Table of Content

29 May 2015, Volume 39 Issue 3

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Quantitative Analysis of Age Pattern of Household Consumption in Urban and Rural China

Zhu Qin,Wei Taoyuan

2015, 39(3):  3-17. 

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Based on household survey data from China Family Panel Study (CFPS) in 2010, this paper econometrically quantifies and estimates household consumption pattern by age and gender in both urban and rural China. Unlike previous studies in which only age factors are considered to be independent variables, we expand classical demand and consumption functions by including age variables in our econometric model to obtain stronger explanatory power and higher accuracy. Our results show that people aged 30-34 and 45-49 have the highest household consumption in their lifecycle; people aged 80 and above are the group with the largest urban-rural consumption disparity; rural residents reduce their expenditure on health care considerably at their very advanced age; rural middle-age women expend less than men on health care. Thus it is necessary to strengthen policy support to a certain groups of residents. Policy makers should pay more attention to population dynamics when they make decisions on adjusting industrial structure and planning public resources allocation.

Impacts of Infant Death Under-reporting on Life Expectancy and Their Regional Disparities

Song Jian,Zhang Yang

2015, 39(3):  18-33. 

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The under-reporting of infant death undermines the accuracy of the infant mortality rate and life expectancy. Based on China’s 2010 national population census data, this paper analyzes the impact of infant death under-reporting on life expectancy from both theoretical and empirical perspectives. Cluster analysis and spatial autocorrelation analysis have been conducted to explore the regional disparities of both the under-reporting rate of infant death and its influence on life expectancy. The results show that the lower the overall mortality rate is, the more the change of life expectancy caused by the change of infant mortality. The extent of the impact on life expectancy of infant mortality depends mostly on its under-reporting level, the higher the level, the larger the impact. There are significant regional disparities of the impact of infant death under-reporting on life expectancy. The life expectancy is more sensitive to the fluctuation of infant death under-reporting in western and southwestern China. Moreover, there is no global bivariate spatial correlation between mortality level and the likelihood index of infant death under-reporting, but there are some significant local agglomerations and the spatial patterns are similar by gender.

Disability Level of the Chinese Elderly

Zhang Wenjuan,Wei Meng

2015, 39(3):  34-47. 

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The magnitude and trend of the disabled elderly population are important basis for evaluating demands of the elderly for long-term care services and planning development of social service system in an aging society. However, domestic existing data and research have not reached consensus on this issue. Using functions status information of the elderly in multiple surveys, this study examines the criteria of disability status in these surveys, and compares the disability rates reported from those surveys, with an attempt to obtain a reasonable estimation of the disability rate of the elderly in China. The analysis of data of three special surveys on ageing shows that KATZ Scale is an comparable tool usually adopted for the measurement of function status in those surveys, and the disability rate of Chinese elderly is between 10.48% and 13.31%. In order to facilitate further study on trends and patterns of disability of the elderly，this paper suggests that a consistent measurement in disability of the elderly for data collection be adopted, the sample size of the oldest-old people be expanded, and the representativeness of samples for different regions be improved in future research surveys.

Intergenerational Relationship in Migrant Families in the Context of Rural to Urban Migration: A Typological Analysis

Cui Ye,Jin Xiaoyi

2015, 39(3):  48-60. 

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In the context of massive rural-urban migration, changing intergenerational relations have an important impact on welfare of family members of rural migrant workers. Typological methods provide a useful tool to depict complex and diverse family relations, yet there are few typological studies on diversity of intergenerational relations in Chinese rural migrant workers’ families. Using data from a survey of rural migrant workers in Shenzhen in 2013, this paper, employing latent class analysis, reveals four types of intergenerational relations in rural migrant workers’ families: tight-knit, near but emotionally-detached, distant but emotionally-close, and detached ties. The tight-knit tie, which is characteristic of the traditional extended family and of strong cohesion, is the most common type in rural migrant workers’ families, but it has been deeply branded with the mark of urbanization, reflecting continuation and change of traditional rural family relations. The distant but emotionally-close tie reflects the effort of out-migrant children who support their parents over a long distance, with parent-child emotion growing into an important new bond maintaining intergenerational family relations.

