Dr. Xinsheng Liu of ISTPP recently published the paper “Age Versus Socialization in Understanding Attitudes toward Economic Reforms in China” in Social Sciences Quarterly. Dr. Liu coauthored the paper with Dr. Robert Harmel of Texas A&M University and Dr. Yao-Yuan Yeh of the University of St. Thomas.
In this paper, the authors used data from both the 2008 China Survey and the 2016 China Governance and Public Policy Survey to address two competing explanations—life cycle versus early socialization—for potential differences in Chinese citizens’ attitudes toward economic reform in China. Results suggest that life cycle and socialization are both correlates of attitudes toward economic reform in China, with the former being more associated with concrete attitudes and the latter being more associated with abstract attitudes. The authors conclude by predicting that support for continued market reform will strengthen as time goes on and suggesting that opposition to privatization can be potentially reduced by policies that mitigate elder Chinese citizens’ reliance on the government for financial security.
Harmel, Robert, Yao-Yuan Yeh, and Xinsheng Liu. 2019. “Age Versus Socialization in Understanding Attitudes toward Economic Reforms in China.” Social Sciences Quarterly 100 (5): 1755-1767. DOI: 10.1111/ssqu.12681
