The socioeconomic effects of international remittances are well documented, and the related literature is growing rapidly. Nonetheless, the impact of these inflows on fertility remains underexplored, particularly in countries that rely heavily on remittances. This study employs Method of Moments Quantile Regression (MMQR) to investigate the impact of remittances on fertility rates across nine selected countries in Asia, Latin America, and North Africa from 1990 to 2022. Our findings highlight two key points. First, the MMQR results indicate that remittances have a statistically significant negative effect on fertility across all quantiles, supporting the substitution effect. Second, this negative effect becomes more pronounced at higher quantiles, suggesting that remittances have a more substantial negative influence on fertility in countries with high fertility rates. A set of robustness tests confirms our baseline results.
This study investigates the spatial and temporal dynamics of population distribution in Mainland China from 1953 to 2020, using county-level data from seven national censuses. Integrating spatial analysis with time-series forecasting, it examines trends at national, regional, and county scales to assess migration patterns, concentration effects, and regional divergence. Results show that although the total population of mainland China increased over the past seven decades, the spatial pattern of dense settlement in the southeast and sparse settlement in the northwest, demarcated by the Hu Line, remained largely stable. The population centroid showed an overall southward shift, driven by eastern growth and northeastern decline, with eastern coastal agglomerations intensifying. Projections indicate population peaking at around 2020 and then declining to about 1.396 billion by 2030, alongside widening regional disparities: sustained growth in the eastern, stability in the central, modest gains in the western, and continued losses in the northeastern. The internal distribution has shifted from “multi-polar dispersion” to “coastal polarization”, producing a pattern of “southern growth, eastern concentration, western sparsity and northern decline”. These trends highlight the urgent need for region-specific policies to manage demographic decline and promote high-quality and balanced population development.
Highly educated workers play an important role in economic growth and productivity, yet gender wage disparities may persist even among workers with similar levels of education. This study examines the gender wage gap among highly educated workers in Vietnam, a rapidly growing market-oriented economy undergoing significant structural transformation. Using data from the 2018 Vietnam Household Living Standards Survey, the analysis applies Ordinary Least Squares regression and the Blinder–Oaxaca decomposition to investigate gender wage differentials. The sample includes 7167 working-age individuals who were continuously employed during the previous 12 months. The results indicate that highly educated women earn significantly lower hourly wages than similarly educated men. While differences in observable characteristics explain part of the gender wage gap, a substantial portion remains unexplained. The decomposition results show that approximately 44
The recent introduction of a national long-term care insurance (LTCI) policy marks a major institutional shift in China’s response to rapid population aging. Rather than representing a fully developed system, the current framework defines a three-year “establishment phase” during which core institutional arrangements are to be developed and refined. This study provides a system-oriented analysis of China’s LTCI, conceptualizing it as an integrated configuration of financing, governance, service delivery, and eligibility assessment mechanisms. Drawing on this analytical framework, the study examines key institutional domains that are likely to shape system development during the establishment phase, with particular attention to payment incentives, administrative processes, eligibility design, and service capacity constraints. It identifies a set of underlying tensions—between standardization and regional flexibility, formal service provision and informal care integration, and short-term expansion and long-term sustainability—that structure policy choices and may generate path-dependent trajectories. Beyond institutional design, the study highlights the broader implications of LTCI for care industry development, labor markets, and social organization. It argues that LTCI should be understood not only as a social insurance program, but as a dynamic system whose effectiveness depends on the alignment of its core components and its capacity for adaptive policy refinement.
Background: China’s demographic transition closely mirrors the global decline in fertility and the impending population aging in the 21st century. Consequently, China’s fertility policies have undergone drastic shifts to stimulate fertility. However, little is known about the national distribution of fertility intentions, the gap between intention and behavior, and how these trends have evolved alongside the nation’s rapid socioeconomic development over the past decade. Objective: To analyze the temporal trends and regional distributions of fertility intention and the gap between fertility intention and behavior across both genders in China from 2010 to 2021. Ultimately, this study aims to provide empirical evidence to assist policymakers in formulating future fertility policies and reproductive support systems. Methods: Data were drawn from the Chinese General Social Survey (CGSS) from 2010 to 2021, a nationwide repeated cross-sectional social survey using a stratified four-stage unequal probability sampling method. Fertility intention, behavior, and the congruence between the two were assessed. The annual trends were analyzed by calculating the annual percentage change and conducting nonlinear regression. Results: A total of 38,744 individuals across 28 provinces were involved in the analysis. From 2010 to 2021, the national rate of individuals with second-child fertility intention among the eligible population fluctuated around 75
