title: China's below-replacement fertility: government policy or socioeconomic development?
abstract: The article challenges the notion that below-replacement fertility and its local variation in China are primarily attributable to the government's birth planning policy. Data from the 2000 census and provincial statistical yearbooks are used to compare fertility in Jiangsu and Zhejiang, two of the most developed provinces in China, to examine the relationship between socioeconomic development and low fertility. The article demonstrates that although low fertility in China was achieved under the government's restrictive one-child policy, structural changes brought about by socioeconomic development and ideational shifts accompanying the new wave of globalization played a key role in China's fertility reduction.
authors.affiliation: University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.
authors.forename: Yong
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Cai
mesh_terms: D001723:Birth Rate / Q000208:ethnology; D019352:Censuses / Q000266:history; D002681:China / Q000208:ethnology; D005191:Family Characteristics / Q000208:ethnology / Q000266:history; D005192:Family Health / Q000208:ethnology; D016656:Family Planning Policy / Q000191:economics / Q000266:history / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D005298:Fertility; D006078:Government Programs / Q000191:economics / Q000193:education / Q000266:history / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D049673:History, 20th Century; D049674:History, 21st Century; D011156:Population Density; D012922:Social Change / Q000266:history; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors / Q000266:history; D013223:Statistics as Topic / Q000191:economics / Q000193:education / Q000266:history / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence