Age Versus Socialization in Understanding Attitudes Toward Economic Reforms in China

Robert Harmel, Yao‐Yuan Yeh and Xinsheng Liu

Social Science Quarterly, 2019, vol. 100, issue 5, 1755-1767

Abstract: Objective The objective of this research is to address the roles of age and socialization in explanation for attitudes toward economic reforms in China. Method Using data from the China Survey 2008 and the China Governance and Policy Survey of 2016, this note reports age/cohort‐related differences in both abstract and concrete attitudes toward economic reforms, and addresses two competing (or complementary) explanations for those differences, one attributing differences to life cycle and the other attributing differences to the different environments within which Chinese adults were socialized. Results While socialization/generation explanations seem to apply for the more abstract “market reform would bring chaos” attitudes, an age/life‐cycle explanation alone seems sufficient to explain attitudes toward the more concrete subject of “privatization.” Conclusion Consistent with our literature‐based theoretical expectations, “life cycle” tends to explain more concrete attitudes while “socialization”—in early and/or lifelong forms—is a more potent explanation for abstract attitudes.

Date: 2019
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://doi.org/10.1111/ssqu.12681

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bla:socsci:v:100:y:2019:i:5:p:1755-1767

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.blackwell ... bs.asp?ref=0038-4941

Access Statistics for this article

Social Science Quarterly is currently edited by Robert L. Lineberry

More articles in Social Science Quarterly from Southwestern Social Science Association
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Wiley Content Delivery ().