William Lavely
Biographic Data
| ID | 3879710 |
|---|---|
| NAME | William Lavely |
| GIVEN NAMES | William |
| FAMILY NAME | Lavely |
| SIGNATURE | LAVELY W |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Washington |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 23 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 183 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 22 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1977 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 7 |
Contested Taiwan
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 breast…
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 enumerati
Village Context, Women's Status, and Son Preference Among Rural Chinese Women
This study analyzes the variation in one measure of son preference that is of particular relevance in rural China: whether a woman considers it important to have a son, and the reasons why sons are important. To summarize our conclusions, we find that the expectation that a son will provide financial support in old age is strongly associated with the response that a son is important. This expectation is stronger in low income and mountainous vill…
The Historical Demography of Pre-Modern Japan
Sex preference for children in a Meifu Li community in Hainan, China
Sex preferences for children, and their behavioral manifestations, take form within a complex lattice of social and environmental contexts. Perhaps the most sweeping generalization of social context is the family system, describing a cluster of interrelated family processes. It has been argued, for example, that son preference of the Han Chinese is inherent in the patrilineal joint family system common across much of Asia (Skinner 1997). It would…
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 p…
Revising the Malthusian Narrative
Ever since malthus, it has been conventional to cast the Chinese and European preindustrial demographic systems as opposing archetypes-Europe as a model of demographic restraint, China as demographic profligate. Europe's moderate population growth, fertility control keyed to economic conditions, and favorable living standards are contrasted with China's rapid growth, periodic mortality crises, and precarious balance of population and resources. A…
Rural Economy and Male Marriage in China
This article examines the relationship between economic and socio-demographic variables and male marriage patterns in 144 rural villages of Jurong county, Jiangsu province, China, in 1933. While marriage for females is young and universal, the incidence of male marriage varies greatly across villages, a variability that is consistent with an economic view of marriage. Marriage is associated with farm ownership, land quality and male literacy. The…
Family Division and Mobility in North China
In China there is less inequality in the fortunes than in the conditions of men. Property in land has been divided into very moderate parcels, by the successive distribution of the possessions of every father equally among his sons. It rarely happens that there is but one son to enjoy the whole property of his deceased parents; and from the general prevalence of early marriages, this property is not often increased by collateral succession. These…
Personal Voices
The Origins of the Chinese Fertility Decline
Education and urbanization are shown to have been negatively correlated to marital fertility in both urban and rural China prior to the initiation of the substantial family planning programs. We maintain that early use of contraception by better educated and urban strata is a plausible cause of the observed fertility differentials because other proximate variables are unlikely. Coale’s m, a presumed indicator of controlled fertility, suggests ear…
Famine in China, 1959-61. Demographic and Social Implications
Chinese Demography
As recently as one decade ago, there was no "field" of Chinese demography. There were virtually no demographers of China and little available data. It is fair to say that China was at once the largest and the least known of any human population.The change has been sudden. New sources of data now place China among the better-documented national populations. Publications on Chinese population have boomed. In consequence, we can now speak of a field…
Industrialization and Household Complexity in Rural Taiwan
Industrialization is generally believed to undermine the rural extended family household, but this study of Taiwanese farm households finds the contrary to be true. An analysis of 274 townships in 1960 and 1970 reveals that farm household complexity is positively associated with industrialization as measured by the proportion of the labor force in nonagricultural occupations, both cross-sectionally and over time. The propensity of farm families t…
The Spatial Approach to Chinese History
Commentary| February 01 1989 The Spatial Approach to Chinese History: Illustrations from North China and the Upper Yangzi William Lavely William Lavely William Lavely is Assistant Professor of International Studies and Sociology at the University of Washington. The author would like to express his gratitude for the support of the East-West Population Institute, Honolulu, and the Jackson School of International Studies, University of Washington. D…
Local Area Variations in Reproductive Behaviour in the People's Republic of China, 1973–1982
