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Focusing on micro-level indicators, we investigate financial inclusion levels in rural China, examining its determinants and impact on household welfare. We construct a financial inclusion index of four essential financial services: savings, digital payments, credit and insurance. We identify factors influencing financial inclusion among Chinese rural households and assess the effects of financial inclusion on household welfare.

With the entropy method, we use data from the 2019 China Household Finance Survey to assess financial inclusion levels in rural China. Determinants and their impact on welfare are analyzed through probit and ordinary least squares models, respectively. Propensity scoring matching is applied to address potential endogeneity.

We reveal that rural households exhibit limited usage of formal financial services, with notable regional disparities. The eastern region enjoys the highest financial inclusion and the central region lags behind. Household characteristics such as family size, education level of the household head, income, employment status and financial literacy significantly influence financial inclusion. Financial inclusion positively impacts household welfare as indicated by household consumption expenditure. The use of different types of financial services is crucial with varying but significant effects on household welfare.

This study offers valuable insights into China’s rural financial inclusion progress, highlighting potential barriers and guiding government actions.

This study aims to selects a teacher training program located in China’s rural area and focus on its preservice teachers’ attitudes towards inclusive education in China and their expectations of teacher training programs.

The selected teacher training program is in School of Education of a comprehensive university, located in a small town in Northeast China. Five preservice teachers in the Department of Teacher Education were interviewed. The interviewees were randomly selected among those who have already gained at least 60 credits of coursework prior to the interview. Each interview lasted for approximately 0.5 h. Interview notes were summarized and coded using Braun and Clarke’s (2006) six-step approach. In addition to interview data, other data sources were used, such as classroom observation and review of curriculum and program requirement.

Although the selected teacher preparation program started offering some selective special education courses to preservice teachers, there are limited number of offerings and a lack of field placement in inclusive settings, and stereotypical opinions towards disabilities still exist as a roadblock for choosing special education teacher profession.

The current study only focuses on one rural teacher training institution and report preservice teachers’ opinions toward teacher education curriculum, factors that lead to their decision in the teacher education major and their vision towards inclusion in China. Recommendations are provided to increase public awareness of disability, and create more field based experience in inclusive settings for preservice teachers. However, the result may not be generalized to reflect preservice teachers of teacher training institutions located in developed areas where there are rich opportunities for field experience in inclusive setting or special education programs, and who offer more extensive special education courses.

It is recommended that teacher preparation program modify curriculum and offer more special education courses, as well as develop connections with local special education schools and inclusive programs, thus creating more field based opportunities for preservice teachers to work with children with disabilities.

There are limited studies on rural preservice teachers’ attitudes towards being a special education teacher and how the teacher training programs prepare them to become a special education teacher. The current study fills the gap and conduct an interview study of preservice teachers’ from a rural teacher training programs perceptions of China’s special education, how they choose the program of study that prepare them to become a special education teacher, and their rating of the teacher preparation program.

Special education in China has lagged behind regular education for many years, however, the past few decades, the government has made considerable efforts to develop and improve the special education system. While the citizens of China have had a generic moral interest in disability since ancient times, the development of special education schools did not occur until American and European missionaries started schools for the visually and hearing impaired in the 19th century. The next major influence in the development of the special education system occurred with China’s Cultural Revolution in 1978. Interestingly, there is not any exclusive legislation on special education but in the 1980s, the government started Learning in Regular Classrooms (LRC), which is China’s version of inclusion. LRC has progressed rapidly the past two decades; however, the quality of instruction is low due to a lack of specialists, a shortage of personnel, inadequate funding, and limited technology as well as other barriers that are delineated in the chapter. The chapter emphasizes the government’s recent efforts in in-service teacher training, the preparation of preservice teachers, working with families, developing community rehabilitation training programs, and implementing evidence-based practices. Special education in China today is at a good place but it has quite a way from the ideal situation.

This study aims to empirically analyze the factors influencing digital financial inclusion in China.

Using panel data from 31 provinces in China for the years 2011-2018, the study constructed spatial econometric models for regression analysis at the national and regional levels.

Economic development, government intervention, internet penetration and the development of the credit level significantly affected the development of digital financial inclusion in China. However, the specific influence of the various factors varied by province. Provinces with less-developed economies generally had weaker economic foundations and underdeveloped digital financial services, making it more difficult to fully achieve digital financial inclusion.

