Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: The paper explains the three major traits of Japan?fs social safety net for the unemployed: (1) the low level of generosity in unemployment benefits, (2) the extensive use of employment maintenance programs, and (3) the reform pattern of retrenchment, rationalization, and activation. I argue that the risk of unemployment can be addressed either by cost externalization or risk sharing. In Japan, risk sharing took root partly because the kind of social safety net necessary for cost externalization was not available when the problem of labor redundancy became acute after the oil crises and partly because the widespread practice of mandatory corporate retirement at an relatively early age alleviated firms?f need for governmental early retirement programs. The mechanism of risk sharing became institutionalized through the establishment of the Employment Stability Fund, which shaped preferences of the government, unions and employers to converge on the extensive use of employment maintenance programs and lean unemployment benefits for many years to come.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: The paper addresses the psychological effects of avatars in task-oriented net-based interactions. In a comparative cross-media approach the study focuses on the question how the use of avatars can enhance social presence and interpersonal trust in net-based dyadic collaborations. Special attention is paid to measurements that combine subjective verbal reports and objective behavioral data. For the purpose of this study a special avatar platform (virtual communication environment, VCE) is combined with a shared collaborative workspace (“Cool Modes”). This setting enables an experimental variation of real time communication modes during net-based collaborations. The experimental conditions were: text chat, voice over IP (audio), web-cam conference (audio-video) and avatar-conference (audio and avatar) using two types of avatars (low fidelity: cartoon like androgynous figure; high fidelity: textured male or female character). Results yield a significant difference between text and all other communication modes, while there was no difference between audio, video and avatar systems in terms of social presence and interpersonal trust. Analyses of nonverbal behavior and visual attention revealed no significant differences between video and avatar conferencing modes. The data raise critical questions about the added value of avatar systems and the specific requirements those systems have to meet to prove superior to mere audio/video transmissions.

Publication Type: Abstract
Abstract: The collapse of China’s rural Cooperative Medical System (CMS) in 1978 resulted in a lack of an organized financing scheme for health care, adversely affecting rural farmers’ access to health care, especially among the poor. Many attempts have been made to re-establish some forms of Community-Based Health Insurance (CBHI) since then. However, most of these re-established schemes involve low premiums but high co-payment rates. We hypothesized that such benefit design leads to unequal distribution of the “Net Benefits (NB)”—benefits net of payment, because even though low-premiums are more affordable to poor farmers, high co-payments may impose significant deterring effects on the poor in use of services in CBI. Furthermore, we expect that the distribution of the NB will be improved by subsidizing the premium and reducing the co-payment rate.

A longitudinal data set from a social experimental study of Rural Mutual Health Care (RMHC), a subsidized CBHI with low co-payment, in Fengshan Township in China provides a unique opportunity for us to test these hypotheses empirically. This longitudinal data includes enrollment and health services utilization information under both high and low co-payment schemes from the same 3492 individuals in 1020 households. Logistic regression and “Two-Part Model” are used to estimate the distribution of enrollment rate and the NB gain among those who enrolled in the schemes.

There are three principal findings from this study. First, income is still an important factor which influences farmers’ decision to enroll in CBHI/RMHC despite that premium represents a very small fraction of household income and there is a subsidy to the premium for rural residents to enroll in RMHC, although its impact is smaller in subsidized RMHC scheme than in CBHI scheme. Second, both income and health status influence enrollees’ utilization of health services: richer participants obtain greater NB from the CBHI than the poorer, which means that the poorer subsidizes the richer in low premium and high co-payment CBHI. Third, both income and health status still influence enrollees’ utilization of health services. However, the NB obtained by the poorer participants from low co-payment RMHC is greater than the richer, which means that the richer subsidizes the poorer in the low co-payment RMHC scheme.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: The Internet has been regarded as a revolutionary information communication technology which brings us with a global information flow and free discussion forums. As an authoritarian country which hosts the largest population in the world and spares no efforts in boosting information technology, China’s future with the Internet has naturally become a key academic concern. More recent literature seems to stop short of the early optimistic ideas of the Internet’s liberalizing potential in China, and attributes the Internet’s failure to realize such a task to the rigorous regulation and controls of the Chinese government.This paper argues that it is necessary and valuable to rethink the political and social impact of the Internet in China from the Internet users perspective. The author combined a survey and in-depth interviews with Chinese net users of different backgrounds to uncover the underlying reasons for the usage patterns of Chinese net users. In conclusion, this paper finds that the Internet is not really a democratizing tool at China in its current stage, but it is not simply because of the control and regulations from the Chinese government. A number of cultural and social factors largely shape the usage patterns of the Chinese net users.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: When making a paper cube, it is convenient to design a net; that is, a connected set of squares which may be cut out and folded together to form a cube. When the squares are folded together, pairs of edges from the squares come together to form edges of the cube. If one edge from each pair is removed so that the edges form a connected graph, the remaining twelve edges are called an edge net of the cube. In other words, an edge net is a connected graph with twelve edges of the same length which may be folded to make a cube.

A complete enumeration of the edge nets of the cube will be given. The enumeration involves an interesting interplay of algebra, geometry, and graph theory.