Housing and education have become two central arenas shaping social mobility, yet the effect of housing wealth on household educational investment and its underlying mechanisms remain insufficiently understood. This study examines how housing wealth shapes households’ engagement in educational competition in urban China, measured by total and out-of-school educational expenditure. Drawing on nationally representative household panel data spanning 2010-2018 and employing fixed-effects models, we find that households with greater housing wealth invest significantly more in education, especially in out-of-school educational expenditure, with results robust across specifications. This effect is particularly pronounced among older households, those realising gains from housing sales, and multi-property owners. Mechanism analyses further indicate that rising housing wealth alleviates financial insecurity related to employment, retirement and health, thereby reducing precautionary saving motives and enabling greater educational investment. The findings demonstrate that homeownership functions as not only a source of liquidity but also an informal safety net that intensifies educational competition. This study contributes to the debates on housing asset-based welfare, inequality, and social mobility, with implications for broader contexts where housing wealth disparities are increasingly implicated in education-mediated social stratification.

Weak public information infrastructure is widely regarded as a first-order constraint on credit allocation in emerging economies, yet direct evidence on how the construction of such infrastructure is priced in corporate debt markets remains scarce. This study exploits the staggered designation of social credit demonstration cities in China between 2015 and 2020 as a quasi-natural experiment and estimates a multi-period difference-in-differences model on an unbalanced panel of 3,412 A-share non-financial listed firms observed between 2010 and 2023. Designation of a firm's headquarters city lowers the effective cost of interest-bearing debt by 0.213 percentage points, an economically meaningful magnitude that corresponds to 9.7 per cent of the sample mean and to roughly one fifth of a standard deviation. The estimate survives event-study tests of pre-treatment trends, estimators that are robust to heterogeneous and dynamically evolving treatment effects, decomposition diagnostics, instrumental variable estimation grounded in the historical density of Qing-dynasty postal relay stations, alternative outcome and treatment definitions, restricted samples and estimation windows, controls for concurrent financial reforms, and randomisation-based placebo inference. Three channels receive empirical support: the production of verifiable public credit records reduces borrower opacity and compresses analyst forecast dispersion; cross-agency joint disciplinary sanctions raise the reputational and operational cost of default and strengthen ex post enforcement; and lenders reallocate credit towards previously rationed borrowers while extending debt maturity. The effect concentrates among non-state-owned, financially constrained and smaller firms and in provinces with weaker market institutions, and it propagates to bond issuance spreads, investment efficiency and total factor productivity.

Precipitation plays a crucial role in the hydrological cycle, and its variability is intimately tied to floods, droughts and water resources. Daily precipitation data from 44 meteorological stations were used to analyze temporal trends in annual and seasonal precipitation across the Pearl River Basin (PRB) during 1959–2018, employing the innovative trend analysis (ITA) method, Mann-Kendall test and Sen’s Slope. Additionally, the trends of low (< 10th percentile), medium (10th–90th percentile) and high (> 90th percentile) precipitation at the annual and seasonal scales were also analyzed. The results showed that the annual precipitation in both the PRB and the West River Basin (WRB) exhibited a gradual upward trend accompanied by an increase in precipitation intensity. The Pearl River Delta (PRD) experienced an overall increase in annual precipitation. Across the entire study area, the seasonal precipitation demonstrated decreasing trends in spring and autumn, whereas upward trends were observed in summer and winter. Notably, there was a significant upward trend in high precipitation during summer within the PRB, the North River Basin (NRB), and the PRD. Conversely, low precipitation in winter within the PRB, the WRB, and the NRB showed decreasing trends. The results of the ITA were confirmed by the classical trend analysis methods. Moreover, the ITA can offer a visual-graphical representation of trends and categorize the low, medium, and high precipitation trends. This research provides valuable insights into understanding the patterns of local annual and seasonal precipitation changes, particularly in high and low precipitation categories. Such insights are instrumental for mitigating natural hazards and guiding effective water resource management.

