科学研究

Yi CHEN works at the School of Entrepreneurship and Management, Shanghai Tech University as an associate professor. His main research fields include labor economics, population economics, economy of development, particularly covering topics on human capital, fertility, gender gap etc. He serves as the associate editor of Journal of Population Economics. His publications appeared in internationally established journals such as American Economic Review, Journal of Development Economics, International Economic Review, Journal of Comparative Economics, Economic Development and Cultural Change.

In many scenarios, traditional culture is an obstacle to implementing new policies. I study whether the existence of culture breakers, who inherently hold different values and may alter local norms, can facilitate policy implementation. China’s experience in promoting later marriage in rural areas in the 1970s provides unique insights into this question. Starting from the early 1970s, the Chinese government initiated a policy called “later, long, fewer,” where “later” refers to later marriage. However, the policy was against a traditional preference for early marriage and more children. Coincidently, there were a group of special people residing in rural villages at that time---the sent-down youths (SDYs). From 1968 to 1977, about 16 million SDYs were mandated to relocate from urban cities to rural villages. SDYs generally got married late for historical reasons and held more developed gender norms. Therefore, they became natural role models for later marriage and “breakers” to traditional rural culture. I found women in rural counties that received more SDYs were more responsive to the “later, longer, fewer” campaign. They were also more likely to support gender equity and independence from traditional families. My findings contribute to the understanding of policy effectiveness.