对中国生育"男孩偏好"社会动因的再思考

本文通过对部分中国育龄夫妇生育性别选择行为的文化诠释和制度分析,说明了生育“男孩偏好”的文化根源和制度基础。指出:在中国社会,男孩具有女孩所不具备的价值、特别是家庭和社会价值;同时“男孩偏好”是一种源于家庭制度和个体社会行为模式、制度化的社会价值取向。因此,人口出生性别比失常从根本上说反映了制度与文化的冲突,要扭转它需要制度创新和文化建设。     

Religion,Contraceptive Method Mix,and Son Preference Among Bengali-Speaking Community of Indian Subcontinent

This paper examines the influence of religion on contraceptive method mix in the context of son preference among Bengali-speaking population of eastern India (i.e., West Bengal and Tripura) and Bangladesh. In spite of cultural similarity and parallel programmatic approach to family planning in these two distinct geopolitical spaces, differential use of contraception is evident. Using National Family Health Survey (2005–2006) and Bangladesh Demographic Health Survey (2007) and by employing sequential logit model, the paper finds evidence of latent son preference in adoption of modern contraception in Bengali-speaking Hindu and Muslim communities of eastern India. However, such practice is observed only among Hindus in Bangladesh. The paper further argues that although diffusion of the culture of son preference cuts across religious groups among Bengali-speaking community in eastern India, religious identity dominates over region in Bangladesh, encouraging minority Hindus to adopt a distinct pattern of contraceptive behavior with reference to sons. Such finding calls for further research in understanding the pros and cons of behavioral diffusion in majority–minority population mix in similar tradition and culture.     

婚姻形式与男孩偏好:对中国农村三个县的考察

应用在招赘婚姻高度流行区、中度流行区和低度流行区的调查数据 ,本文研究了严格生育控制下婚姻形式以及个人、家庭和社会因素对男孩偏好的影响及其区域差异。研究发现 ,嫁娶婚姻的生育行为有明显的男孩偏好倾向 ,而招赘婚姻的生育行为则不存在性别偏好 ;男孩偏好存在显著的区域差异 ,招赘婚姻的流行显著降低了当地的男孩偏好水平。研究结果为政府在农村降低男孩偏好水平、稳定低生育率提供了新的思路和途径     

中国农民工的社会网络与性别偏好——基于深圳调查的研究

文章利用西安交通大学人口与发展研究所2005年中国深圳市农民工调查数据,基于社会网络理论定量研究了农民工的性别偏好现状及其影响因素。研究发现流动后农民工的生育观念与行为仍具有明显的男孩偏好特征;社会网络因素、流动因素和个体因素在一定程度上对农民工的男孩偏好观念与行为产生了影响。本文的研究结果对于理解中国城镇人口出生性别比偏高的现象和原因有重要作用。     

Son Preference and Access to Social Insurance: Evidence from China's Rural Pension Program

Many scholars argue that the persistence of son preference in China is driven by greater anticipated old‐age support from sons than from daughters and the absence of formal financial mechanisms for families to save for retirement. The introduction of a voluntary old‐age pension program in rural China in the 1990s presents the opportunity to examine (1) whether parents with sons are less likely to participate in pension plans and (2) whether providing access to pension plans affects parental sex‐selection decisions. Consistent with the first hypothesis, we find that parents with sons are less likely to participate in the pension program and have less financial savings for retirement. Consistent with the second hypothesis, we find that an increase in county‐level pension program availability is associated with a slower increase in the sex ratio at birth.     

An Economic Framework for Persisting Son Preference: Rethinking the Role of Intergenerational Support

Population Research and Policy Review - Son preference drives pre- and post-natal discrimination of daughters in many countries. It surprisingly survives in societies undergoing rapid...     

The Decline of Son Preference in South Korea: The Roles of Development and Public Policy

For years, sex ratios at birth kept rising in South Korea despite rapid development. We show that this was not an anomaly: underlying son preference fell with development, but the effect of son preference on sex ratios at birth rose until the mid‐1990s as a result of improved sex‐selection technology. Now South Korea leads Asia with a declining sex ratio at birth. We explore how son preference was affected by development and by public policy. Decomposition analysis indicates that development reduced son preference primarily through triggering normative changes across society—rather than just in individuals whose socioeconomic circumstances had changed. The cultural underpinnings of son preference in preindustrial Korea were unraveled by industrialization and urbanization even as public policies sought to uphold the patriarchal family system. Our results suggest that child sex ratios in China and India may decline before those countries reach South Korean levels of development, since the governments of both countries vigorously promote normative change to reduce son preference.     