Relevant government policies should strengthen digital infrastructure and improve the organizational systems and services of digital finance to support the balanced development of digital financial services in China.

China’s e-commerce development has been at the global forefront for decades, which suggests digital financial inclusion is also well-placed for strong development in China. However, quantitative research on the digital financial inclusion index has remained insufficient in China and worldwide, with most research ignoring the status of different development levels in a different region. To address this gap in the literature, this study empirically researched the status, regional differences and causes associated with these differences that impact digital financial inclusion in China.

Recently with increased legislative support and evidence-based studies on the importance of education for children with disabilities in China, special education programs and intervention and rehabilitation services have received more and more attention. There are limited studies on special education programs for children with disabilities located in China’s rural areas. This paper aims to select one special education program in China’s northeast rural area with a special focus on its curriculum design, accommodative services and teacher qualifications. Recommendations were provided on how to modify the curriculum to meet each child’s special needs, increase social interaction among children, increase teacher qualifications and improve teacher family collaboration.

The participating program serves orphans and children with disabilities between 6 and 18 years old and provides them 9-year free education, along with free textbooks, uniforms, food and boarding. Currently, there are approximately 100 students and 40 teachers, one director and one nurse. The teacher/staff and student ratio is 1:3. Data were collected through classroom observation and interviews. Afterward, the interview data were transcribed. Data were analyzed following Braun and Clarke’s (2006) six-step approach. The researcher reviewed the collected data, then coded the data and reviewed, refined and revised the codes, and finally themes and sub-themes were identified with quotations that support each theme/sub-theme.

The identified themes are accommodations, education plan and curriculum and teacher qualifications. Accommodations include, but are not limited to, visual and hearing aids. National unity textbooks were adopted, along with national syllabus objectives, as a guideline for instruction and evaluation of child progress. Teachers also adjust curriculum-based students’ individual needs. All teachers hold an associate degree in special education, and those who teach specials hold a higher degree in the specialty area. Given that there is no speech language pathologist, physical therapist, or occupational therapist, teachers with rich working experiences in the related field serve as special professionals.

The current research reports the program design, accommodations for children with disabilities, curriculum and syllabus, parent/guardian role and teacher qualifications in the selected school. Given that the current study focuses on only one school located in the rural area of China’s northeast, it may represent special education programs in rural China, but it is hard to be generalized to provide a big picture of China’s special education programs in more developed, metropolitan areas.

The selected school offers accommodative services to students with disabilities; adjusts its curriculum to make it developmentally appropriate; and offers educational, medical and rehabilitation services to promote student development to the maximum. The selected school should improve teacher quality, increase social interaction between children with and without disabilities, modify the curriculum to cater to individuals with different severities of disabilities and increase family professional collaboration.

There is limited study on special education programs for young children with disabilities in China’s rural area. The current study fills this gap and studies a special education school that offers services to children as young as six years old located in a small town in the northeast of China. The special focus of the study includes program curriculum, accommodations, rehabilitation and intervention services and teacher qualifications in this program.

The development of digital inclusive finance appears to be able to solve the difficulty of traditional finance, which cannot completely cover agriculture and farmers and provides better financial services and products to Chinese farmers. Thus, it improves the farmers' enthusiasm for agricultural production. The purpose of this paper is to clarify whether this goal is indeed being achieved.

This paper theoretically analyzes the mechanism that influences the effect of digital inclusive finance on rural households' agricultural production decisions and conducts an empirical study based on a sample from the Chinese family database (CFD).

First, the development of digital financial inclusion in general can encourage rural households to reduce agricultural production. Second, the negative effect of digital inclusive finance on households' agricultural output is realized by widening the gap between the efficiency of non-agricultural economic activities and the efficiency of agricultural production. The wider the gap is, the lower the enthusiasm of households for agricultural production. Third, the mediating effect of “digital financial inclusion – difference in efficiency – agricultural output” has a significant negative effect on households with low agricultural production efficiency, but not households with high agricultural production efficiency. Digital inclusive finance has no significant effect on the difference in efficiency between the two economic activities of high-efficiency households, but a greater difference in efficiency between the two economic activities corresponds to higher enthusiasm of households for agricultural production.

