Institutional, social, and household determinants of reproduction in Northeast China, 1789-1906

This study examined the effects of institutional, social, and household contexts on reproductive outcomes in rural east Liaoning (Liaodong) and Shuangcheng in northeast China from the late 18^th to the early 20^th century. This study used the China Multi-Generational Panel Dataset for Liaoning and Shuangcheng (CMGPD-LN and CMGPD-SC), which was constructed based on the household registers of residents of Liaodong and Shuangcheng between 1749 and 1913. The subjects of the study, who were mostly farmers, had an institutional affiliation with the Eight Banners. In Liaodong, they were categorized according to their economic obligations, and in Shuangcheng, they were categorized according to their entitlements. Overall, the differences in institutional backgrounds, entitlements, and duties meant that Shuangcheng bannermen had more surviving sons and higher marital fertility rates and total fertility rates than those from Liaodong. A further discrete-time event-history analysis of marital fertility, total fertility, and the number of surviving sons by age 45 showed that official employment played a crucial role in Liaodong, whereas the within-household hierarchy was of great significance in Shuangcheng. Within Liaodong and Shuangcheng, bannermen with distinct institutional affiliations had different fertility rates and reproductive responses to official employment and within-household hierarchy. Differences in reproduction persisted even after accounting for differences in access to marriage and survivorship of births. Institutions, characterized by membership of an institutional category and local policies that created inequality between categories, were found to play a more important role in reproduction than inter- and intra-household inequalities, as institutional differences impacted patterns of reproduction.