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How do we know whether there are cultural norms, what they are, and how they affect family patterns? Family historians often rely on popular literature, essays, and diaries to reveal long-term changes in family values. Another approach is to evaluate the effects of economic or demographic forces on family and to appeal to culture or changes in attitudes to explain historical trends that cannot be attributed to those factors. Survey researchers potentially could introduce measures of attitudes into their analyses. For instance, the Comparative Study of Elderly in Asia project organized focus groups with elderly parents and middle-aged children in four countries to probe their expectations and experiences with coresidence (summarized by Milagros et al. 1995). More typical in research on the East Asian family is the approach taken by Logan, Bian, and Bian (1998). They identify some practical circumstances that promote new family traditions as well as some patterns that seem consistent with traditional attitudes as described by Levy, such as patrilocal residence by married children.
China is an ideal case for the study of change and transformation due to its experience of rapid industrialization. Within four decades, China was transformed from a trading hub end to an industrialized economy based on mass production of different products. The China state's prescriptions for the family have always been rather straightforward and simple, corresponding closely with economic imperatives. However, quickly-implemented shifts in the nature of the country's economic development have meant that family policies have likewise experienced abrupt turnarounds.
As China embarked on its development into a rational industrial society, childbearing couples were advised that "Two is (more than) enough." Aligned to this policy of small families were affiliated policies governing access to public housing. Education policies were also calibrated to meet family imperatives. The country's state-led industrialization was based primarily on cheap labour.
By way of contrast, as acute labour shortages and corresponding spiraling costs began to hinder growth, selected groups-especially the educated-were urged to have larger families. An array of tax incentives was established, not dissimilar to those designed to attract foreign investments, to encourage an increase in reproductive rates amongst those with higher incomes. These economic-driven changes in family policy produced concomitant changes in labour force and education profiles by gender. The female labour participation rate rose (Unger, 2003, p.76)
Levy (1949), an early family sociologist, saw signs of a process of social change in which cultural values and material conditions would evolve together, creating what he considered a more modern family pattern. Levy described the traditional family as a unit with strong partriarchal authority and patrilineal descent, in which "one of the sons marries and continues to live with the parents, while the other sons and daughters marry and go out of the family unit" (55-56). Urbanization and industrialization, he believed, would result in rising living standards and employment of women outside the home. Hence sons and daughters would tend to have more similar roles, and daughters would be granted greater autonomy and respect. Individualism would result in according more weight to children's' needs as individuals, and less to respect to parents, as the basis of intergenerational relations. The implications of these cultural and material changes for coresidence were clear to Levy: it would decline in frequency, especially for married children; it would lose its strong preference for living with sons; and it would grow more responsive to adult children's needs (rather than parents' desires).
Because current family patterns in China still resemble those of the time when Levy was writing, half a century ago, contemporary researchers suggest that traditional norms have proved unexpectedly resilient and adaptable to new conditions (Whyte,1973, p.184). Davis-Friedman (1991) has suggested that "filial behavior served the state as well as the individual, and past and present definitions of family obligations effectively merged. . . . In the context of socialist ideology and the reality of persistent scarcities, traditional ideals supportive of intergenerational solidarity survived, and were reproduced in succeeding generations" (128-29). Referring to the role of parents in marriage decisions, Riley (1994) similarly reasons that "there are both cultural and structural reasons for the continuing involvement of parents" (802). Riley, like Davis-Friedman, argues that "the combination of strong family norms and particular aspects of a socialist economy has actually served to strengthen intrafamilial ties" (791).
Economic conditions have only served to subvert citizens' cognitive autonomy and their capacity to rethink a new paradigm to cope with the impact of economic transformations on social reproduction (Goode, 1970, p.35).
Preliminary research indicates that Chinese families today are just as enamored of love, intimacy, and the family as are their wage-worker counterparts of the industrialized West (on the latter see Beck and Beck-Gernsheim 1995, Blankenhorn 1990, and Hareven 1996: 20). A survey of 22-year-old young Chinese adults shows that 90 per cent are desirous of marriage and having children (Straits Times 2000: 1). In the world of love (in contrast to the crass world of commerce and selfish interests), one can seek a small Utopia where there is sharing, cooperation and passion. In order to study the issue of changing family values we interviewed young Chinese man Ted who comes from middle-class family in Pekin, China. Ted told us about three-generations of his family. Therefore, comparing the evidence obtained from the interview with Ted to recent findings about social context in China we can conclude that family values in China did not change significantly but to some extent.
