Background Health literacy and health-information seeking behaviour (HISB) play vital roles in health outcome improvements. This study examines the extent of income-related inequality in health literacy and health-information seeking as well as the contributions of the main socioeconomic determinants in China. Methods We analysed representative data of participants aged over 18 years as well as older adults from the Guangzhou Community Health Survey. A concentration index (CI) was used to quantify the degree of income-related inequity in health literacy and health-information seeking. Probit regression models were employed to decompose the CI into the contributions to each factor. Results Results showed a significant pro-rich distribution of adequate health literacy (CI: 0.0602, P < 0.001; horizontal index [HI]: 0.0562, P < 0.001) and HISB from healthcare professionals (CI: 0.105, P < 0.001; HI: 0.0965, P < 0.001). The pro-rich distribution of health literacy was mainly attributable to education background (contribution: 54.76%), whereas income inequalities contributed most to the pro-rich distribution of health-information seeking among an urban population (contribution: 62.53%). Conclusion Public interventions in China to reduce inequality in health literacy and HISBs among the urban population, coupled with easily accessible information sources on health, warrant further attention from policymakers.

In order to improve public financing sustainability in China, the Chinese government has announced several administrative policies on crowdfunding, concerning platform construction and operation, in recent years. However, the existing policy scope rarely mentions the importance of social psychology, which also plays a decisive role in determining the participation and success rates of crowdfunding. Therefore, this study uses the knowledge from social exchange theory (SET) and customer value perspective (CVP) to develop and validate a conceptual model of the key determinants of the public’s intention in investing in crowdfunded projects in China. Based on the primary survey data, the SEM (structural equation modeling) estimations suggest that: (1) communication, shared values, investors’ perceived benefits, and perceived risk have significant effects on crowdfunding investors’ trust in fundraisers of a particular crowdfunding project, which in turn act on their commitment and intentions to invest in the project; (2) trust strengthens funding intentions through fulfilling commitments, whereas its direct effect on funding intentions is insignificant; (3) commitment has a direct and significant positive effect on the enhancement of funding intentions. These findings propose a new perspective of improving public policies to support small and micro enterprises (SMEs) and individual innovative projects in China.

This research contributes to previous studies through exploring the association between individual psychological aspirations and hukou discrimination in the Chinese urban labour market. Applying data from the 2010 China General Social Survey, we divided the sample into local hukou residents and non-local migrants (includes urban-urban migrants and rural-urban migrants). We then examined the relationship between these sub-categories with different hukou status and their income aspirations (i.e., expected wage levels). The estimated results suggest that, in comparison with urban-urban migrants, rural-urban migrants are more likely to self-deprecate. Discrimination against rural-urban migrants significantly restricts their income aspirations. These findings imply that it is urgent to eliminate these negative impacts caused by hukou discrimination in the Chinese urban labour market, and understanding the structure of labour force quality such as psychological condition appears to be important in determining the long-term sustainable development of labour market. Theoretical and empirical implications, limitations and further research directions are also discussed.

This study investigates the differential effects of online reviews on actual sales in cases where information regarding source identity and brand equity is accessible. The data were collected from an influential online film review platform in China. Two distinctive features of this study are: (1) source identity is expressed as "verified user" or "unverified user" according to posters' ticket payment status and (2) the interactive effect between source identity and brand equity on box-office success is examined. Using econometric estimations, the results reveal the following: (1) the positive effect of verified users' online review valences on the number of tickets purchased for films decreases in association with high brand strength; (2) the variance of verified users' online reviews positively affects the number of tickets purchased for films with high brand strength, but such an effect is negative with low brand strength; (3) the variance of unverified users' online reviews positively influences the number of tickets purchased for films with low brand strength, but it negatively influences the number of tickets purchased for films with high brand strength. Thus, these findings suggest that it is better for business leaders to understand not only why producers of online reviews are satisfied or dissatisfied, but also how consumers interpret and interact with different types of online reviews and which are important. This requires a smart and flexible collaboration among different business units within film company.

China owns a huge labor force of around half billion workers in 2018. However, little is known about the prevalence of obesity and the association between obesity and economic status in this special population. By employing the concentration index (CI) and decomposition analysis, this paper addresses this knowledge gap by using the most recent nationally representative dataset. In specific, this study examines the prevalence of obesity and the socioeconomic gradient in the probability of obesity among Chinese workers between 16 and 65. Our results show that the prevalence of obesity is completely different by using a different measure: the overall prevalence of being general obesity (measured by body mass index, BMI ≥ 28) varies by gender and residency from a minimum of 5.88% to a maximum of 9.46%, whereas abdominal obesity (measured by waist circumference, WCmale ≥ 85 cm &amp; WCfemale ≥ 80 cm) prevalence presents a socking level from 64.53% to 67.69%. Moreover, the results show a pro-rich distribution of obesity (general and abdominal) among male workers (CIBMI = 0.112; CIWC = 0.057) and a pro-poor distribution among female workers (CIBMI = −0.141; CIWC = −0.166). We also find that the direction of the contribution of socioeconomic factors to income-related inequalities in obesity differs by gender. These results have substantial implications for the measurement of socioeconomic inequality in adiposity and for improving health-related policies targeting the Chinese labor force.