Showing papers by "Yu Xie published in 2015"

Marriage and Family in East Asia: Continuity and Change

Abstract: Trends toward later and less marriage and childbearing have been even more pronounced in East Asia than in the West. At the same time, many other features of East Asian families have changed very little. We review recent research on trends in a wide range of family behaviors in China, Japan, Korea, and Taiwan. We also draw upon a range of theoretical frameworks to argue that trends in marriage and fertility reflect tension between rapid social and economic changes and limited change in family expectations and obligations. We discuss how this tension may be contributing to growing socioeconomic differences in patterns of family formation. This focus on East Asia extends research on the second demographic transition in the West by describing how rapid decline in marriage and fertility rates can occur in the absence of major changes in family attitudes or rising individualism.

An introduction to the China family panel studies (CFPS)

Abstract: :The China Family Panel Studies (CFPS), launched by Peking University, is a nearly nationwide, comprehensive, longitudinal social survey that is intended to serve research needs on a large variety of social phenomena in contemporary China This article describes the background and characteristics of the CFPS, which was designed with the help of methods learned from the most influential survey projects in the world and their experiences Extensive information is collected through computer-assisted person-to-person interviews of all family members The questionnaires not only cover a wide range of topics but also consist of intergraded modules for rural and urban interviews, gathering information on family structure and family members, migrant mobility, event history (eg, history of marriage, education, and employment), cognitive ability, and child development The CFPS promises to provide the academic community with the most comprehensive and highest-quality survey data on contemporary China

The Causal Effects of Rural-to-Urban Migration on Children’s Well-being in China

Abstract: China's rural-to-urban migration has affected 12.6 million school-age rural children who have migrated with their parents and another 22 million who have been left behind by their migrant parents. Not enough is known, either theoretically or empirically, about the causal impact of migration on the wellbeing of this large number of Chinese children affected by migration. Propensity score matching methods are applied to estimate the effects of migration in children 10-15 years old from a 2010 national survey (N = 2,417). Children's migration has significant positive effects on their objective wellbeing but no negative effects on their subjective wellbeing. There is little difference between the left-behind and non-migrant children across multiple life domains. The Rosenbaum bounds tests indicate that the causal effects of child migration are sensitive to hidden bias for certain outcomes, but not for others.

Household Wealth in China

Abstract: With new nationwide longitudinal survey data now available from the China Family Panel Studies (CFPS), we study the level, distribution, and composition of household wealth in contemporary China. We find that the wealth Gini coefficient of China was 0.73 in 2012. The richest 1 percent owned more than one-third of the total national household wealth, while the poorest 25 percent owned less than 2 percent. Housing assets, which accounted for over 70 percent, were the largest component of household wealth. Finally, the urban-rural divide and regional disparities played important roles in household wealth distribution, and institutional factors significantly affected household wealth holdings, wealth growth rate, and wealth mobility.

The sampling design of the China family panel studies (CFPS)

Abstract: The China Family Panel Studies (CFPS) is an on-going, nearly nationwide, comprehensive, longitudinal social survey that is intended to serve research needs on a large variety of social phenomena in contemporary China. In this paper, we describe the sampling design of the CFPS sample for its 2010 baseline survey and methods for constructing weights to adjust for sampling design and survey nonresponses. Specifically, the CFPS used a multi-stage probability strategy to reduce operation costs and implicit stratification to increase efficiency. Respondents were oversampled in five provinces or administrative equivalents for regional comparisons. We provide operation details for both sampling and weights construction.

Changes in the Determinants of Marriage Entry in Post-Reform Urban China

Abstract: Using population intercensus and national survey data, we examine marriage timing in urban China spanning the past six decades. Descriptive analysis from the intercensus shows that marriage patterns have changed in China. Marriage age is delayed for both men and women, and prevalence of nonmarriage became as high as one-quarter for men in recent birth cohorts with very low levels of education. Capitalizing on individual-level survey data, we further explore the effects of demographic and socioeconomic determinants of entry into marriage in urban China over time. Our study yields three significant findings. First, the influence of economic prospects on marriage entry has significantly increased during the economic reform era for men. Second, the positive effect of working in the state-owned sector has substantially weakened. Third, educational attainment now has a negative effect on marriage timing for women. Taken together, these results suggest that the traditional hypergamy norm has persisted in China as an additional factor in the influences of economic resources on marriage formation.

Cohabitation in China: Trends and Determinants.

Abstract: Using recent, nationally representative data, we examine the prevalence and social determinants of premarital cohabitation, an important sign of the Second Demographic Transition (SDT) in China. Descriptive results show that although only about 7 percent of Chinese adults born before 1980 cohabited before first marriage, cohabitation has grown sharply among recent birth cohorts. Based on the theoretical perspectives of “ideational change” and “economic development,” we conduct multivariate analyses of social determinants of cohabitation that may reveal potential mechanisms of its diffusion. We find that greater exposure to Western culture, higher educational attainment for men, and more advantaged family background were all positively related to premarital cohabitation. Our results also show the influence of a unique social institution in China, with Communist Party members less likely than their counterparts to cohabit before first marriage. Broadly speaking, the positive association between economic development and local rates of premarital cohabitation suggests the transformative influence of modernization on family systems.

