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"Mainland China and Taiwan have both successfully undergone remarkable transitions from high to low fertility in recent decades. Comparing the transitions of the two Chinese populations brings out striking similarities in the changes in age patterns of fertility, but distinctive contrasts between the trends and speed of declines.... An overview of the history of population dynamics in the past 500 years reaffirms the assertion that fertility and mortality rates in ancient China were primarily reflections of biological responses to population pressure on resources. The results of the regression analysis of this study demonstrates that this density-dependent relationship has gradually vanished as the deliberate control of fertility prevails in contemporary China and Taiwan. The prevalence of fertility control is in large part attributable in Taiwan to the rational response of the population to changes in economic and social conditions that favor fewer children while the size of families in China is largely prescribed by the government there." (SUMMARY IN ENG), (excerpt)

"The purpose of the paper is to examine the nature and the structure of elderly women's dependency [in Taiwan] and the underlying socio-cultural-political forces. From the social constructive perspective, we focused on three constructive forces--the Chinese patriarchal/patrilocal family system, the gender role, and the state policy on elderly welfare. Three types of dependency--economic dependency, dependency for personal and health care, and living arrangement--were examined." (SUMMARY IN ENG), (excerpt)

"In this paper we employ family status life tables to assess the effects of demographic processes on family composition and to reveal trends in elderly living arrangements [in Taiwan]. We found that further declining fertility and changing nuptiality are responsible for the prevalence of nuclear family composition. [The] increasing proportion of nuclear families indicates a decreasing probability [of] elderly parents living with their married children. In addition, according to the current nuptiality trends, the increasing proportion of women of all ages who remain [unmarried] will strengthen its effects on family composition in the near future." (SUMMARY IN ENG), (excerpt)

The quality of children has mostly been discussed in so far as it can affect fertility. The sex of children is a particularly important subject in this context. Because a child's sex is stochastically determined, Ben-Porath and Welch used the household production approach to identify risky decision points. The purpose of this paper is twofold. One is to simplify Ben-Porath's and Welch's model. The other is to use KAP data in Taiwan to examine the causes of preferring to have at least 1 boy and to test in what direction and the degree to which such preferences affect fertility. The results can be summarized as follows: 1) preferring to have at least 1 boy is significant in Taiwan; 2) the data support both the assumption of inelastic demand and mild learning; 3) concerning the dummy variable for the existence of at least 1 boy preference, it can be shown that the regression coefficients for each of family structure, wife's education, and husband's occupation were statistically significant at the .01 significance level; and 4) when the impact of "at least 1 boy preference" on completed family size is concerned, the regression coefficient for the existence of at least 1 boy preference is positive as expected and also the most significant variable included.