Progressive Population Citizenization in China: Experiences and Implications

Wu Wenheng,Li Tongsheng,Zhu Hongying,Sun Jinjin

2015, 39(3):  61-73. 

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This paper examines the progressive process of population citizenization in China according to the availability of urban basic public services and relevant policy changes, which is differentiated by rigid constraint before 1978, target control between 1978 and 2000, policy guidance between 2000 and 2010, and government leading and promoting since 2010. While the reform of the national household registration system and the full implementation of the residence permit system provide guarantee for speeding up the citizenization process, local or mass practice is crucial to the effectiveness of population citizenization. The major factors affecting population citizenization come from city, countryside, farmers (migrant workers) and management system, which are generally influenced by cost of living, job opportunities, housing costs, living habits, and educational quality. Unified city-countryside system, effective urban and rural push-pull mechanism and assimilation of urban environment are policy priorities for orderly and progressively promoting population citizenization.

Couples’ Relative Occupational Position and Subjective Family Well-being

Tao Tao,Li Ding

2015, 39(3):  74-86. 

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Using couple-paired sample survey data collected by Beijing Academy of Social Construction in Renmin University of China, the article analyzes the relationship between subjective well-being and relative occupational position of couples from the perspectives of family rights and status theory and role conflict theory. The results show that the self-identified relative occupation relative position has significant influence on family well-being. Higher relative occupation status of husband is significantly associated with higher family well-being and better intergenerational relationships. Couples’ occupational relative position has both direct and indirect effect on family well-being. Comparing with other types of families, couples in the family with wife having relatively higher occupational position are significantly less happy, and the intergenerational relationships are worse. Wife’s satisfaction on her leisure and husband’s satisfaction on his work are positively associated with their happiness.

Baby Boom, Population Structure, and Housing Market

Yang Hualei,Wen Xingchun,He Lingyun

2015, 39(3):  87-99. 

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This paper explores the impact of population structure on China’s housing market using a general equilibrium theory framework. The simulation results suggest that there are marked impacts of the demographic transition on changing housing prices. Largely resulting from the baby boom in the 1980s and rapidly declining births in the 1990s, China’s house prices had rising pressure in around 2001 when the 80s baby boom generation entering into marriage age; while the house prices would have falling fluctuation in around 2014 when the 90s baby bust generation entering into marriage age causing declining housing demands. Thus, Changing population structure needs to be taken into account in formulating policies to regulate the housing market.

Intention of Community Employment of Rural Migrant Workers

Wu Lei,Zhang Xin

2015, 39(3):  100-106. 

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The massive rural-urban migration has produced dramatic changes in China. As a recent policy trend, rural migrant workers were called on to accept flexible employment jobs in communities. However, their employment in urban cities, especially their intention of community employment, has been under-studied in the extant literature. This study follows a qualitative approach in which a group of rural migrant workers holding community jobs in Beijing are interviewed about their intention to maintain community employment; and reporting the reasons for their intention in their own words. It applies a work barrier framework to analyze the reasons contributing to the intention. The results show that they were willing to continue their community employment, but this willingness was reluctant in nature, with consideration of the individual, family, social network, community employment and discrimination factors affecting this. The findings of the study call for a change to their vulnerable positions in the urban labor market, and suggest that social services should be developed to support the migrants in community employment.

Low Education and High Economic Performance: A Zhejiang Entrepreneurs Perspective

Yang Yiqing

2015, 39(3):  107-112. 

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Zheshang (Zhejiang Entrepreneurs) is China's most influential business groups based on the same cultural background, and the Zhejiang’s strength of private economy stands at the first place in China. However, Zhejiangese’s education levels show sharp contrast to the power of Zhejiang’s private economy. Zheshang’s education level falls behind the mean level of the national private business owners. This article argues that Zheshang’s special endowment forms are the source of their "entrepreneurial capacity", and the non-coding information is also one of the features among Zheshang. Zheshang's performance is of reciprocal causation with local knowledge traditions, geographical and cultural values, and the distribution of cluster of industries in Zhejiang.