title: Spatial price differences and inequality in China: Housing market evidence

authors: Gibson, John

subjects: housing

abstract: The large literature on regional inequality in China is hampered by incomplete evidence on price dispersion across space, making it hard to distinguish real and nominal inequality. The two main methods used to calculate spatial deflators have been to price a national basket of goods and services across China’s different regions or else to estimate a food Engel curve and define the deflator as that needed for nominally similar households to have the same food budget shares in all regions. Neither approach is convincing with the data available in China. Moreover, a focus on tradable goods like food may be misplaced because of the emerging literature on the rapid convergence of traded goods prices within China that contrasts with earlier claims of fragmented internal markets. In a setting where traded goods prices converge rapidly, the main source of price dispersion across space should come from non-traded items, and especially from housing given the fixity of land. In this paper we use newly available data on dwelling sales in urban China to develop spatially-disaggregated indices of house prices, which are then used as spatial deflators for both provinces and core urban districts. These new deflators complement existing approaches that have relied more on traded goods prices, and are used to re-examine the evidence on the level of regional inequality. Around one-quarter of the apparent spatial inequality disappears once account is taken of cost-of-living differences.

text: Spatial price differences and inequality in China: Housing market evidence The large literature on regional inequality in China is hampered by incomplete evidence on price dispersion across space, making it hard to distinguish real and nominal inequality. The two main methods used to calculate spatial deflators have been to price a national basket of goods and services across China’s different regions or else to estimate a food Engel curve and define the deflator as that needed for nominally similar households to have the same food budget shares in all regions. Neither approach is convincing with the data available in China. Moreover, a focus on tradable goods like food may be misplaced because of the emerging literature on the rapid convergence of traded goods prices within China that contrasts with earlier claims of fragmented internal markets. In a setting where traded goods prices converge rapidly, the main source of price dispersion across space should come from non-traded items, and especially from housing given the fixity of land. In this paper we use newly available data on dwelling sales in urban China to develop spatially-disaggregated indices of house prices, which are then used as spatial deflators for both provinces and core urban districts. These new deflators complement existing approaches that have relied more on traded goods prices, and are used to re-examine the evidence on the level of regional inequality. Around one-quarter of the apparent spatial inequality disappears once account is taken of cost-of-living differences.

year: 2013-03

title: Investigating influences of incentives on implicit attitudes toward body size

authors: Taylor, Tokiko

subjects: Implicit relational assessment procedure

abstract: The Implicit Relational Assessment Procedure (IRAP) was designed to detect relational responding that cannot easily be accessed via traditional survey methods. The IRAP requires participants to meet speed and accuracy criteria during practice trials before proceeding to test trials, which has resulted in an attrition rate of approximately 20%, on average, in the existing research. Variables affecting the attrition rate have not been systematically investigated. I examined the influence of incentives (in this case a $20 voucher contingent on meeting performance criteria) on attrition rate and other IRAP performance measures. In addition, I examined whether the IRAP would reveal an implicit anti-fat bias in 82 university students. I found significant differences in the performance of the incentive group compared to the control group in their response accuracy and measurement of their implicit bias. The results indicated higher levels of bias compared with those from previous research studies, particularly in the incentive group. I did not find statistically significant differences in the attrition rate but found a low attrition rate in both groups. This study reveals the utility of incentives for improving performance on the IRAP, a procedure that demands accurate responses under time pressure for assessing spontaneous relational responding.

text: Investigating influences of incentives on implicit attitudes toward body size The Implicit Relational Assessment Procedure (IRAP) was designed to detect relational responding that cannot easily be accessed via traditional survey methods. The IRAP requires participants to meet speed and accuracy criteria during practice trials before proceeding to test trials, which has resulted in an attrition rate of approximately 20%, on average, in the existing research. Variables affecting the attrition rate have not been systematically investigated. I examined the influence of incentives (in this case a $20 voucher contingent on meeting performance criteria) on attrition rate and other IRAP performance measures. In addition, I examined whether the IRAP would reveal an implicit anti-fat bias in 82 university students. I found significant differences in the performance of the incentive group compared to the control group in their response accuracy and measurement of their implicit bias. The results indicated higher levels of bias compared with those from previous research studies, particularly in the incentive group. I did not find statistically significant differences in the attrition rate but found a low attrition rate in both groups. This study reveals the utility of incentives for improving performance on the IRAP, a procedure that demands accurate responses under time pressure for assessing spontaneous relational responding.

year: 2017

title: An ashy septingentenarian: the Kaharoa tephra turns 700 (with notes on its volcanological, archaeological, and historical importance)

authors: Lowe, David J.

abstract: Most of us are aware of the basaltic Tarawera eruption on 10th June 1886: the high toll on life (~120 people), landscape devastation, and loss of the Pink and White Terraces. But this was not the first time that Mt Tarawera produced an eruption of importance both to volcanology and human history. This edition of the GSNZ Newsletter marks the 700th anniversary of the Kaharoa eruption – its septingentenary to be precise – which occurred at Mt Tarawera in the winter of 1314 AD (± 12 years) (Hogg et al. 2003) (Fig. 1). The importance of the Kaharoa eruption is at least threefold. (1) It is the most recent rhyolite eruption in New Zealand, and the largest New Zealand eruption volumetrically of the last millennium. (2) The Kaharoa tephra is an important marker horizon in late Holocene stratigraphy and geoarchaeology (Lowe et al. 1998, 2000), and in particular helps to constrain the timing of settlement of early Polynesians in North Island (Newnham et al. 1998; Hogg et al. 2003; Lowe 2011). (3) There is a link between the soils that developed on the Kaharoa tephra, the animal ‘wasting’ disease known as ‘bush sickness’, and the birth of a government soil survey group as an independent organisation (Tonkin 2012).

text: An ashy septingentenarian: the Kaharoa tephra turns 700 (with notes on its volcanological, archaeological, and historical importance) Most of us are aware of the basaltic Tarawera eruption on 10th June 1886: the high toll on life (~120 people), landscape devastation, and loss of the Pink and White Terraces. But this was not the first time that Mt Tarawera produced an eruption of importance both to volcanology and human history. This edition of the GSNZ Newsletter marks the 700th anniversary of the Kaharoa eruption – its septingentenary to be precise – which occurred at Mt Tarawera in the winter of 1314 AD (± 12 years) (Hogg et al. 2003) (Fig. 1). The importance of the Kaharoa eruption is at least threefold. (1) It is the most recent rhyolite eruption in New Zealand, and the largest New Zealand eruption volumetrically of the last millennium. (2) The Kaharoa tephra is an important marker horizon in late Holocene stratigraphy and geoarchaeology (Lowe et al. 1998, 2000), and in particular helps to constrain the timing of settlement of early Polynesians in North Island (Newnham et al. 1998; Hogg et al. 2003; Lowe 2011). (3) There is a link between the soils that developed on the Kaharoa tephra, the animal ‘wasting’ disease known as ‘bush sickness’, and the birth of a government soil survey group as an independent organisation (Tonkin 2012).

year: 2014