Cognitive Ability: Social Correlates and Consequences in Contemporary China

Abstract: In this paper, we describe the measurement of cognitive ability in the China Family Panel Studies (CFPS), especially for verbal skill, mathematical skill, memory, and quantitative reasoning The available CFPS cognitive measurements can be useful for studies on the importance of cognitive ability in many substantive domains of interest Using the CFPS data, we show that measures of cognitive ability are clearly related to key demographic and social characteristics, such as age, gender, education, and hukou status We also illustrate how cognitive ability influences school performance and deviant behaviors among children, income and political capital among adults, and daily functioning among the elderly

Assortative mating without assortative preference

Abstract: Assortative mating—marriage of a man and a woman with similar social characteristics—is a commonly observed phenomenon. In the existing literature in both sociology and economics, this phenomenon has mainly been attributed to individuals’ conscious preferences for assortative mating. In this paper, we show that patterns of assortative mating may arise from another structural source even if individuals do not have assortative preferences or possess complementary attributes: dynamic processes of marriages in a closed system. For a given cohort of youth in a finite population, as the percentage of married persons increases, unmarried persons who newly enter marriage are systematically different from those who married earlier, giving rise to the phenomenon of assortative mating. We use microsimulation methods to illustrate this dynamic process, using first the conventional deterministic Gale–Shapley model, then a probabilistic Gale–Shapley model, and then two versions of the encounter mating model.

Short-term trends in China’s income inequality and poverty: evidence from a longitudinal household survey

Abstract: In the past three decades, income inequality in China has increased rapidly relative to both China’s own past and other countries at similar levels of economic development. Using recent longitudinal data from the China Family Panel Studies (CFPS), this article examines changes in income inequality and poverty prevalence between 2010 and 2012. Surprisingly, we find a modest decline in income inequality as measured by the Gini coefficients in the CFPS data. The urban–rural gap narrowed, with rural families enjoying faster income growth than urban families enjoyed. Income growth was greater for middle-income families than for families with either high or low incomes in 2010. By all measures, poverty was greatly reduced between 2010 and 2012. Two-thirds of families that had been poor in 2010 escaped poverty by 2012.

Between heaven and earth: Dual accountability in Han China

Abstract: Scholars have noticed that centrally-appointed officials in imperial China were not only beholden to their superiors but also acted as brokers of local interests. We characterize such a structural position as ‘dual accountability’. Although accountability to superiors is readily understandable within the Weberian framework of bureaucratic hierarchy, the reasons behind local responsiveness bear explanation. This paper attempts to explain such responsiveness by investigating the larger ideological, structural, and institutional contexts of the Han dynasty (206 BCE–220 CE). We explore two existing explanations – practical necessity and ‘Confucian’ or classical paternalism – and add a new explanation of our own: the emphasis on virtuous reputations in the system of bureaucratic recruitment and promotion. Our argument is supported by empirical evidence from a range of sources, including administrative records and inscriptions on ancient stelae. More generally, we question Weber’s hypothesis that the Chinese im...

Western Influence on (People's Republic of China) Chinese Students in the United States

Abstract: In the late 1970s, shortly after the Cultural Revolution ended, the People's Republic of China reopened its door to the West. Through the open door came tens of thousands of students and scholars. By 1988 more than 60,000 of them had gone aboard, with 93 percent going to the United States.' Between 1978 and 1988, students from the People's Republic of China became one of the largest foreign student groups in the United States, second only to those from Taiwan.2 According to recent estimates, by the beginning of this decade more than 40,000 Chinese students were living in the United States.3 The number may seem small, given China's population of more than a billion. Additionally, the group is by no means a representative sample of ordinary Chinese students and scholars, much less of ordinary Chinese people. Before June 1989, they were referred to as Communist China's "best and brightest," "new elite," "future leaders," or the "successor generation."4 After June 1989, they were more often regarded as "the source of political disturbance," or the only group who openly "vowed to carry on the struggle for freedom and democracy."5 They have, however, attracted much attention from educators, politicians,

Has smoking really declined in China

Abstract: It has been reported that the prevalence of smoking among Chinese men has decreased substantially in recent decades. Using data from the China Health and Nutrition Survey (CHNS) (1991–2009) and the triple standardization method, we assess this trend and the relative contributions to it from three explanatory factors – age, whether the person has ever smoked, and smoking cessation. Results do show that the prevalence of smoking among Chinese men has decreased noticeably during the study period. Furthermore, the decrease in the proportion of men who have ever smoked is the single most important factor accounting for most of the decline. The contributions of the changes in age structure and in smoking cessation are small. Hence, we conclude that a decline in smoking among Chinese men is a real historical change and not an artefact of the survey methodology or the changes in age structure.

Addendum: Han, Y.; Grogan-Kaylor, A.; Delva, J.; Xie, Y. Estimating the Heterogeneous Relationship Between Peer Drinking and Youth Alcohol Consumption in Chile Using Propensity Score Stratification. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2014, 11, 11879–11897

Abstract: The authors wish to update the Acknowledgments in their paper published in International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health [1], doi:10.3390/ijerph111111879, website: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/11/11/11879.[...]