Alfred M. Wu
Hong Kong Institute of Education
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Featured researches published by Alfred M. Wu.
Journal of Urban Affairs | 2014
Lin Ye; Alfred M. Wu
ABSTRACT: China’s urbanization is significant worldwide. This process is characterized by underurbanization of population and fast urban land expansion. The driving forces behind this expansion and their rationale are not fully understood and empirically tested. This study fills this gap by analyzing panel data from 1999–2009 for all 286 prefecture-level cities in China. The findings reveal that land financing, using different measures, significantly contributed to land urbanization in China. Economically stronger cities with higher real estate investment more aggressively pushed for land urbanization. The true purpose of urbanization should be improving the living standard, not to generate revenue. It is suggested that urbanization can serve its justified goals only if fiscal and political relations between central and local governments can be adjusted. As more data become available, future studies are encouraged to further explore the subject by investigating additional factors and the latest trend of urbanization in China. Struggling land under the pressure of urbanization, Guangzhou, China (2011).
Journal of Education and Work | 2016
Ka Ho Mok; Alfred M. Wu
This article attempts to investigate the relationship between the massification of higher education, labour market and social mobility in contemporary China. Though only a short period of time has elapsed from elite to mass education, China’s higher education has been characterised as a wide, pervasive massification process. Similar to other East Asian countries/economies like South Korea, Taiwan and Hong Kong, the expansion of higher education in China has also generated a great impact on labour markets and social mobility. The massification of higher education has increased college access and in general enhanced the extent of equity and equality in society. Nonetheless, the situation has become far more complex as returns of education have flattened out recently and social mobility has slowed down in general. University students have started to doubt the ability of higher education to improve their competitiveness in the job market. This, in turn, has led to a wide dissatisfaction with higher education development in China, particularly when higher education has experienced highly intensified competition in the context of world-class university movement. Realising that students from different family backgrounds may encounter diverse experiences in graduate employment and opportunity for upward social mobility, this article critically reflects upon how variations in social capital and cultural capital have impacted on graduate employment and social mobility as higher education has massively expanded in China.
Social Policy and Society | 2014
Alfred M. Wu; M. Ramesh
The extent to which social protection programmes in general, and targeted programmes in particular, actually alleviate poverty has been a central issue in development debates for decades. The objective of this article is to contribute to the debate by empirically examining the poverty-alleviation effects of one of the largest targeted programmes in the world: the Minimum Living Standard Assistance (MLSA) or Dibao in China. Using newly available data on MLSA spending and a unique panel survey dataset covering the 1993 to 2009 period, this research investigates the impact of the MLSA on poverty alleviation. The analyses using fixed-effects and random-effects logit models and hierarchical liner models offer insights that go beyond the existing studies on the subject. Findings from the study confirm that targeted social protection programmes are an effective tool for reducing poverty.
Environment and Urbanization | 2015
ZhEnjIE Yang; Alfred M. Wu
This paper aims to shed fresh light on rural–urban interaction and urbanization in a non-Western authoritarian context. It describes the change in post-Mao China from very vertical and separate government hierarchies for rural and urban areas, which inhibited rural–urban interactions, to a city-managing-county model, with rural counties around a city coming under the jurisdiction of the city government. Drawing on field research and statistical data, the paper elucidates the dynamics and complexities of this model, arguing that the combination of city-based bureaucrats favouring the city and the priority given to economic growth mandated by the central government often meant a lack of attention to rural development and support for county government. The paper also comments on the recent development of the province-managing-county model in China, and argues that given an urban-centred administrative system, whether the current reform can change the political and administrative equilibrium in China remains an open question.
Educational Gerontology | 2015
Kar-Ming Yu; Alfred M. Wu; Wai-Sum Chan; Kee-Lee Chou
Using a phone survey conducted in 2012, we examined whether there is a gender difference in financial literacy among Hong Kong workers; and if such a difference exists, whether it can be explained by gender differences in sociodemographic variables, social or psychological factors, and/or the outcomes of retirement planning. Results show a gender gap in financial literacy as well as age, spousal support for retirement savings, risk tolerance, computational ability, and perceived financial knowledge. Multivariate data analyses show that a proportion of the gender difference in financial literacy could be explained by gender differences in risk tolerance, computational ability, and self-reported financial knowledge; but the difference remained after adjusting for variables found to be associated with gender. Our findings suggest that it may be important to develop programs targeted specifically to women.
Ageing & Society | 2015
Kee-Lee Chou; Kar-Ming Yu; Wai-Sum Chan; Alfred M. Wu; Alex Yue Feng Zhu; Vw Lou
ABSTRACT Using an interdisciplinary model of financial planning, we investigated the factors contributing to perceived adequacy of retirement savings among Hong Kong workers by replicating a previous study of American and Dutch workers. The model was also tested for age differences in the way in which the variables operated within the model. These questions were examined using data from a phone survey conducted with 999 Hong Kong workers in 2012. We examined three psychological factors (future time orientation, goal clarity and financial knowledge), three social support variables (early learning from parents, spousal support and friend support) and three institutional factors (quality of employer pensions, trust in banks and fund managers, and trust in the government), as well as retirement savings planning activity and perceived retirement savings adequacy. Path analyses were used to test the model for the whole sample and separately for younger (N=437) and older (N=562) workers. Although a few age differences were found in the path analyses, the model was found to be useful in explaining the factors contributing to retirement savings planning and practices. Finally, we discuss how our findings differ from those of prior studies, and we assess their theoretical and practical implications.
The Journal of Comparative Asian Development | 2012
Alfred M. Wu
Drawing on field research and statistical data, this article is an original contribution to the understanding of the public sector “equal pay” policy and, more broadly, income distribution in China. The making and development of the equal pay policy epitomize the complexity and challenges in promoting wealth distribution in China. Surging government revenue boosts public confidence in improving civil service pay in order to build a responsible government while the widening income inequality in society complicates remuneration across sectors in China. Although the Chinese government has substantially mitigated the public–private pay gap, attempts to make pay more equal across different localities and units have largely failed in China. Compared with some developing countries, the Chinese government has fiscal capacity to pay civil servants fairly and adequately; nevertheless, substantial pay inequality within the public sector has diluted the positive effect of the civil service pay reform. The broad implication is that inclusive growth toward a harmonious society in China requires a thorough and comprehensive rethinking of Chinas overall income distribution system.
Social Policy & Administration | 2015
Alfred M. Wu; Kee-Lee Chou
Asian Review of Public Administration | 2012
Alfred M. Wu
Journal of Chinese Political Science | 2013
Alfred M. Wu