选择性、传统还是适应:流动对农村育龄妇女男孩偏好的影响研究

我国人口的大规模流动正在改变着农村育龄妇女的生育观念,传统生育观念中的男孩偏好逐步弱化.文章梳理了流动对人们生育观念影响的相关理论,并通过对调查数据的分析,在控制了人口流动的选择偏差的条件下,比较了从未流动的农村育龄妇女和有流动经历的农村育龄妇女在男孩偏好方面的差异,并进一步研究了“流动时是否与丈夫在一起”的经历对农村育龄妇女男孩偏好的影响.结果表明,有流动经历和没有流动经历的妇女在男孩偏好方面确实存在显著的差异,这种差异一方面是由于流动的选择性造成的,另一方面也源于流动使妇女的生育观念更为现代化,弱化了她们的男孩偏好.但是,流出地的文化传统依然通过家庭和社区影响着妇女生育的性别偏好.     

Son Preference and the Persistence of Culture: Evidence from South and East Asian Immigrants to Canada

Preference for sons over daughters, evident in China's and South Asia's male sex ratios, is commonly rationalized by poverty and the need for old‐age support. In this article we study South and East Asian immigrants to Canada, a group for whom the economic imperative to select sons is largely absent. Analyzing the 2001 and 2006 censuses, 20 percent samples, we find clear evidence of extensive sex selection in favor of boys at higher parities among South and East Asian immigrants unless they are Christian or Muslim. The latter finding accords with the explicit prohibition against (female) infanticide—traditionally the main sex‐selection method—in these religions. Our findings point to a strong cultural component to both the preference for sons and the willingness to resort to induced abortion based on sex.     

相对效用、男孩偏好与生育性别选择

本文提出了“男女孩相对效用”的概念,并构建了男女孩相对效用的模型,对中国出生性别比偏高现象进行了分析和解释,认为“男女孩相对效用”是家庭进行生育性别选择的依据。     

中国的男孩偏好和婚姻挤压——初婚与再婚市场的综合分析

中国强烈的男孩偏好和对女性的歧视导致了婚姻市场上严重的男性婚姻挤压。本文使用中国2000年普查数据和所预测的2001~2050年人口数据,结合初婚和再婚市场设计了度量婚姻挤压的指标,测度了2001~2050年中国的婚姻挤压程度,考察了男孩偏好和再婚因素对中国未来婚姻挤压的影响。结果表明未来中国婚姻市场每年有10%~15%男性过剩人口,达到120万人。男孩偏好导致的高出生性别比显著影响未来婚姻市场,而再婚人口对婚姻市场上过剩人口也有显著影响。     

社会经济发展与男孩偏好的淡化

本文利用2010年中国人民大学育龄妇女家庭与生育状况调查数据,对男孩偏好弱化现象及导致男孩偏好弱化的社会经济因素进行了研究。研究发现,农业技术和生产工具的进步、农村家庭收入来源中非农收入比例的提高、男孩较高的养育成本、社会保障的完善和人口流动性的增加所导致的人们对“养儿防老”预期的降低以及住房、交通条件的改善等一系列社会经济变化的共同作用,使人们的男孩偏好逐步淡化。     

Subjective Well-Being in China: Associations with Absolute,Relative, and Perceived Economic Circumstances

Numerous studies examining the impact of income on subjective well-being (SWB) have found significant positive relationships exhibiting decreasing marginal returns. However, the impact of economic circumstances on SWB is better captured through a combination of income, wealth (per capita net worth), and perceived and relative economic conditions. Using data from the Chinese Household Income Project, I find that within rural and urban China, wealth significantly predicts SWB, exhibiting decreasing marginal returns independent of more common measures of economic circumstances such as income and occupational status. Within urban China, these associations decrease in magnitude and significance with the addition of objective relative measures of wealth and income. Finally, I find that subjective perceptions of relative standard of living are strongly associated with SWB independent of other measures. These results highlight the importance of using multiple objective and subjective measures of economic circumstances, demonstrating potential limitations of studies that have focused exclusively on income as a predictor of well-being. Results are interpreted within the context of China’s changing social and economic structure.     