Straddling economic imperatives, state prescriptions, and popular romantic ideals propagated by the culture industry, this study reveals families in the process of knitting together their own family mosaics. Whether these daily activities can ultimately bring happiness to family members, however, is an issue that remains indeterminate.
Common elements that describe "the family" that are found across classes, cultures, and genders in China include the "family as basic social unit" carrying connotations of "stability", "mutual support", "haven" and "warmth" (Pan&Naigu, 2003, p.12). In response to the question of "what is the family," For Sue, a 49-year-old Chinese mother and Ted’s aunt, the concept of family elicited associations of "the ideal of mutual affection and support, spending time together, consideration, personal sacrifices and care, and a husband taking responsibility for the wellbeing of the family."
In China state legitimation is fundamental to the definition of the appropriate family form. For instance, co-habitation is still frowned upon and mentioned only in hushed tones. Couples will normally be coy and not openly admit to their co-habitation (Sheng, 1991, p.45). Ted’s brother had an indelible stigma due to his parents' divorce and his mum having a "live-in" boyfriend. He could only use the word "step-father" hesitatingly, when the word "uncle" did not suffice to convey his meaning. As single parent, Sue, Ted’s aunt, had to work conscientiously to compensate her children because her act of divorce had burdened them with the label of "abnormality" and "strangeness." Mandy, Ted’s 20-year old sister, had and affair with a married colleague and that case simultaneously ostracized her and left her exposed to verbal abuse by colleagues. One of her colleagues made remarks such as "slut" fill her with guilt and shame. While buying into the new concept of romance associated with pleasure and hedonistic consumption touted by cultural tastemakers, Mandy could not escape the old concept of romance that closely ties in to morality, domesticity and marriage. For Mandy, the concept of marriage comprises passion, romance and love, in no uncertain terms. Her romance with her partner was all-consuming. But alas, their romance was marred by the fact that their union was not recognized by the public.
The dominant ideal of the family in China also portrays a similar bias towards the primacy of blood bonds and the predominance of blood ties as the basis of family formation (March and Miall 2000; Glenn 1991; Claxton-Oldfield 2000). Our investigation reveals that in case of remarriage involving older children, the tendency was for mutual rejection between step-parents and their step-children. For instance, Chin, 18-year-old Ted’s cousin, rejected outright her mother's current live-in boyfriend, even though the latter had spent years trying to nurture her. Chin was uncomfortable as she struggled with feelings of dislike and alienation, all because her mother's boyfriend was not her own biological father.
Additionally, for the traditional Chinese, a male child is a normal requirement for family stability and continuity. 48-year-old Kim, Ted’s aunt, felt guilty and ashamed for not producing an heir for her husband. She continued having children in the hope of landing a son and thus erasing her guilt over failing to fulfill her promised role of mother and wife. For most Chinese, sons serve as keepers of family altars. They also perform the funeral rituals when their parents pass away. Such is the strength of ideology that even when it is revealed that males have a biological role in the determination of the sex of the child, most women continue to feel guilty if they do not produce a male child (Geertz, 2001, p.56).
However, depending on the status and role of Ted’s family members, parts of the cultural ideal of the family actually differ in emphasis for various persons. For working class women like Sue, topmost in their mind is the hope that they can stop work when they marry and have a family. On the other hand, graduate educated women like Melissa, Ted’s sister, dream of fulfilling their desire of a high-powered career. Having to give up a job to care for husband and child would represent a sacrifice. For the educated confident woman, the ideal of a family was one where her husband's salary could support paid domestic help to free her from the chores of domesticity
For a man, family is a comfort zone made possible by a non-working wife. 54-year old Ted’s uncle, a textile shop-owner, believes that a wife's job is to take care of husband’s needs and she should also be the one doing all the housework.
Older men see themselves as authoritarian heads of dependent broods, including the wife and children. The state's open acknowledgement that authoritarianism and "strong leadership" are good for the country (Tremewan, 1994, p.56) perhaps encourages men to openly tout their authoritarianism as a macho trait of which they should be proud.
