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This paper examines the impact and mechanism of China's digital inclusive finance on rural consumption upgrade. First, the impact of the development of digital inclusive finance on the upgrading of rural household consumption structure is to be theoretically analyzed and empirically tested. Secondly, in terms of heterogeneity analysis, it pays attention to the age heterogeneity of users that digital inclusive finance influencing rural residents' developmental consumption upgrade, which is related to the issue of intergenerational “digital gap”. Thirdly, the mechanism of digital inclusive finance in promoting rural consumption upgrade is to be investigated. Finally, how to promote the role of digital inclusive finance in upgrading the structure of rural consumption to a developmental demand level will be showed.

From the perspective of the micro-household, this study is conducted by using the instrumental variable (IV) method, with 2SLS model and IV-Tobit model, based on the matched city-level data of Digital Inclusive Financial Index (DIFI) with the Chinese Household Financial Survey (CHFS). “The relief degree of land surface” is an ideal instrumental variable of digital inclusive finance, for including regional altitude difference and terrain factors of regional area, has theoretical influence on the development of digital inclusive finance, and is not affected by other economic variables.

The conclusions show that the digital inclusive finance plays a significant role in promoting the rural households' developmental consumption, but has no significant effect on the rural households' survival-type consumption and hedonistic consumption. Furthermore, this paper examines the impact and mechanism of China's digital inclusive finance on rural consumption upgrade. First, the impact of the development of digital inclusive finance on the upgrading of rural household consumption structure is to be theoretically analyzed and empirically tested. Secondly, it is discovered that digital inclusive finance is age heterogeneous in promoting the upgrade of consumption structure of rural household, and its effect on the elderly is weaker than that on the young for the intergenerational “digital gap”. Thirdly, these conclusions reveal that the digital inclusive finance does affect the consumption of rural residents through three mechanisms: increasing income and wealth, easing liquidity constraints and facilitating payment methods. Finally, how to promote the role of digital inclusive finance in upgrading the structure of rural consumption to a developmental demand level will be showed.

The current research on the relationship between digital inclusive finance and rural consumption only stays at the level of total rural consumption and has not stressed the structural problems of rural consumption. Can digital inclusive finance promote the upgrade of rural consumption structure? To what level can digital inclusive finance promote the upgrading of rural consumption structure? Therefore, it is of great theoretical value to study the upgrading of rural consumption structure from the micro level. Can the current digital inclusive finance benefit the elderly and help break the vulnerability of the elderly to enjoy finance? In this regard, evidence of heterogeneity remains to be provided.

Although they are neighbouring Asian countries with many similarities, India and Indonesia have different levels of household expenditure inequality. During the end of 2000s, the Gini coefficient of Indonesia was 9.1 percentage points larger than the Gini coefficient of India. To understand the determinants of this difference, this study decomposes it into the contribution of price effects, demographic effects and labour market structure effects. Differences in expenditure structures (price effects) and demographic characteristics are found to be the greatest contributors to the inequality gap across the two countries. The difference in the education distribution of household heads also has a positive and significant impact on the inequality gap. Differences in the labour market structure, on the other hand, turn out to be less important.

At the turn of twenty-first century, India is facing rapid population ageing coupled with consequential socio-economic development changes. Against the backdrop of such changes, its traditional familial support system of living arrangements for older persons is swiftly changing, undergoing rapid transition towards nuclear family systems. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

This paper examined: first, the changing trends and patterns in joint family systems defined in terms of households with older persons and total households; and second, socio-economic and demographic determinants of changes in the proportion of nuclear households with older adults. The decomposition analysis segregated the contribution of determinants of the change in nuclear households with older persons in three different components: propensity, composition, and interaction. The study used data from three successive rounds of the National Family Health Survey.

Results indicate that a lower proportion of households with older persons were nuclear compared to total households. However, for both types of households, nuclear households increased by nine percentage points during 1992-2006. Households with older persons that were headed by old aged persons, illiterates or females, situated in urban area, not owned agriculture land, lower affluent level, and from Southern India were at most risk of being nuclear than their counterparts.

This study provided ample evidence of the increase in nuclear familial structure for older persons in the course of population ageing. Population ageing, urbanization and increase in education, primarily contributed to the increase in nuclear family households of older persons.

Urbanization is driving the growth of China’s carbon footprint. It’s important to investigate what factors, how and to what extent, affect carbon footprints embedded in various categories of rural and urban households’ consumption.

We employ an environmental extended input-output model to assess and compare the rural-urban household carbon footprints and perform a multivariant regression analysis to identify the varying relationships of the determinants on rural and urban household carbon footprints based on the panel data of Chinese households from 2012 to 2018.

The results show evidence of urbanity density effect on direct carbon footprints and countervailing effect on indirect carbon footprints. The old dependency ratio has no significant effect on rural family emissions but has a significantly negative effect on urban direct and indirect carbon footprints. A higher child dependency ratio is associated with less rural household carbon emissions while the opposite is true for urban households. Taking advantage of recycled fuel saves direct carbon emissions and this green lifestyle benefits urban households more by saving more carbon emissions. There is a positive relationship between consumption structure ratio and direct carbon footprints while a negative relationship with indirect carbon footprints and this impact is less significant for urban households. The higher the price level of water, electricity and fuel, the lower the rural household’s direct carbon footprints. Private car ownership consistently augments household carbon footprints across rural and urban areas.