中国贫困地区农村老年人家庭贫困-富裕度研究

中国已经进入老龄化社会,而中国的社会保障体系处于初级水平,养老保障制度尚未完善,在贫困地区大多数老年人由于缺乏收入和服务保障使他们的生活陷入困境,因此他们是当前最需要关注的群体。然而,了解贫困地区老年人家庭的贫困状况和致贫原因是解决问题的第一步。为此,文章利用"河北省贫困地区人口抽样调查"数据,对老年人家庭的贫困状况进行对比分析,并对老年人家庭的致贫原因进行Ordinal回归分析。研究发现,家庭成员的健康状况、第一经济来源以及家庭规模等因素对贫困地区农村老年人家庭的贫困-富裕度有显著影响。     

婚姻挤压下农村流动人口的生育性别偏好——基于相对剥夺感视角的分析

中国的出生性别比偏高持续了三十年,婚姻挤压问题日益凸现,大规模的城乡人口流动则加剧了婚姻挤压问题及其社会影响的严重性与复杂性。受制度与非制度因素影响,农村流动人口在城市处于社会底层,易遭遇成婚困难、诱发相对剥夺感,可能对生育偏好产生重要影响。本文基于相对剥夺感视角,对2009年福建省X市外来农村流动人口调查数据的分析发现,婚姻挤压对农村流动人口的生育性别偏好的观念与行为均无显著影响,但相对剥夺感对生育性别偏好行为有显著影响。本研究有助于理解婚姻挤压与相对剥夺感对农村流动人口生育性别偏好演化的特殊作用,对国家调整生育政策、提高流动人口计生服务与管理、促进性别平等有一定借鉴意义。     

农村独女户男孩偏好转化研究——基于湖北部分县市的抽样调查

在性别比居高不下的大环境下,湖北农村的独女户群体依然保持一定规模但其男性偏好呈现弱化走势,本文通过比较独女户群体和有几户群体在基本生存状况、生育意愿、性别平等观念等方面的差异和不同,来分析“独女户”这种家庭结构的选择对男孩偏好的影响的制约,以期为性别比控制政策的制定做出有益探索。     

Life Satisfaction Among Turkish and Moroccan Immigrants in the Netherlands: The Role of Absolute and Relative Income

In this paper we investigate the role of several socio-economic and non-economic factors such as absolute and relative income, education and religion to explain the differences of happiness levels of Turkish and Moroccan Immigrants in the Netherlands by using ordered logit model. We focus on members of the Moroccan and Turkish communities, as these are the two largest non-EU immigrant communities in the Netherlands. Our findings reveal that Moroccans, although they have lower income levels and higher unemployment rates than Turkish immigrants, their happiness level is higher than the Turkish immigrants. In order to understand this dilemma a questionnaire survey was performed to 111 Turkish and 96 Moroccan immigrants in Rotterdam, Amsterdam, Den Haag, Utrecht and Arnhem in 2010. The main purpose is to investigate how reference group’s self-reported life satisfaction is related to the level of absolute income; the level of relative income and other socio-economic factors. The main findings are that for Turkish sample relative income is significantly and negatively correlated with life satisfaction whereas, both absolute income (positively) and relative income (negatively) are significantly correlated with life satisfaction for Moroccan case.     

Unhealthy Weight in Indian Families: The Role of the Family Environment in the Context of the Nutrition Transition

India faces a dual burden of increasing obesity and persistent underweight as it experiences the nutrition transition—the dietary and lifestyle changes that accompany globalization, economic development, and technological change. Yet, the nutrition transition is not solely a top-down process; rather, global forces converge with local practices at multiple levels of the social ecology. The family environment, a key site for the transmission of local customs and norms, remains largely unexplored in India. We examined the extent to which opposite-gender siblings and mother–child pairs were concordant or discordant in body weight, and whether domains of the family environment, specifically, food practices, food-related gender norms, and household resources, were associated with patterns of unhealthy weight within and between families. Multilevel dyadic analysis and logistic regression were conducted using survey data from a representative sample of 400 families in a Southern Indian city. We identified substantial clustering of weight among opposite-gender sibling pairs (ICC = 0.43) and mother–child pairs, as well as important patterns of discordance, including 11% of families experiencing a dual burden of underweight and overweight. Household resources, including mother’s education and income, were salient in explaining the distribution of body weight within and between families. Importantly, less examined domains of the family environment were also relevant, including food practices (e.g., grocery shopping frequency), and food-related gender norms (e.g., mother’s control of food served at home). Continued exploration of how global and local practices converge in households will be necessary to develop programming that effectively addresses India’s dual burden of unhealthy weight.