Comparing Ted’s responses about three generations of his family allows for the observation of behavior transformation over the family life cycle. While first-generation women are absolutely identified with the family and have no concept whatsoever of the self, those of the second generation display an emerging self-concept that asserts itself only when faced with extreme suffering. Young women of the third generation, however, can build on experiences of previous generations and have benefited from universally available educational opportunities and globalization of local cultures. They therefore have more options for modeling their selfhood and family life. Divorce for this generation is still stigmatized but is an option because women are educated enough to take advantage of the tight labour market.
The case of Tedd’s grandmother Wong, aged 80, shows the values of the first-generation women. Her marriage to a gambler proved to be a disaster, but she continued in the marriage to avoid the social censure of being labeled "unclean" and "polluted". Also, as a wife, she had to "follow whomever you marry". Slogging hard as maid and dishwasher she tried supporting six children, but soon had to give two of them away, a boy and a girl. Despite such sufferings, she hung on to the belief that a "woman's place is always in the family." She could not understand how "modern women can prioritize their careers at the expense of neglecting their children." She views her mistake as one of not choosing the right man for a husband. But ultimately, Grandma Wong believes a working-class woman has to "bow down to life" and be filial, not only to her own parents but also to her mother-in-law.
Grandma Wong's daughter, Li, now 54, continued with the traditional sacrificial role destined for poor uneducated older daughters. She was a substitute mother for her siblings even after her marriage, when she worked at home as a baby sitter. However, hers is a vision of an expanded role for women as good wife, daughter, and filial daughter-in-law. She sees women carrying a heavy load that also includes bringing in food into the home. This is evident in her own role of supporting her taxi driver husband's meager income with some sewing and child-care.
In contrast, daughter Amy, who has a tertiary education and is in her thirties, has chosen to remain single. She ignores the advice and pressures from relatives and friends. She believes that "women have the right to pursue their ideal lifestyle," and categorically rejects the role played by her own mother and grandmother. Amy does not see herself as a "sacrificing wife and daughter-in-law who does everything for the family." Additionally, having witnessed the sacrifices of friends and colleagues who have all given up their dreams of career and fun, she did not want to go their way.
Easy access to education and a tight labor market for female labor appear to be the chief driving forces shaping change in family ideology (Jamieson, 1998, p.44). These conditions have successfully impressed upon women a certain level of confidence which has led to their pioneering new flexible roles for themselves, their spouses, and their children.
Our comparisons across three-generation families that were based upon the interview with Ted reveal the intricacies involved when families "do their own thing," that is, accept, accommodate, or reject old ideologies. While our interview disclosed grandparents clinging faithfully to ideologies dismissive of selfhood for wives and daughters, they also show grandchildren sliding easily into new economic roles and autonomy. These findings lead us to see the Chinese family and society in a new light compared to past research. At the surface there is visible evidence of apparently traditional behaviors (a high rate of coresidence). Beneath the surface is a system unlike the traditional society envisioned by modernization theory. Parents can choose from a broad array of cultural models. They tend to express more traditional values if these meet their needs and otherwise to adopt a more modern outlook. Parents' family behavior, we conclude, represents strategic decisions among diverse choices provided by their culture, a more active and dynamic process than would be expected in a traditional society.
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Decision to enter the labour market for single mothers is linked with the issue of taking care of their young children. Child care costs will continue to be an important factor determining welfare participation in the welfare reform environment because of the low expected earnings of low-skilled workers and the high percentage of earned income that must be devoted to purchase reliable quality care. In addition to facilitating mothers' employment and thus reducing poverty and the need for income supplements, quality child care is also an important social concern in and of itself, given the strong link between quality child care and positive child outcomes, particularly for at-risk children.
In this paper, we analyze the effectiveness of child care assistance policies indirectly by considering explicitly the effect of the cost of child care on welfare recipiency. We find that, over a set of alternative specifications, welfare recipiency and employment of single mothers are sensitive to the predicted hourly price of child care.

1. Brief Review of Existing Evidence
There are three main sources of information related to our research question on the effect of the price of child care on employment and welfare recipiency. The first source is econometric works on the effect of child care costs on employment. Second is a set of papers focused on the welfare side of the coin. Finally, there is some evidence from evaluations of welfare -to-work demonstration projects of the importance of child care costs to employment and welfare recipiency.