To the best of our knowledge, this paper is the first to analyze the impact of digital financial inclusion on Chinese farmers' agricultural production. The findings of this study can provide policy-related insights to help local governments promote the development of digital finance in China's agricultural economy.

This paper aims to explore the functionality of long tail markets (LTM), where the consumers cannot be reached or are ignored by the traditional mainstream businesses, in new products and business development.

First, the authors review two Chinese entrepreneurial practices in the Fintech sector and low-speed electric vehicles (LSEV) and describe their stylized facts; second, they explore a possible theoretical LTM framework to underscore these practices; third, they make a connection between LTM and existing business models and analyze its significance and practical implications in business, in particular, in developing economies.

The LTM business approach has helped Chinese companies in the Fintech sector and LSEVs gain global attention. The success factors of LTM for businesses are identifying a specific customer base, being aware of localization products and playing skillfully with regulations; the LTM approach has several overlaps with existing studies on niche products and base of the pyramid market.

Based on some emerging and attractive business practices in China, this paper offers a valuable attempt to theorize them as long tail phenomenon. The LTM thesis provides a potential framework to reference for similar methods elsewhere and may illuminate entrepreneurship to be explored in similar markets.

The present study tries to examine the relationship between financial inclusion and environmental quality as proxied by carbon emissions in India covering the period from 2008 to 2018.

A financial inclusion index has been composed using principal component analysis (PCA) based on three dimensions: access, penetration and usage. After testing for stationarity of the data, the authors adopted the autoregressive distributive lag model (ARDL) methodology.

The study found that financial inclusion and growth lead to increased carbon emissions in India and the government must resort to greener policies, whereas empirical results support that globalization reduced the pollutants emissions in both the long term and short period in India.

Based on the results, several policy prescriptions are rendered for policymakers: (1) need to move toward greener energy policies and (2) enhance the awareness of green financing instruments such as green bonds in India. Therefore, policymakers should be more proactive in accepting green and sustainable financial alternatives.

The present study contributes to the scant literature on the financial inclusion–emission nexus in India. This study considers three inclusion parameters that are not present in previous studies.

This study aims to examine the relationship between financial inclusion and financial system development in emerging and frontier markets.

Using data across 35 countries over 19 years (2004–2022), the improved GMM estimation technique reveals that financial inclusion significantly contributes to the development of financial systems.

The study uses a segmented approach, dividing financial development indices into subindices: financial depth, financial access and financial efficiency. Indicators of bank financial inclusion show a positive and highly significant relationship with bank depth and access but a negative relationship with bank efficiency. Similarly, indicators of the debt market and stock market financial inclusion demonstrate positive relationships with market depth and access but negative relationships with debt and stock market efficiency. The study further examines composite indexes of financial inclusion for bank, debt and stock market segments, finding strong and highly significant relationships with market development. These results underscore the importance of promoting financial inclusion across all segments of the financial sector to achieve an inclusive financial system.

The implications of this research highlight the need for policymakers and practitioners to implement policies and regulations that enhance financial inclusion and foster the development of robust financial systems. By extending access to mainstream financial instruments and services, financial institutions can stimulate financial intermediation and support, thereby accelerating the development of the banking, debt and stock markets.

The study is robust to the use of several indicators of financial inclusion and financial development, and it forms part of the early studies that examine the close relationship between the two variables.

Financial inclusion is considered one of the strategic tools for sustainable development and one of the types of corporate social responsibility disclosures. This study aims to focus on the association between the disclosure of financial inclusion activities and Syrian banking companies’ performance.

Different regression models were suggested to examine the hypotheses leading to a better understanding of the relationship between financial inclusion and Syrian banking performance for the period 2005 to 2020 using the STATA 17.

The results showed a positive association between financial inclusion disclosure and Syrian bank performance, with low participation in financial inclusion activities (8%).

The study recommends that the Central Bank of Syria work on developing an index of financial inclusion for the Syrian environment, with the issuance of legislation and laws that obligate all listed banks to disclose their financial inclusion activities as a part of their social responsibility.

This study incorporates the relationship between the disclosure of financial inclusion activities and the performance of Syrian banking companies, which has been neglected by most studies on financial inclusion. Therefore, this study sheds light on this positive relationship, which could have important repercussions in reviving the deteriorating Syrian economy following the crisis it went through, which, in turn, led to Syria’s high inflation affecting the poor and vulnerable disproportionately.