The very large decline in fertility in the People's Republic of China and the powerful family planning programme associated with it have led to the impression that the phenomenon is uniform across China. This article, based on the One-per-Thousand Fertility Survey of 1982, shows that there is considerable variability among rural production brigades in many aspects of reproductive behaviour in four provinces covering about one-quarter of China's p…
China's One-Child Policy and Gender Equality
In their recent exchange on the potential effects of the one-child policy on gender equality in China Lawrence K. Hong (1987) and Joan D. Mandle (1987) overlook a detrimental effect of the policy. Since the program offers monetary and other rewards to couples with one child and couples that produce a boy are more likely to stop at one girls are put at an economic disadvantage. In the worst case scenario all couples whose first child was a boy wou…
Chinese Demographic Data
Age patterns of chinese marital fertility, 1950–1981
Coale and Trussell’s model of marital fertility is used to analyze data from China’s National One-per-Thousand Fertility Survey. Rural China experienced a regime of natural fertility until 1970, after which levels of fertility control rose with unprecedented speed and with an age pattern starkly dissimilar from that observed in other populations. Urban marital fertility was apparently under a modest level of deliberate control in the 1950s, with …
The rural Chinese fertility transition
Rural China has experienced a rapid fertility decline, but little is known about its causes. This paper reports on the fertility decline in one rural commune of Sichuan Province, based on a sample survey of commune households. Two major events have marked the recent demographic history of the commune and rural China as a whole: the famine of 1959-61, and the fertility translation of the 1970s. The commune experienced a rapid mortality decline in …
Guests in the Dragon. Social Demography of a Chinese District, 1895-1946
Rustication, Demographic Change, and Development in Shanghai
Research Article| May 01 1977 Rustication, Demographic Change, and Development in Shanghai Paul E. Ivory, Paul E. Ivory Search for other works by this author on: This Site PubMed Google Scholar William R. Lavely William R. Lavely Search for other works by this author on: This Site PubMed Google Scholar Far Eastern Survey (1948) 17 (5): 440–455. https://doi.org/10.2307/2643289 Views Icon Views Article contents Figures & tables Video Audio Suppleme…
The Origins of the Chinese Fertility Decline
Education and urbanization are shown to have been negatively correlated to marital fertility in both urban and rural China prior to the initiation of the substantial family planning programs. We maintain that early use of contraception by better educated and urban strata is a plausible cause of the observed fertility differentials because other proximate variables are unlikely. Coale’s m, a presumed indicator of controlled fertility, suggests ear…
Village Context, Women's Status, and Son Preference Among Rural Chinese Women
This study analyzes the variation in one measure of son preference that is of particular relevance in rural China: whether a woman considers it important to have a son, and the reasons why sons are important. To summarize our conclusions, we find that the expectation that a son will provide financial support in old age is strongly associated with the response that a son is important. This expectation is stronger in low income and mountainous vill…
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 p…
Revising the Malthusian Narrative
Ever since malthus, it has been conventional to cast the Chinese and European preindustrial demographic systems as opposing archetypes-Europe as a model of demographic restraint, China as demographic profligate. Europe's moderate population growth, fertility control keyed to economic conditions, and favorable living standards are contrasted with China's rapid growth, periodic mortality crises, and precarious balance of population and resources. A…
Local Area Variations in Reproductive Behaviour in the People's Republic of China, 1973–1982
The very large decline in fertility in the People's Republic of China and the powerful family planning programme associated with it have led to the impression that the phenomenon is uniform across China. This article, based on the One-per-Thousand Fertility Survey of 1982, shows that there is considerable variability among rural production brigades in many aspects of reproductive behaviour in four provinces covering about one-quarter of China's p…
Age patterns of chinese marital fertility, 1950–1981
Coale and Trussell’s model of marital fertility is used to analyze data from China’s National One-per-Thousand Fertility Survey. Rural China experienced a regime of natural fertility until 1970, after which levels of fertility control rose with unprecedented speed and with an age pattern starkly dissimilar from that observed in other populations. Urban marital fertility was apparently under a modest level of deliberate control in the 1950s, with …
Chinese Demography
As recently as one decade ago, there was no "field" of Chinese demography. There were virtually no demographers of China and little available data. It is fair to say that China was at once the largest and the least known of any human population.The change has been sudden. New sources of data now place China among the better-documented national populations. Publications on Chinese population have boomed. In consequence, we can now speak of a field…