As China transitions to high-quality economic development, the innovation-driven growth model places increasing demand on the high-tech industry, highlighting the critical role of high-tech talent in enhancing regional competitiveness. Existing studies have primarily focused on talent distribution patterns at national or provincial levels, with limited exploration at the city level. Furthermore, most studies concentrate on the distribution patterns and influencing factors at a single stage, treating talented individuals as a homogeneous group without a comparative analysis of the differences in talent distribution across employment stages, educational qualifications, or school levels. To address these gaps, in this study, we employed big data on high-tech talent resumes spanning 2003 to 2021 using spatial analysis techniques and spatial econometric models to examine the spatial distribution patterns and influencing factors of high-tech talent across different employment stages at the urban scale. Additionally, we explored the heterogeneity of the influencing factors at various educational qualifications and institutional levels. The results reveal the following. First, high-tech talents in China are predominantly clustered in economically developed eastern coastal regions, provincial capitals, municipalities, and urban agglomerations. Compared with the initial employment stage, the spatial concentration of high-tech individuals intensified during the current employment stage. The number of dense clusters in the eastern coastal regions decreased, whereas the number of non-dense clusters in the western and northeastern regions increased. A strengthened "high-high" clustering pattern around central cities in urban agglomerations reflects the increasing preference for high-tech talents in such areas. Second, the factors influencing the distribution of talented individuals differ significantly across employment stages, and are shaped by economic conditions, amenities, talent policies, and administrative hierarchies. Economic factors, particularly income levels, play a dominant role during the initial employment stage, whereas amenities become more influential in the current stage, reflecting a growing focus on quality of life as material needs are met. Talent policies significantly affected talent distribution at both stages. Third, the distribution of high-tech individuals exhibits heterogeneity across educational qualifications and university tiers. High human capital groups, such as postgraduate degree holders and graduates from "double first-class" universities, demonstrate a stronger preference for amenity factors, particularly during the current employment stage. These findings have important implications for understanding talent distribution dynamics, optimizing talent allocation, and fostering supportive environments for talent development. This underscores the urgent need for effective management of high-tech talent mobility, formulation of targeted and actionable talent policies, and enhancement of talent governance modernization.

College graduates play a crucial role as valuable human resources in China's talent market. Currently, the employment situation of college graduates is a widely discussed topic that concerns the entire society. Utilizing data from the Employment Quality Report of College Graduates, this study delves into the employment mobility patterns of graduates and employs a GeoDetector model to investigate the factors influencing their employment location choices. Additionally, the study predicts the evolutionary trend of the network using the TERGM model. The research findings reveal the following key points: (1) The spatial distribution of employment for graduates from "Double First-Class" universities in central China exhibits a hierarchical pattern that decreases with distance, influenced by path dependence and meritocratic connections. (2) Central China experiences a competitive dynamic in the employment market with a tug-of-war scenario between the central and eastern regions. (3) The factor detector found strong effects of regional innovation capacity and regional economic level on graduate mobility.

China has implemented large-scale hydraulic engineering projects in arid regions where water resources are severely scarce to efficiently maximize limited water resources for production and domestic needs.The processes and consequences of how the change of hydrological factors affects vegetation distribution remain unclear.This study employed multi-source remote sensing data to investigate the impact of hydrological factors on vegetation distribution in the Shiyang River Basin(SRB)in the arid region in Northwestern China.The results indicate that:(1)The NDVI values in the SRB showed a fluctuating upward trend of(0.0014/yr),with vegetation increase occurring in 62.71％of the area while vegetation degradation was observed in only 6.44％of the area.(2)The Surface Water Storage Anomaly(SWSA)shows an increasing trend of(0.112 mm/month),while Terrestrial Water Storage Anomaly(TWSA)and Groundwater Storage Anomaly(GWSA)exhibit significant declines at rates of-0.124 mm/month and-0.236 mm/month,respectively.(3)Vegetation growth on agricultural land and in planted forests has shown significant growth,in contrast to the general degradation of natural vegetation that is dependent on groundwater.In addition,surface water inputs directly catalyze vegetation growth dynamics.However,the complex mechanisms linking vegetation increase and decreasing terrestrial water reserves in arid regions still need to be studied in depth.The potential negative ecological impacts that may result from the continuous decline of terrestrial and groundwater reserves should not be taken lightly.

Riverine floods that occur simultaneously over multiple regions often lead to amplified societal and environmental impacts compared to individual events. However, the pattern and mechanisms governing the global interconnection of peak river discharge across spatially distant and proximate locations remain largely unexplored. Here, on the basis of a global annual peak discharge database from 4,407 observational hydrometric stations, we identify hubs for remotely linked discharge peaks spanning thousands of kilometres. We show increasing trends in the number of remotely linked watersheds and the total drainage area, pointing to amplified synchronization of global peak river discharge since the 1980s. Ocean-atmosphere oscillations, through the perturbation of both temperature and precipitation anomalies, dictate the global coupling pattern and temporal evolution of discharge peaks. Our findings highlight an emergent profile of global peak river flow in a warming climate that can benefit coordinated flood risk management.

