THESIS
2013
iv leaves, v-viii, 80 pages : illustrations ; 30 cm
Abstract
Through the use of micro-censuses from various years and nationally representative survey
data, this thesis systematically explores the importance of institutional changes (the political
movements and economic reform) on five decades of educational assortative mating in
Communist China. Based on marriages constructed from either birth or marriage cohorts, we
are able to detect those massive political upheavals from 1950s to 1970s generally decrease
the strength of educational homogamy while increase the propensity of hypogamy. However,
since the change over time is linear within the entire period, we do not detect any significant
disruptions to reflect episodic shocks attributable to the sent-down movement and the Cultural
Revolution.
Additional analyses based on the Chinese Ho...[
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Through the use of micro-censuses from various years and nationally representative survey
data, this thesis systematically explores the importance of institutional changes (the political
movements and economic reform) on five decades of educational assortative mating in
Communist China. Based on marriages constructed from either birth or marriage cohorts, we
are able to detect those massive political upheavals from 1950s to 1970s generally decrease
the strength of educational homogamy while increase the propensity of hypogamy. However,
since the change over time is linear within the entire period, we do not detect any significant
disruptions to reflect episodic shocks attributable to the sent-down movement and the Cultural
Revolution.
Additional analyses based on the Chinese Household Income Project (CHIP) further
allow us to distinguish marriages based on their sent-down experiences or the lack thereof. In
particular, we find that college or university-educated women who had experienced sent-down
are most likely to be affected by their experience in mate selection. In particular, they
are more likely to marry down rather than marry alike. On the other hand, economic reform
since the 1980s increases educational homogamy dramatically, though the rate appears to be
more stable since 1990s. It seems to confirm the social closure hypothesis in the literature. In
sum, we conclude that while political upheavals did not result in any dramatic break in
assortative mating, educational expansion and market reform since the early 1980s have
paradoxically reduce its openness instead.
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