opportunities for off-farm income as key pathways to bring smallholder households out of poverty.

South Africa’s urbanization is often driven by poverty, unemployment, and limited resource access. Unearned income, such as social grants and other sources, has contributed to poverty alleviation. However, concerns have also been raised that this unearned support may reduce individuals’ motivation to pursue earned income opportunities. This study investigates whether a two-step modelling approach provides better insight than a single-framework model to assess the influence of youths’ access to resources on household income generation. The results indicate that the two-step model is more effective, as different factors influence the decision to earn income and the amount earned. Youth unemployment and household receipt of remittances had similar effects on both the decision to earn income and the amount earned. In contrast, youth involvement in agriculture was positively associated with the decision to earn income but negatively associated with the amount of income. Youth-headed households face additional constraints due to limited access to and ownership of productive resources. The study concludes that a two-step approach provides more information and thus a more accurate understanding of rural income dynamics. Enhancing youth access to quality resources and evaluating the effectiveness of support programs are essential for fostering income generation and improving rural livelihoods.

This article looks at the changing frameworks for the institutional and cultural incorporation of second-generation rural migrants in Shanghai. Beginning in 2008, Shanghai launched a new policy of accepting migrant children into urban public schools at primary and secondary levels. I show that the hukou (household registration) is still a critical social boundary in educational institutions, shaping uneven distribution of educational resources and opportunities, as well as hierarchical recognition of differences between urbanites and migrants. I have coined the term “segmented incorporation” to characterize a new receiving context, in which systematic exclusion has given way to more subtle forms of institutional segmentation which reproduces cultural prejudice and reinforces group boundaries.

The global population of older adults has steadily increased in recent decades. Little is known about the gender difference in the quality of life (QoL) of older adults in the general population. This study aimed to identify factors associated with QoL among older adults by gender. Data on QoL using the World Health Organization Quality of Life (WHOQoL-BREF) questionnaire and socio-demographic characteristics, including living status and sources of income, were collected from 1147 older adults. The WHOQoL-BREF has four domains: physical, psychological, social and environmental. Rasch analysis was used to compute a combined score from Likert-type data to a continuous scale ranging from 0% satisfaction to 100% satisfaction in terms of QoL for each domain. We used a generalized linear model to compare the mean rate of QoL for different factors, and logistic regression analysis was used to quantify the associations of factors with below-average QoL measured as 50% or less in QoL. The domain-specific QoL mean (standard error), minimum-maximum values were physical 48.9 (0.41), 7-86, psychological 38.9 (0.51), 4-71, social 50.5 (0.49), 8-92, and environmental domains 47.8 (0.37), 6-91 in the total sample with significant gender difference in all but social domain. The proportion of below average QoL for females vs. males was physical 47.6% vs. 42.6%, psychological 74.4% vs.66.7%; social 34.8% vs. 30.1% and environmental domains 56.1% vs. 49.0%. In females, participants living alone were associated with a higher proportion of below average QoL in physical OR 30.2, 95% CI 2.47, 370, psychological OR 9.54, 95% CI1.09,83.27 and social domains OR 5.94, 95% CI 1.25,28.34. In males, participants' sources of income from relatives were associated with a higher proportion of below average QoL in physical OR 3.6, 95% CI 2.01,6.44, psychological 30.2, 95% CI 2.47, 370, psychological OR 4.63 95% CI 2.56, 8.38, social domains OR 1.81, 95% CI 1.04, 3.16 and environmental domains OR 2.53 95% CI 1.44, 4.43 than those who had own income. Females engaged in income generation activities had better QoL in social and environmental domains than those with house duties, irrespective of their education or socioeconomic status. Males in retired life had the highest QoL in the social and environmental domains if they had better SES. The study's findings reveal that more than 50% of people had below-average QoL in each domain, which is significant. The study also highlighted that females living alone and males without their own income had the poorest QoL. On a positive note, it was found that females engaged in any income generation activities had better QoL in social and environmental domains. These results provide valuable insights for policymakers and healthcare professionals. They underscore the importance of implementing appropriate intervention programs to enhance the QoL of older adults, reiterating the urgency and necessity of their work to improve the health and well-being of older adults.