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At present, China’s industrial spatial layout faces the predicament of over-agglomeration of Eastern China industries and the near disintegration of industrial structure in the central and western regions. The paper aims to discuss this issue.

Based on the perspective of differentiated inter-regional labor mobility, this paper constructed a model framework of quadratic sub-utility quasi-linear preference utility function, and conducted model deduction and numerical simulation on causal factors of this spatial imbalance along the two dimensions of individual and regional welfare.

The study finds that in the long run, industrial spatial layout imposes a certain threshold limit on the portfolio proportion of differentiated labor. The dilemma of China’s industrial spatial layout is attributable to the deviation of the market’s optimal agglomeration from the social optimal agglomeration, and to the disfunction of Eastern China’s role as an intermediary between the global and the domestic value chain.

To resolve this predicament of industrial layout, the unitary welfare compensation based on fiscal transfer payment has to be switched to a more comprehensive approach giving consideration to industrial rebalancing.

Poverty alleviation has been a major theme of China's modernization process since the founding of New China. This paper points out that China's poverty alleviation process presents three stylized facts: “Miraculous” achievements of poverty alleviation have been made on a global scale; the poverty alleviation achievements mainly occurred in the high growth stage after reform and opening up; the poverty alleviation process is accompanied by the structural transformation of the urban–rural dual economy.

Therefore, a logically consistent analytical framework should form among the structural transformation of the dual economy, economic growth and the achievements in poverty alleviation. In logical deduction, the structural transformation of the dual economy affects rural poverty alleviation through the effects of labor reallocation, agricultural productivity improvement, demographic change and fiscal resource allocation.

The first two refer to economic growth, and the latter two are alleviation policies. The combination of economic growth and poverty alleviation policies is the main cause for poverty alleviation performance. China's empirical evidence can support the four effects by which the structural transformation of the dual economy affects poverty alleviation.

China's socialist system and its economic system transformation after reform and opening up provide an institutional basis for the effects to come into play. After 2020, China's poverty alleviation strategies will enter the “second-half” phase, namely, the phase of solving the problems of relative poverty in urban and rural areas by adopting conventional methods and establishing long-term mechanisms. This requires the facilitation of the reconnection between poverty alleviation strategies and the structural transformation of the dual economy in terms of development ideas and policy directions.

The purpose of the study is to examine the relationship between the COVID-19 pandemic and international student mobility from an alternative perspective and to reveal descriptive findings.

This study follows qualitative research methodology. In accordance with the purpose of the study, the data were collected by the literature review and then it was analyzed by the descriptive analysis method. The effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on international student mobility and the relationships between these variables are explained by tables and classifications.

According to the findings obtained, the restrictions in physical student mobility and shutdown are observed as the biggest challenges that occurred in higher education during the COVID-19. On a global scope, international student mobility has experienced a major break. Physical campus life is still on standby. Online higher education does not give any campus life as before. Students cannot benefit form city's or country's facilities when studying online at home country. The collaboration between university and business has been declined and this is even more discouraging for international students. The hybrid education model produced an intermediate solution in this period. On the other hand, the rise of online education has created new techniques for higher education. University students who cannot go abroad attend different countries lectures and education programs. But also a new challenge has come as the access of online platforms in under developing countries university students. Online education system also discussed in terms of creating inequality in higher education.

This study focused on student mobility and not focused about academic mobility.

It is seen that the traditional higher education system has been adapted into online distance higher education system since COVID-19 crises began globally. On the other side, it is observed that most of studies have focused the effect of COVID-19 on university students based on the transition to online education. When considering the effect of pandemic process on the mobility of international students and higher education, the authors can suggest policy makers to develop new higher education protocols and teaching models supporting key issues (economic, social, health, education and equalization) in the long-term. Higher education institutes have been able to produce creative and innovative solutions for both education and communication during the pandemic process.

University students who cannot go abroad attend different countries lectures and education programs. But also a new challenge has come as the access of online platforms in under developing countries university students. Online education system also discussed in terms of creating inequality in higher education.

This study provides a new perspective for international student mobility in the context of COVID-19 pandemic. This is an emerging issue for the literature. This study is original with its approach to the subject from a global perspective through reviewing the studies of different countries. This study points out key variables for determining the effect of COVID-19 on international student mobility for future studies. When employing quantitative research models, the current key variables can guide them.

This study is an effort to explore a relationship between benefits of schemes (BoS) on the job satisfaction among handloom weavers. The weavers who are engaged in this work however face lot of challenges in terms of remuneration and working conditions. The government has been immense with various schemes that cater to the work-related problems. This paper aims to understand whether work-related support can be a predictor for job satisfaction in this context.

A cross-sectional survey design was used where 335 handloom weavers randomly participated in the study. Questionnaire was administered and scale was developed and validated for the measurement of BoS by using exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis. The effect of the benefits on the job satisfaction was investigated by using structural equation modelling on AMOS 21 platform.

The outcome suggested that the BoS significantly affects the job satisfaction and a possible predictor. This which was indicated by the value of r^2, i.e.0.38 at significance level p < 0.001.

The study suggests a method for analyzing the schemes/policies in the light of the benefits that schemes intend to deliver. This would help in making suitable modifications in the schemes order to have wider outreach and large-scale inclusion of the beneficiaries.

The study can be useful for the policymakers to further strengthen the features of the schemes. They might work in direction of inclusion of more handloom weavers in the framework of the schemes.

The effects of the work-related policies on job satisfaction is still in nascent stage, so this work is all about exploration in that area.

While only one aspect of fulfilling equal rights, effectively addressing workplace discrimination is integral to creating economies, and countries, that allow for everyone's full and equal participation.