In terms of the econometric work on the effect of child care costs on employment, that body of work has been well summarized elsewhere (Berger&Black 1992; Blau&Alison 1998). Almost all the studies on employment find a significant negative effect of child care costs on women's employment, although the estimated child care price elasticity with respect to employment varies widely across studies. Most relevant to our current topic are three papers—Berger and Black (1992), Blau and Alison (1998), and Bowen and Neehan (1993)--each of which uses data to look at differences across marital status. Each of these papers finds evidence that the elasticity of single mother's employment with respect to child care costs is greater in absolute value than married mother's employment elasticity.
Blanck (1985, 1989) review the relationships between welfare recipiency and childcare costs and suggested that a 50% child care subsidy would increase the labor force participation of single parents by 2.9 percentage points and that a 20% reduction in the AFDC guaranteed payment would increase the labor force participation of single parents by 1.6% and reduce their welfare transfer program participation by 1.2 percentage points.
Evidence of a positive relationship between child care costs and welfare recipiency can also be found in a number of evaluation studies of welfare -to-work demonstration projects, though the results are not uniform. Graham and Beller (1989) reviewed evidence from several major welfare -to-work demonstration projects that included child care components. They wrote, "Although the confluence of services, mandates, and incentives in these demonstrations suggests caution is required in interpreting their results, based on this evidence it seems reasonable to conclude that subsidized child care may have a modest effect, at best, in increasing employment levels of very low-skilled, single mothers with small children" (Graham and Beller, 1989, p.665). However, as the authors point out, none of these demonstrations explicitly examined the importance of child care costs within an experimental framework, so any conclusions relating to the importance of child care costs are tentative at best.
The Minnesota Family Investment Program (MFIP), which was included in Joesch review (1991), deserves extra scrutiny. This program was an innovative program based on the dual (and often competing) goals of encouraging work and making work pay. It contained two key work incentive provisions, the second of which related to child care. The MFIP paid child care costs directly to providers for all parents working or participating in employment-related activities. The AFDC reimbursement scheme differed because the parents paid the providers directly and were reimbursed later. The practice of reimbursing the mother after the expenditure occurred may have hindered the mother's efforts to get and stay employed. Also, the AFDC reimbursement rules tend to discourage providers from accepting such subsidized clients because of the uncertainty of receiving payment. The report finds significant impacts in numerous areas, including employment rates and earnings of the MFIP approach.
Finally, Waldfogel (2001) analyzed Massachusetts state data on current and former TANF recipients who also receive child care vouchers. He found that increased funding for child care subsidies and availability of full-day kindergarten are associated with increased probabilities that current and former welfare recipients will work.
In sum, a thorough review of the broad literature relevant for this paper reveals a uniformity in the direction and significance of the child care price effect but a rather broad range of empirical estimates concerning the importance of child care costs on employment probabilities of single mothers.

2. Single mothers’ choices in welfare recipiency
One of the most important aspects of the market for child care is that individuals face widely different costs for similar services depending on the availability of low- or no-cost child care options. We begin with analysis of individual decision making that represents the discrete choices about welfare recipiency and employment of mothers with young children. In our case, we assume that mothers of young children seek to maximize their utility over goods and child services, subject to four constraints: a money budget constraint combining the mother's labor income and nonlabor income, a production function for child services, a mother's time constraint, and a child's time constraint. Child services are the commodity parents are consuming from their children; it could be companionship or love or pride in one's progeny. They are produced with a combination of the mother's time at home, the child's time with other caregivers, and money inputs. Total nonlabor income is the sum of family income from sources other than the mother's labor market participation and means-tied transfer income, such as welfare payments. Mothers have three uses of their time: work in the labor market, time spent with children, and leisure. The child has two types of time: time with the mother and time with a nonmaternal caregiver.
From these assumptions, we derive that single mothers decide whether to be employed or not taking into account two or four different values corresponding to the different possible work and welfare outcomes. Increased expenditures on child care lower a woman's effective wage in the labor market when she is not receiving AFDC. Also included among these factors will be her predicted wage, nonlabor family income, dichotomous factors indicating that the mother is nonwhite or unhealthy or lives in an urban area or in the South, factors affecting the value of a woman's time at home (specifically, two factors indicating whether the youngest child is age zero to two years and whether there are two or more preschoolers in the family), the state's average Medicaid expenditures per enrollee, the state's average monthly AFDC payment, and the state's unemployment rate.
Because of kinks in the budget line caused by AFDC regulations, as well as possible discontinuities in hours of employment and child care availability, it is reasonable to suspect that decisions about AFDC recipiency are made jointly with decisions to work for pay.

