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Income inequality is a growing area of concern in both China and the United States, the world's two largest economies today. Alongside the traditional social welfare system, taxation and philanthropy are two alternative mechanisms to reduce inequality that have received increasing attention worldwide. This paper explores the roles of taxation and philanthropy in reducing inequality. In analyzing policies relating to taxation and philanthropy across several countries, this paper concludes that despite limitations and unintended consequences, under the current systems in China and the United States, taxation and philanthropy can and should be more effectively used to reduce income inequality.

Over the past decade, philanthropic giving in China has entered a new era. A series of natural disasters triggered an upsurge in public giving; the changing social environment transformed individuals' pattern of giving behavior. By discussing the influence of three major traditional Chinese philosophies (i.e. Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism) on philanthropy, this paper argues that China's philanthropy is not a reflex behavior after acute calamity, but an intrinsic intention within humanity. This paper also highlights that being aware of this intention of giving allows donors to not only simply share their resources, but also mindfully facilitate civic engagement. This mindful sharing process, therefore, builds a social culture that collectively empowers vulnerable populations, which is the purpose of philanthropic giving. The paper concludes that mindful sharing emphasizes the intention of giving, fosters a sustainable culture of giving, and achieves an ideal state of collective empowerment.

AbstractMuch of the literature on welfare dynamics has focused on the effects of recipient characteristics and
state‐level characteristics such as welfare benefits and economic conditions; there has been very
little analysis on the effects of child support. This paper, using the 1979‐1996 National Longitudinal
Survey of Youth, examines whether child support affects the likelihood of leaving and re‐entering welfare.
The results indicate that strong child support enforcement is important in helping young mothers exit and stay
off welfare. Women with $1000 child support payments in the previous year were 18 percent more likely to
exit welfare and 12 percent less likely to re‐enter welfare. Compared with women in states that pursued
child support least vigorously, women in states that had passed extensive child support enforcement legislation
and that spent more money on child support enforcement were 79 percent more likely to exit welfare and about 60
percent less likely to re‐enter welfare. © 2002 by the Association for Public Policy Analysis and
Management.

Using the first 3 waves of the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study, this article examines the prevalence and factors of domestic violence among unmarried mothers with a young child. The findings indicate that the prevalence of domestic violence for mothers increased substantially in the first 3 years after the child's birth. Findings from regression analyses show that mothers who lived with the father, either as a wife or cohabiting partner, had significantly lower odds of domestic violence in the study measures than mothers who did not live with the father. However, the odds of domestic violence were not significantly different between married and cohabiting mothers. Policy implications are discussed.

Using the 1991-1998 Survey of Family Income and Expenditure, we analyzed the determinants of college attendance rates and educational expenditure among families with children in Taiwan, paying particular attention to the effects of family structure and family income. The findings indicate that higher family income is consistently associated with higher college attendance rates and spending on education. Children in single-parent families have lower college attendance rates than children in two-parent families. Furthermore, single-parent families spend less on education. When family income is taken into account, single-mother families are not significantly different from two-parent families on the outcome variables. Single-father families, however, are estimated to have significantly lower college attendance rates and educational expenditure after controlling for family income. These results suggest that improving the economic security of single-parent families will increase their children's attainment in single-mother families but will not eliminate the attainment gap between children in single-father and two-parent families.