Sex preference for children in a Meifu Li community in Hainan, China
Sex preferences for children, and their behavioral manifestations, take form within a complex lattice of social and environmental contexts. Perhaps the most sweeping generalization of social context is the family system, describing a cluster of interrelated family processes. It has been argued, for example, that son preference of the Han Chinese is inherent in the patrilineal joint family system common across much of Asia (Skinner 1997). It would…
Rural Economy and Male Marriage in China
This article examines the relationship between economic and socio-demographic variables and male marriage patterns in 144 rural villages of Jurong county, Jiangsu province, China, in 1933. While marriage for females is young and universal, the incidence of male marriage varies greatly across villages, a variability that is consistent with an economic view of marriage. Marriage is associated with farm ownership, land quality and male literacy. The…
Family Division and Mobility in North China
In China there is less inequality in the fortunes than in the conditions of men. Property in land has been divided into very moderate parcels, by the successive distribution of the possessions of every father equally among his sons. It rarely happens that there is but one son to enjoy the whole property of his deceased parents; and from the general prevalence of early marriages, this property is not often increased by collateral succession. These…
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 breast…
The rural Chinese fertility transition
Rural China has experienced a rapid fertility decline, but little is known about its causes. This paper reports on the fertility decline in one rural commune of Sichuan Province, based on a sample survey of commune households. Two major events have marked the recent demographic history of the commune and rural China as a whole: the famine of 1959-61, and the fertility translation of the 1970s. The commune experienced a rapid mortality decline in …
The Spatial Approach to Chinese History
Commentary| February 01 1989 The Spatial Approach to Chinese History: Illustrations from North China and the Upper Yangzi William Lavely William Lavely William Lavely is Assistant Professor of International Studies and Sociology at the University of Washington. The author would like to express his gratitude for the support of the East-West Population Institute, Honolulu, and the Jackson School of International Studies, University of Washington. D…
Rustication, Demographic Change, and Development in Shanghai
Research Article| May 01 1977 Rustication, Demographic Change, and Development in Shanghai Paul E. Ivory, Paul E. Ivory Search for other works by this author on: This Site PubMed Google Scholar William R. Lavely William R. Lavely Search for other works by this author on: This Site PubMed Google Scholar Far Eastern Survey (1948) 17 (5): 440–455. https://doi.org/10.2307/2643289 Views Icon Views Article contents Figures & tables Video Audio Suppleme…
Rustication, Demographic Change, and Development in Shanghai
Research Article| May 01 1977 Rustication, Demographic Change, and Development in Shanghai Paul E. Ivory, Paul E. Ivory Search for other works by this author on: This Site PubMed Google Scholar William R. Lavely William R. Lavely Search for other works by this author on: This Site PubMed Google Scholar Far Eastern Survey (1948) 17 (5): 440–455. https://doi.org/10.2307/2643289 Views Icon Views Article contents Figures & tables Video Audio Suppleme…
Guests in the Dragon. Social Demography of a Chinese District, 1895-1946
The rural Chinese fertility transition
Rural China has experienced a rapid fertility decline, but little is known about its causes. This paper reports on the fertility decline in one rural commune of Sichuan Province, based on a sample survey of commune households. Two major events have marked the recent demographic history of the commune and rural China as a whole: the famine of 1959-61, and the fertility translation of the 1970s. The commune experienced a rapid mortality decline in …
Age patterns of chinese marital fertility, 1950–1981
Coale and Trussell’s model of marital fertility is used to analyze data from China’s National One-per-Thousand Fertility Survey. Rural China experienced a regime of natural fertility until 1970, after which levels of fertility control rose with unprecedented speed and with an age pattern starkly dissimilar from that observed in other populations. Urban marital fertility was apparently under a modest level of deliberate control in the 1950s, with …
Chinese Demographic Data
Local Area Variations in Reproductive Behaviour in the People's Republic of China, 1973–1982
The very large decline in fertility in the People's Republic of China and the powerful family planning programme associated with it have led to the impression that the phenomenon is uniform across China. This article, based on the One-per-Thousand Fertility Survey of 1982, shows that there is considerable variability among rural production brigades in many aspects of reproductive behaviour in four provinces covering about one-quarter of China's p…
China's One-Child Policy and Gender Equality
