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China launched a comprehensive health reform in 2009 to improve healthcare quality. Because preventive care utilization in China has not been frequently discussed, the purpose of this paper is to focus on the association between education level and preventive care before and after the initiation of the reform. Education has been referred to as the best health outcome indicator and China’s educational reform has been progressive, such as the health reform.

The authors analyzed data from four China Health and Nutrition Surveys (CHNS): 2004 (n=9,617); 2006 (n=9,527); 2009 (n=9,873); and 2011 (n=9,430). Variables were selected based on Andersen’s healthcare utilization model (predisposing, enabling and need factors). Multivariable logistic regression models, odds ratios (ORs) and 95 percent confidence intervals (95 percent CI) were conducted and reported.

In the adjusted multivariable logistic regression models, the authors found that general education was associated (p<0.05) with access to preventive care in 2004, 2009 and 2011, but not in 2006. Individuals with higher education had higher ORs for utilizing preventive care, compared with lower education (primary school education or none).

Policy implications include providing educational protocols regarding preventive care’s significance to residents educated at lower level schools, especially younger individuals.

To the authors’ knowledge, this is the first comparative assessment on education level and preventive care utilization before and after the implementation of the Chinese health reform.

The Chinese society has embraced rapid social reforms since the late twentieth century, including educational and healthcare systems. The Chinese Central Government launched an ambitious health reform program in 2009 to improve service quality and provide affordable health services, regardless of individual socio-economic status. Currently, the Chinese social health insurance includes Urban Employee Basic Medical Insurance, Urban Resident Basic Medical Insurance, and New Cooperative Medical Insurance for rural residents. The purpose of this paper is to measure the association between individual education level and China’s social health insurance scheme following the reform.

Using the latest (2011) China Health and Nutrition Survey (CHNS) data and multivariable logistic regression models with cross-sectional design (n=11,960), the odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (95% CI) are reported.

The authors found that education is associated with all social health insurance schemes in China after the reform (p<0.001). Residents with higher educational attainments, such as technical school (OR: 6.64, 95% CI: 5.44–8.13) or university and above (OR: 9.86, 95% CI: 8.14–11.96), are associated with UEBMI, compared with lower-educated individuals.

The Chinese Central Government announced a plan to combine all social health insurance schemes by 2020, except UEBMI, a plan with the most comprehensive financial package. Further research is needed to investigate potential disparities after unification. Policy makers should continue to evaluate China’s universal health coverage and social disparity.

This study is the first to investigate the association between residents’ educational attainment and three social health insurance schemes following the 2009 health reform. The authors suggest that educational attainment is still associated with each social health insurance coverage after the ambitious health reform.

The purpose of this paper is to examine consumer reactions to product categories, online seller reputation, and brand name syllables.

This paper uses four experimental designs to explore the seller reputation, product category, and brand name syllable effects in internet shopping. The authors chose sellers of (low/high) repute from Yahoo Mall. ANOVA is used to evaluate the results.

Seller reputation moderates the effect of the brand name syllable level on purchase intention and product category moderates the effect of the brand name syllable level on purchase on internet (experiment 1). Consumers take the longest time to make purchasing decisions when buying credence goods or buying from sellers of low repute and that the response time mediates the moderating role of the product category (experiment 2) or reputation (experiment 3). Moreover, the effect of brand name syllable levels chosen/assigned by sellers of low repute is weakened for consumers with low (vs high) skepticism toward non-store shopping (experiment 4).

This study is helpful to online sellers if they can identify their reputation, product category and those consumers have skepticism, they can create extra profit through brand name syllable practice.

This paper extends the literature on consumers’ brand name syllable processing by identifying important moderators and probing into the decision process. The results allow us to substantiate prior research and suggest prescriptive strategies for internet retailers.

Demographic transition, although gradual, has a profound impact on various socio-economic aspects of society, including the real estate market. Many countries, particularly Japan, are currently experiencing rapid population aging. While the rising participation of seniors in the labour market has helped to alleviate this demographic burden in Western societies, the question is whether, in Japan, the purpose of this paper is to examine if the return of elderly individuals to the workforce could mitigate the demographic pressures on the housing sector. Besides the conventional panel model, this study used the quantile panel method to evaluate whether the effect of this demographic shift remains consistent across property value ranges.

This study considered a panel data set of 47 prefectures from 2006 to 2016 in Japan, focusing on weighted dependency ratios that account for the labour force participation rates of three elder age cohorts. This approach captures the shifting dynamics of the workforce, particularly as more Japanese retirees have re-entered the labour market in recent years. By applying the quantile panel model (Koenker, 2004), this paper explores whether the reduced demographic burden exerts varying impacts across different quantiles of property prices.

The conventional and two weighted dependency ratios revealed their non-linear influence on different quantiles of property values in quantile panel models. The return of elderly labourers indeed mitigated the demographic burden given the weighted dependency ratios’ weaker negative influence on the property prices at Q90, compared to the conventional dependency ratio. However, compared to the conventional dependency ratio, the stronger positive effects of weighted dependency ratios on the prices at Q10 imply that the demographic debt associated with the working involvement of these inferior elders may pressure people, especially elders, to favour and buy cheap residences.

The return of retirees to the workforce should be a good sign, given the shrinking labour force in Japan. As one of the few studies considering this demographic shift in measuring dependency ratios, this paper further evaluates its effect on different quantiles of property values in Japan. Unlike their Western counterparts, many seniors in Japan work out of financial necessity. It is found in this study that the demographic debt associated with the working involvement of inferior seniors may pressure people to favour cheap residences. These findings should give policymakers a better understanding of the housing market in this aging era.

This paper aims to examine the effects of “quality” as well as fundamentals on house prices in eight capital cities in Australia from 1985-2011. Two types of quality are considered: housing quality, proxied by “value of alterations and additions”, “value of new residential buildings”, “floor area” and “site area”; and living environment quality, proxied by “overall crime rate”.

The application of dynamic panel model, in which the lagged values of house prices are considered, is to reveal the dynamic persistence of house prices over time and to investigate the heterogeneity of house prices across cities in Australia.

Fundamental variables including “unemployment rate”, introduction of “GST” (Goods and Service Tax), “real mortgage rate” and “price-to-rent ratio” demonstrated their consistent and expected effects on property prices in Australia. More importantly, “value of new residential buildings” – indicating housing quality – and “overall crime rate” – representing environmental living quality – also demonstrated statistically significant effects on house prices.

As one of the few studies that attempt to take housing/living-environment quality into account in analysing house prices, it gives households, researchers and policy-makers a better understanding of the role of “quality” in the variation of house prices.