An evaluation of the one percent clustered sample of the 1990 Census of China

We describe and evaluate a one percent clustered sample of the 1990 Census of China, the largest publicly-available micro sample of any Chinese census, using direct inspection as well as comparisons with published data drawn from the complete enumeration. In the absence of official documentation, we elucidate the basis of the clustering; detect duplicate cases; report corrected totals; and make comparisons between the sample data and tabulations based on the complete enumeration at the province and county levels. Although the sample contains several anomalies, we conclude that it is broadly serviceable.1990 Census, China, evaluation, sample data

Migrant remittances and the web of family obligations: Ongoing support among spatially extended kin in North-east Thailand, 1984–94

Exchanges of money, goods, and assistance among family/kin members are influenced by the intertwined lives of individuals and their family/kin. As people pass through the young adulthood years, acquiring obligations as spouses and parents, and migrating in search of economic opportunities, tensions can arise over existing obligations. Using rich longitudinal data from Northeast Thailand, we examined the role of family networks (origin and destination) on migrants’ exchanges with family/kin. Our approach overcame many shortcomings of earlier studies, allowing us to 'see' the family social network arrayed in a broader network. We show that intra-family exchanges are influenced by marital status, the presence of children, having parents in the origin household, and having siblings depart from it. The results are stable across sensitivity tests that systematically include or exclude various familial links. And reports provided by origin households on migrant remittances are consistent with reports from migrants themselves

First Impressions from the 2000 Census of China

The 2000 census of China has several notable innovations, including a sample long form containing detailed items on migration, housing, and employment. Preliminary data indicate rapid urbanization and continued rapid social change in the 1990s, and apparent success in the government's drive to curtail population growth. Although a post-enumeration survey indicates that overall data quality is good, the rise of a mobile "floating population" and pressures of the birth planning program caused problems for the enumeration of migrants and infants. Data released to date have been silent on two important issues, fertility and rising sex ratios. Copyright 2001 by The Population Council, Inc..

Sex, Breastfeeding, and Marital Fertility in Pretransition China

Coital frequency is at the heart of the debate over low marital fertility in pretransition China. This study argues that coital frequency in contemporary China is indicative of sexual behavior in an earlier era. Frequency of intercourse is low in China relative to Europe, a natural outgrowth of a traditional family system and related sexual culture only partially transformed by a century of family revolution. Customary sexual behaviors and breastfeeding practices together shaped the Chinese historical fertility regime as they did the European. As explanations for China's low marital fertility, these proximate determinants leave little scope for the operation of fecundity-reducing malnutrition on the one hand, or deliberate fertility control on the other. The fertility regimes of other pretransition agrarian societies more closely resemble China's than Europe's, seeming to confirm a pattern of European demographic exceptionalism. Copyright 2007 The Population Council, Inc..

Industrialization and Household Structure in Rural Taiwan.

This is a study of the ecological correlates of household structure in rural Taiwan in the past two decades. It examines the pathways by which industrial employment and other socioeconomic variables are related to household composition and the structure of relations within the household. Using agricultural census data on 234 urban and rural townships, an analysis of farm household complexity is performed. Contrary to theories linking industrialization to simpler household forms, local and regional industrial opportunities are found to be positively related to household complexity. Hypotheses linking property and inheritance to the extended family find support. The results are consistent with hypotheses which view household formation as responding to the availability of resources, and which view aggregate household structure as reflecting the changing socioeconomic composition of areas. These questions are explored further in an analysis of 2026 rural households from a recent all-isl and survey. Intermediate variables linking industrialization to household structure are examined, including kin availability, migrant status, ethnicity, and rates of property division. Industry's relation to household structure is found to differ within socioeconomic categories as well as between them. Local industry is found to be associated with greater extension of farm households and of non-farm households not resident on farms, both directly and by way of lower rates of property division. A small subsample of households in three rural townships representing different levels of rural industrialization is used to analyse the correlates of economic unity and authority relations in extended households. Non-farm employment is associated with greater economic autonomy and authority in economic matters for conjugal units in extended farm households. The findings are consistent with recent anthropological studies of rural Taiwan which show rural industrialization to be associated with more complex households characterized by looser economic ties between constituent conjugal units.Ph.D.DemographyUniversity of Michiganhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/159033/1/8224992.pd

An Evaluation of the One Percent Clustered Sample of the 1990 Census of China

No official public use micro-sample of the 1990 Chinese census has yet been released. There are, however, two extant micro-samples of the census that have circulated within China and abroad. The first, in order of creation, is a one percent sample of administrative villages. The second is a one percent sample of households. We refer to the former, the subject of this article, as the "one percent clustered sample," and refer to the latter as the "one percent household sample." The State Statistical Bureau of China has provided the one percent household sample to several researchers, but to our knowledge has never released the corresponding mortality data. Provision of the one percent clustered sample has been on an informal basis, generally without mortality data. We obtained the clustered sample and the corresponding mortality data separately, from sources that prefer to remain anonymous