Expanding Social Insurance Coverage in Urban China

By John Giles, Dewen Wang, Albert Park on June 1, 2013

This paper first reviews the history of social insurance policy and coverage in urban China, documenting the evolution in the coverage of pensions and medical and unemployment insurance for both local residents and migrants, and highlighting obstacles to expanding coverage. The paper then uses two waves of the China Urban Labor Survey, conducted in 2005 and 2010, to examine the correlates of social insurance participation before and after implementation of the 2008 Labor Contract Law. A higher labor tax wedge is associated with a lower probability that local employed residents participate in social insurance programs, but is not associated with participation of wage-earning migrants, who are more likely to be dissuaded by fragmentation of the social insurance system. The existing gender gap in social insurance coverage is explained by differences in coverage across industrial sectors and firm ownership classes in which men and women work.
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Topics: 
Society
Keywords: 
Labor
Migrant Labor
Insurance
Organization: 
World Bank

Inequality in China

An Overview

By John Knight on June 1, 2013

This paper provides an overview of research on income inequality in China over the period of economic reform. It presents the results of two main sources of evidence on income inequality and, assisted by various decompositions, explains the reasons income inequality has increased rapidly and the Gini coefficient is now almost 0.5. This paper evaluates the degree of income inequality from the perspectives of people’s subjective well-being and government concerns. It poses the following question: has income inequality peaked? It also discusses the policy implications of the analysis. The concluding comments of this paper propose a research agenda and suggest possible lessons from China’s experience that may be useful for other developing countries.

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Topics: 
Economy
Keywords: 
Income Disparity
Economic Development
Economy
Organization: 
World Bank

Defending an Open, Global, Secure, and Resilient Internet

By John D. Negroponte, Samuel J. Palmisano, Adam Segal on June 1, 2013

The Task Force recognizes that there are both considerable opportunities and perilous challenges in cyberspace. This report identifies guiding principles and makes policy recommendations to mobilize a coalition of old friends and rising cyber powers, private firms, NGOs, and individual users to defend, reinforce, and expand an Internet that is open, global, secure, and resilient. Now is the time for the United States, with its friends and allies, to ensure the Internet remains an open, global, secure, and resilient environment for users. Otherwise, many potential gains will be lost to political, economic, and strategic fighting over the shape of cyberspace.

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Topics: 
Business
Law
Media
Society
Keywords: 
Internet
Cybersecurity
Intellectual Property
Organization: 
Council on Foreign Relations

The Abuse of Children

By Jeremy Goldkorn, Leta Hong Fincher & more on May 31, 2013

After a few weeks grousing about the state of Chinese humor, sex, and Bill Bishop, we turn our gaze to the plight of the nation’s children, and the stories of child abuse and maltreatment which have filled the mainland press for the last several weeks. And with the news today of child abuse protester Ye Haiyan’s own detention and corporal punishment, our core question could not be more timely: is there something about Chinese culture that has encouraged society to sweep this problem under the rug?

Africa’s Malaria Battle: Fake Drug Pipeline Undercuts Progress

By Benoit Faucon, Colum Murphy, and Jeanne Whalen on May 30, 2013

A flourishing counterfeit drug trade is collateral damage from the fast-expanding ties that have turned China into Africa’s largest trading partner. The fakes’ place of origin is in Guangzhou, though the source is unknown.  

 

Economy, Health, Society
Drug Trade, China-Africa Relations, Guangzhou, State Administration of Food and Drug, China Food and Drug Administration