In their recent exchange on the potential effects of the one-child policy on gender equality in China Lawrence K. Hong (1987) and Joan D. Mandle (1987) overlook a detrimental effect of the policy. Since the program offers monetary and other rewards to couples with one child and couples that produce a boy are more likely to stop at one girls are put at an economic disadvantage. In the worst case scenario all couples whose first child was a boy wou…
The Spatial Approach to Chinese History
Commentary| February 01 1989 The Spatial Approach to Chinese History: Illustrations from North China and the Upper Yangzi William Lavely William Lavely William Lavely is Assistant Professor of International Studies and Sociology at the University of Washington. The author would like to express his gratitude for the support of the East-West Population Institute, Honolulu, and the Jackson School of International Studies, University of Washington. D…
Personal Voices
The Origins of the Chinese Fertility Decline
Education and urbanization are shown to have been negatively correlated to marital fertility in both urban and rural China prior to the initiation of the substantial family planning programs. We maintain that early use of contraception by better educated and urban strata is a plausible cause of the observed fertility differentials because other proximate variables are unlikely. Coale’s m, a presumed indicator of controlled fertility, suggests ear…
Famine in China, 1959-61. Demographic and Social Implications
Chinese Demography
As recently as one decade ago, there was no "field" of Chinese demography. There were virtually no demographers of China and little available data. It is fair to say that China was at once the largest and the least known of any human population.The change has been sudden. New sources of data now place China among the better-documented national populations. Publications on Chinese population have boomed. In consequence, we can now speak of a field…
Industrialization and Household Complexity in Rural Taiwan
Industrialization is generally believed to undermine the rural extended family household, but this study of Taiwanese farm households finds the contrary to be true. An analysis of 274 townships in 1960 and 1970 reveals that farm household complexity is positively associated with industrialization as measured by the proportion of the labor force in nonagricultural occupations, both cross-sectionally and over time. The propensity of farm families t…
Family Division and Mobility in North China
In China there is less inequality in the fortunes than in the conditions of men. Property in land has been divided into very moderate parcels, by the successive distribution of the possessions of every father equally among his sons. It rarely happens that there is but one son to enjoy the whole property of his deceased parents; and from the general prevalence of early marriages, this property is not often increased by collateral succession. These…
Rural Economy and Male Marriage in China
This article examines the relationship between economic and socio-demographic variables and male marriage patterns in 144 rural villages of Jurong county, Jiangsu province, China, in 1933. While marriage for females is young and universal, the incidence of male marriage varies greatly across villages, a variability that is consistent with an economic view of marriage. Marriage is associated with farm ownership, land quality and male literacy. The…
Revising the Malthusian Narrative
Ever since malthus, it has been conventional to cast the Chinese and European preindustrial demographic systems as opposing archetypes-Europe as a model of demographic restraint, China as demographic profligate. Europe's moderate population growth, fertility control keyed to economic conditions, and favorable living standards are contrasted with China's rapid growth, periodic mortality crises, and precarious balance of population and resources. A…
Sex preference for children in a Meifu Li community in Hainan, China
Sex preferences for children, and their behavioral manifestations, take form within a complex lattice of social and environmental contexts. Perhaps the most sweeping generalization of social context is the family system, describing a cluster of interrelated family processes. It has been argued, for example, that son preference of the Han Chinese is inherent in the patrilineal joint family system common across much of Asia (Skinner 1997). It would…
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 p…
The Historical Demography of Pre-Modern Japan
Village Context, Women's Status, and Son Preference Among Rural Chinese Women
This study analyzes the variation in one measure of son preference that is of particular relevance in rural China: whether a woman considers it important to have a son, and the reasons why sons are important. To summarize our conclusions, we find that the expectation that a son will provide financial support in old age is strongly associated with the response that a son is important. This expectation is stronger in low income and mountainous vill…
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 enumerati
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 breast…
Contested Taiwan
Sociology (20 works) · Demography (18 works) · Geography (18 works) · China (16 works) · Demographic Trends and Gender Preferences (15 works) · Population (15 works) · Economics (14 works) · Political science (10 works) · Socioeconomics (10 works) · History (9 works)