Supervisor: Jiahua Yue, Assistant Professor of Political Science
Student Researcher
Ruby Qiu is a junior student at Duke Kunshan University, majoring in Institution and Governance with track of Public Policy. Her research interests lie in how policies affect women and children in China and policy theory development in China. In this research, she hopes to understand how understand how different policy attributes will affect citizens’ acceptance of the three-child policy and which demographical and social factors may play an important role.
About the Project
In response to the social and economic problems caused by the “one-child” policy, the Chinese government has been slowly easing family planning restrictions since 2010, including the introduction of a “two-child” policy in 2014 and further relaxation of family size limits in 2021. Despite this major policy shift, citizens have been complaining about current supporting policy, which has largely failed to meet the high costs of raising children. However, Chinese citizens’ criticism of the latest three-child policy is largely banned on social media platforms due to server censorship. But repression does not deprive families and individuals of their reproductive choices. Given China’s ongoing population crisis, it is important to understand how Chinese citizens view the government’s supporting policy for childbirth. Therefore, we examine how different policy attributes will affect citizens’ acceptance and which demographical and social factors may play a moderating role. Using choice-based conjoint analysis, the study uses several policy dimensions to examine how citizens value different policy bundles that aim to boost the childbirth rate. Results show that more house mortgage interest reduction, more coverages of healthcare fees, and longer paternity leave are the top three attractive policy dimensions across different age groups, whereas Chinese citizens shows little interests in Gaokao bonus points and public preschool services.
Poster Presentation