This paper provides comprehensive findings to understand the relationships between an array of determinants and China’s rural-urban carbon emissions, empowering China’s contribution to the global effort on climate mitigation.

The purpose of this paper is to understand the effects of the husband’s migration on wives’ decision-making autonomy.

The study setting is Magway Region of central Myanmar where poverty has driven adult males to migrate overseas. The study hypothesizes that the absence of husbands due to international migration leads to changes in the roles and decision-making power of left-behind wives. A cross-sectional survey was conducted in 22 villages of Pakkoku district, Magway Region, using the multi-stage random sampling method. The study sample included 205 migrant’s wives and 196 non-migrant’s wives.

The international migration of husbands has a strong and positive impact on left-behind wives’ autonomy independent of individual characteristics and household social and economic status. In addition, the findings show that the number of children and household wealth are positively associated with women’s autonomy, whereas household size shows a negative association.

It is possible that there will be unmeasured selection factors such as unsuccessful migration as it might influence both husbands’ migration status and women’s autonomy. Cross-sectional data also invite a question about the causal relationship. For example, it might be possible that women with high autonomy may be more likely to encourage their husband to work abroad. So, the relationship might be the other way around. A further longitudinal study is also needed to describe detail explanation about the causal influence of left-behind women’s autonomy.

Successful international migration has a impact not only on women’s autonomy but also on household economic status in central rural Myanmar.

The purpose of this chapter is to describe how indigenous social and economic networks of rural women in Uzbekistan function as collective action for social and economic empowerment since 1991 to the present, the time when Uzbekistan moved from Soviet centrally planned to a market-oriented economy. This system of economic empowerment shows how women's agency, power, and knowledge reorganizes male dominated gendered space. In particular, I will examine women's gap and chenrnay kassa function as a mechanism for livelihood resilience and social and economic empowerment in the post-socialist economy.

Gaps, or more precisely the institution of the locally organized rotating savings association and recreational network known as gap or sometimes called as gashtak, tukma, or ziefat, are the local structures of power and authority of socio-economic communal life in Uzbekistan. Gaps are social gatherings of approximately 12 or more women who meet at least once a month. Each gap is headed by jo'ra boshi (a leader) who sets rules with its members, solves conflicts and takes care of accounting. These social networks operate also as indigenous economic networks where all participants contribute fixed funds that are given in turn to the host of the event which they receive as a lump sum payment at a future gathering. Each member take turns in hosting the event at their homes until the full rotation is complete. Then the next round of gap starts. At the time of the fieldwork, 1Kg of meat was worth 6–8 thousand so'm (equivalent of US$4–6), and is the index that is used in calculating the amount that each member contributes. The contribution amount is influenced by the gap's purpose, the status, and wealth of its members.

I argue that traditional socio-economic networks structures function not just as anticolonial solidarity groups against regimes, but also decolonizing networks for social justice, redistribution of resources, healing, meaning making, voice, knowledge, agency, and conflict resolution.

Social assistance and inactivity traps have long been considered as one of the main causes of the poor employment performance of EU countries. The success of New Labour in the UK has triggered a growing interests in instruments capable of combining the promotion of responsibility and self-sufficiency with solidarity with less skilled workers. Making-work-pay (MWP) policies, consisting of transfers to households with low earning capacity, have quickly emerged as the most politically acceptable instruments in tax-benefit reforms of many Anglo-Saxon countries. This chapter explores the impact of introducing the British Working Families’ Tax Credit (WFTC) in three EU countries with rather different labor market and welfare institutions: Finland, France and Germany. Simulating the reform reveals that, while first-round effects on income distribution is considerable, the interaction of the new instrument with the structural characteristics of the economy and the population may lead to counterproductive second round effects (i.e. changes in economic behavior). The implementation of the reform, in this case, could only be justified if the social inclusion (i.e. transition into activity) of some specific household types (singles and single mothers) is valued more than a rise in the employment per se.

The central dry zone of Myanmar is a climatic risk area in which the inhabitants are experiencing food insecurity, demonstrating the link between water scarcity and climate risk in agricultural production. Households in the region face the challenge of developing adaptation strategies to cope with the impact of climate change on food security. This study aims to seek an effective climate change solution and analyse its impact on Myanmar's food security and household adaptation.

The authors draw on insights from mixed-method research using a qualitative method followed by quantitative methods. In the qualitative phase, the authors used purposive sampling with two focus group discussions and three stakeholder interviews. In the quantitative phase, data were collected from 102 face-to-face interviews with members of households selected from Pauk Township, Pakokku District, Magway Region, Myanmar. The household food insecurity access scale (HFIAS) was used in the analysis.

The HFIAS indicated that 13% of households have adapted to climate change. The study illustrates that climate change adaptation strategies in production activities are related to food insecurity. The results further demonstrated the effect of climate change on crops, which impacts debt, access to food, selling assets and urban migration. The findings also suggest that climate change adaptation to improve food security has played an important role in providing outside support, which leads to household food insecurity.

To the authors' best knowledge, the study is one of the first to use mixed-method research to investigate climate change, food security and household adaptation in the central dry zone of Myanmar.