As the core driving force of technological innovation and economic development, talent is considered a scarce resource that cities and nations compete for. Facing the pressure of transitioning to high-quality development, many Chinese cities have launched various policies to retain and attract talent since 2017. Talents are comparatively more mobile flowing between regions. Educated talents, who have attended higher education, first move from domicile to university, and then move from university to work after graduation; it is a dynamic process and should be analyzed as a continuum. However, most of the existing studies analyze these two stages separately, namely, student migration and university graduate migration. This study, using the Graduate Employment Quality Report released by 12 universities in Shanghai and questionnaires collected in Shanghai, explored the spatial patterns and driving factors of the two-stage migration of graduates employing a bivariate probit model. The results showed that graduates’ place of origin is relatively diverse and geographically determined by the quota-allocation system of China’s higher-education system, while upon graduation, the majority of them stayed in Shanghai and the surrounding provinces for employment. Path dependence is revealed between domicile-to-university migration and university-to-work migration, and both of them are significantly affected by graduates’ human capital, family background, as well as city-level attributes. Among talent policies, hukou-related policies play an important role in affecting graduates’ choice of place of employment. This study contributes to the understanding of the sequential migration of human capital in a specific institutional setting, thereby providing policy implications to optimize the allocation of talents between regions.

Human capital has been acknowledged as a key driver for innovation, thereby promoting regional economic development in the knowledge era. University graduates from China’s “first-class” universities—the top 42 universities, included in the “double first-class” initiative, are considered highly educated human capital. Their migration patterns will exert profound impacts on regional development in China, however, little is known about the migration of these elite university graduates and its underlying driving forces. Using data from the 2018 Graduate Employment Reports, this study reveals that the uneven distribution of “first-class” universities and regional differentials largely shaped the migration of graduates from the university to work. Graduates were found aggregating in eastern first-tier cities, even though appealing talent-orientated policies aimed at attracting human capital had been launched in recent years by second-tier cities. Employing negative binomial models, this study investigates how the characteristics of the city of university and destinations affect the intensity of flows of graduates between them. The results showed that both jobs and urban amenities in the university city and destination city exert impacts on the inflow volume of graduates; whereas talent attraction policies introduced by many second-tier cities are found not to exert positive effects on attracting “first-class” university graduates presently. The trend of human capital migration worth a follow-up investigation, particularly given ongoing policy dynamics, and would shed light on the regional development disparities in China.

As the education gap between city and countryside widens, young people face an invisible barrier to scientific research, says Qiang Wang.

20世纪70年代以后,随着社会经济结构的变迁和全球化市场竞争的加剧,西欧各国所自我标榜的福利国家和社会保护制度发生了新的变化.一方面,所谓“福利国家紧缩”成为全球的风潮;另一方面,推进社会保护、社会福利和社会服务的责任推给市场、社会甚至家庭,这种责任在国家、市场、社会和家庭之间发生了程度与种类不同的转移,从而出现了把“福利国家”推给“福利社会”,而国家承担的社会福利减少的趋势.社会福利作为国家提供的公共物品和公共服务,逐渐成为多元社会主体合作的平台.鉴于此,主要从政府—社会定位的角度分析福利制度在西欧国家的衰减.

国家公务员绩效指标体系设置及实施好坏直接关系着政府发展的方向,本文以此为问题,从苏南政府机关绩效调查的数据入手,对绩效考核指标的设置、绩效考核指标实施、绩效考核指标的反馈及绩效价值导向进行实证分析、找出问题并提出对策,最后提出了本研究的不足和对公务员绩效考核实证研究发展的展望。

在过去二十多年中主导世界各国政府改革的管理主义,就共时性而言,可以从信念、知识、实践等角度加以理解;就历时性来讲,则表现为在基本信念和深层价值追求一致基础上的两种彼此对立的理论、制度及运动.在西方,管理主义有着由来已久的传统,它与特定的社会历史条件相关联.管理主义的精神实质在于企业塑造政府.

政治与行政的关系是行政现代化的中心问题.本文揭示了西方国家在政治与行政的关系上所经历的政治化的行政、政治与行政两分、行政政治化和政治化行政等三个发展阶段;分析了西方国家在政治与行政之间的紧张、冲突的关系以及短暂性和理想化的协调发展;指出了政治与行政关系的紧张与冲突,在深层次上体现了植根于西方国家政治--行政制度和文化中的民主与效率、有效性与合法性等价值取向之间的冲突.

本文首先从农村社会分层出发，在分析了富裕阶层、村一级干部、普通村民三个主要群体之后指出，由于目前农村基层制度不配套，组织机制不健全，对于绝大多数农村来讲，村民自治制度并没有形成范围广大的制度受益群体，而制度的报酬递增机制也因为配套制度的束缚无法形成，因而对于村民自治的未来进程不能过分乐观。在此基础上本文强调，农村基层的制度化、组织化、管理高效化与民主是同样重要的问题，民主化从来不是单方面推进的，不能把村民自治仅仅当作农村基层民主的代名词。村民自治要在中国发展与完善，一需尊重各地实际，尊重业已存在的各种发展模式；二需重视配套制度建设，把民主与健全制度、优化组织设置、提升管理效能结合起来。