In rapidly industrializing countries, demographic changes continue to have significant effects on the well-being of individuals and families, and as aggregate human and financial capital. These effects may be analyzed in terms of inter-generational transfers of time, money, goods, and services. The chapters in this volume greatly develop our understanding of the nature and measurement of transfers, their motives and mechanisms, and their macro-level dimensions, especially in the context of demographic transitions. The chapters include original empirical analyses of datasets from some twenty countries taking the reader beyond the American context in order to test the applicability of some of the theories developed on the basis of American data. They extend the traditional analysis of inter-generational transfers by examining different types of transfers, namely goods, money, assets, time, co-residence and visits.

This book provides the reader with a comprehensive introduction to the distinguishing features of Chinese families. This first full scale study seeks to understand Chinese families within the Chinese social context and draws comparisons with existing western theories and models of the family. It also explores the connection between two Chinese societies across the Taiwan Strait and investigates if the unique features of Chinese families can be applied to broaden the scope of family analysis in general. This book covers ten core areas, including co-residence, marriage, fertility, education, mobility, gender preferences, family supports, filial feedbacks, housework allocation, and the dynamics of family norm changes.
The book uses theory-based empirical studies with data collected from a unique panel survey conducted in various areas across the Taiwan Strait, namely Taiwan and Southeast China. The two focal points of the study are geographically close, ethnically homogeneous, and are open to the modern market economy. A comprehensive analysis of these two areas provides new insights into the similarities and differences of Chinese families, to what extent they are distinct from Western ones, and how these similarities and differences were formed. The uniquely complex nature of intra-family interactions in Chinese families and the rapidly changing social background against which these interactions occur make this a hugely fascinating topic.

Population Dynamics fills the gap between the classical supply-side population theory of Malthus and the modern demand-side theory of economic demography. In doing so, author Cyrus Chu investigates specifically the dynamic macro implications of various static micro family economic decisions. Holding the characteristic composition of the macro population to always be an aggregate result of some corresponding individual micro decision, Chu extends his research on the fertility-related decisions of families to an analysis of other economic determinations. Within this framework, Chu studies the income distribution, attitude composition, job structure, and aggregate savings and pensions of the population. While in some cases a micro-macro connection is easily established under regular behavioral assumptions, in several chapters Chu enlists the mathematical tool of branching processes to determine the connection. Offering a wealth of detail, this book provides a balanced discussion of background motivation, theoretical characterization, and empirical evidence in an effort to bring about a renewal in the economic approach to population dynamics.
This welcome addition to the research and theory of economic demography will interest professional economists as well as professors and graduate students of economics.

In the 21st century, the populations of the worlda (TM)s nations will display large and long-lived changes in age structure. Demography will matter in this century not by force of numbers, but by the pressures of waves of age structural change.

In rapidly industrializing countries, demographic changes continue to have significant effects on the well-being of individuals and families, and as aggregate human and financial capital. These effects may be analyzed in terms of inter-generational transfers of time, money, goods, and services. The chapters in this volume greatly develop our understanding of the nature and measurement of transfers, their motives and mechanisms, and their macro-level dimensions, especially in the context of demographic transitions.

The chapters include original empirical analyses of datasets from some twenty countries taking the reader beyond the American context in order to test the applicability of some of the theories developed on the basis of American data. They extend the traditional analysis of inter-generational transfers by examining different types of transfers, namely goods, money, assets, time, co-residence and visits. Furthermore, the chapters go beyond the study of traditional parent a" child transfers to examine transfers to kins and the bi-directionality of transfers.