Labor, anti-discrimination, and other relevant pieces of legislation were identified through the International Labor Organization's NATLEX database, supplemented with legislation identified through country websites. For each country, two researchers independently coded legislation and answered questions about key policy features. Systematic quality checks and outlier verifications were conducted.

More than 1 in 5 countries do not explicitly prohibit racial discrimination in employment. 54 countries fail to prohibit unequal pay based on race. 107 countries prohibit racial and/or ethnic discrimination but do not explicitly require employers to take preventive measures against discrimination. The gaps are even larger with respect to multiple and intersectional discrimination. 112 countries fail to prohibit discrimination based on both migration status and race and/or ethnicity; 103 fail to do so for foreign national origin and race and/or ethnicity.

Both recent and decades-old international treaties and agreements require every country globally to uphold equal rights regardless of race. However, specific national legislation that operationalizes these commitments and prohibits discrimination in the workplace is essential to their impact. This research highlights progress and gaps that must be addressed.

This is the first study to measure legal protections against employment discrimination based on race and ethnicity in all 193 UN countries. This study also examines protection in all countries from discrimination on the basis of characteristics that have been used in a number of settings as a proxy for racial/ethnic discrimination and exclusion, including SES, migration status, and religion.

In this study, the authors examine whether social capital embedded in individuals' social networks is connected to employees' long-term income development in Finland.

Analyses are based on 25–35-year-old employees from the Finnish Living Conditions Survey of 1994 combined with register data on earned incomes from 1995 to 2016. The authors used questions addressing the frequency of meeting parents or siblings, spending free time with co-workers and participation in associational, civic or other societal activities as measures of the extent of network capital. Ordered logistic model was used to examine whether the size and composition of social networks differ by gender and socio-economic status. Linear growth curve models were employed to estimate the effect of social capital on long-term income development.

Results indicate minor differences in network composition according to gender, but large differences between socio-economic groups. The authors found that income development was faster for those who participated in civic activities occasionally or who met their relatives or co-workers on a monthly basis, that is, for the “middle group”.

Results are generalizable only to Finnish or Nordic welfare state context. The authors’ measures of social capital come from cross-sectional survey. Thus, the authors are not able to address the stability or accumulation of social capital during life course. This restriction will probably cause the authors’ analysis to underestimate the true effect of social capital on earned incomes.

Moderate-level investments to network capital seem to be the most beneficial with regard to the long-term income development.

The study results give support to the idea that social capital can be transformed into economic capital. The results also imply that in economic terms it is important to balance diverse forms of social capital. At the policy level, a special emphasis should be directed to employees with low-socio-economic position. These people are especially vulnerable as their low level of income is combined with network composition that hinders their further income development.

The combined survey and register data give unique insight on how the social capital embedded in individuals' social networks is connected with long-term income development.

Acknowledging that housing forms a large part of households’ and country’s long-term wealth, the South African Government has implemented various housing-related policies towards that end. Among these, the government has extended transfer duty exemption to house buyers – both individuals or natural persons and companies or other parties – to enable them buy houses of their choices since January 1950 to date. This paper aims to investigate the relationship between historical transfer duty exemption and housing demand in the City of Johannesburg (CoJ) over a longer period, where a comprehensive data set on house sales and other predictors was available.

This paper uses multi-year data on repeat house sales from 2010 to 2020 and other macro- and socio-economic variables to test the relationship between transfer duty exemption and housing demand in the CoJ, a core part of Gauteng province, South Africa. After cleaning the original data, final analysis was based on 139,121 repeat sales transactions. Data was analyzed in R.

Findings suggest that, when macro-, socio-economic and yearly effects are controlled, transfer duty has a damping effect on housing demand in the CoJ. The results were consistent across all the estimated models. While the motivation behind the implementation of transfer duty exemption in South Africa continues to encourage home ownership, these findings are unexpected because they do not offer support to that policy intention. These unexpected results are partly explained by the prevailing complexities of the housing market and related policies and the progressive tax regime. However, there are welfare effects that all buyers achieve across the housing market ecosystem.

This paper extends work on housing markets research in South Africa through the investigation of mortgage-based housing market in the CoJ that presents one of the densest, developed, bustling and growing housing market in the country. It also presents a fertile ground where all the effects of all the housing policies coalesce – in the statistical sense, one can control the effect of some aspects of housing policies, while appropriately testing the link between a specific policy (in this case, transfer duty exemption) and housing dynamics.

The purpose is to market a reinterpretation of Brazilian economic history highlighting the importance of non-tradable goods to understand major historical developments such as the lack of industrialization in the mining boom; the rise and contribution of industries to development in the early 20th century; indexation as hyperinflation in the late 20th century; growth and cycles in the early 21st century.

Section 2 introduces analytical perspectives on the relationship between non-tradables, transport costs and external shocks. Section 3 presents a historical overview of the gold and coffee cycles in the Brazilian economy, which highlights the crucial role played by transport costs in the genesis of industrialization. Thus, in a more precise way, industrialization was not an import substitution process but the substitution of non-tradables by the domestic tradable manufactures.

Section 4 shows that Brazilian statistical records and historiography disregard this characterization and, to that extent, underestimate economic growth in the primary export phase (1872–1920) and overestimate growth rates in the industrialization period (1920–1940). Section 5 shifts to the end of the 20th century to analyze the relationship between non-tradables, indexation and hyperinflation. Section 6 concludes with a brief discussion of the role played by the terms of trade and non-tradables in the unfolding of the 2014 economic crisis.

Distance from international markets and a continental geographic size made transport costs in Brazil historically prohibitive: the relevance of non-tradables in the Brazilian economic history. While the theme is not new, it seldom received proper attention in the historiography.