3. Demographics, Employment, and Child Care
According to Berger and Black (1992), employed single mothers are 28.5 years of age, on average, and have 12.5 years of education. Only 26% live in poverty, but two-thirds have income less than twice the poverty threshold. Approximately one-fourth work part time, and 53% report paying for child care. The oldest single mothers are those who are employed and paying for child care, and this subgroup also reports the highest education levels, with 12.6 years of education. Focusing further on the issue of paying for child care, those single mothers employed and paying for care are a bit less likely to be nonwhite and less likely to live in poverty or receive welfare than all employed single mothers. Additionally, they are less likely to work part time, and they earn higher average hourly wages ($8.96 vs. $8.25 an hour).
4. Employment and Welfare Status
According to Berger and Black (1992), the working single mothers not reporting welfare recipiency are the oldest and have the most education and the lowest poverty rates. Their higher nonlabor income may indicate that they are more likely to be receiving child support payments. The other group with relatively higher nonlabor income is the group not employed and not on welfare. Some of these women are also receiving child support, but there is substantial variation among themselves, as the high poverty rate indicates. Others may be queued for welfare, waiting for their savings to be depleted.
The nonwelfare group is far less likely to be employed part time and receives a considerably higher average hourly wage. In addition, while the welfare recipient group is less likely to pay for care (36% vs. 56%), the recipient group pays a higher hourly price for child care. This may reflect the higher cost of part-time child care or the receipt of child care subsidies.



5. Child Care Mode Choice and Weekly Expenditures by Mode of Care for Employed Single Mothers
According to Bowen and Neehan (1993), single mothers receiving welfare are more likely to rely on relative care and less likely to rely on center-based care. But recall that they are also more likely to work part time, an employment state more often associated with this pattern of modal choice. In addition, the welfare recipients are less likely to pay for relative care and less likely to pay for center-based care. Neither subgroups are very likely to pay for relative care. The welfare recipient subgroup's average weekly payment for center-based care is considerably higher than for those not receiving welfare. For all single mothers, center-based care is the most expensive, followed by home-based care and relative care.
Child care costs present a problem for the researchers in that they are often unknown unless the mother is engaged in market work. This situation is similar to the problem of wages that are unobserved if the person is not employed. In addition to the problem of limited observation of the relevant variable, child care is complicated by the fact that many families do not pay the "market price" for child care. Nonprofit centers are often subsidized in the form of free rent and require no return on investment capital. Relatives and friends may be willing to provide child care at a reduced price or at no charge either because they receive in-kind payments or because they enjoy caring for the child.
How one approaches this problem depends in part on the information available and in part on the question one is trying to answer. Because the focus here is on the mother's decision, only the portion of the cost she pays is relevant. Since we are interested in the effect of child care costs on welfare recipiency and employment, we analyze the cost of child care per hour of employment, not the cost per hour of child care used. This is the relevant decision choice for mothers of young children who are evaluating the costs and benefits of entering the labor market, with one alternative being receiving welfare.
As it was previously mentioned, differences among families in their access to low- or no-cost care is a very pertinent issue for our problem. Using the average local market price of child care alone ignores substantial differences among families in access to below-market child care. The problem is that there is not really an exogenously given price of child care that is relevant to all consumers in the marketplace. Instead, because of differences in family circumstances and location of residence, each individual faces her own price per hour of child care. Nonwhite mothers, mothers who reside in urban areas, and mothers reporting poor health are more likely to receive AFDC. The state's average AFDC payment per enrollee is related positively to AFDC recipiency, but the average Medicaid expenditure per enrollee is related negatively (Graham and Beller, 1989, p.668).

6. The effect of predicted child care expenditures on the probability of AFDC recipiency
According to findings of Berger and Black (1992), that effect of predicted child care recipiency is positive and significant. Those with higher nonlabor incomes are also less likely to receive welfare, while families in which the youngest child has one or more siblings under the age of six are more likely to receive welfare.
With child care expenditures reduced to one-half for all single mothers, AFDC recipiency would fall further to 12.5%, while employment is predicted to rise to 74.7% (Blau and Allison, 1998, p.105). Tying the child care subsidy to a reduction in average state benefits reduces the receipency rate still further to 15.1% and increases the employment rate to 69.5% with further cost saving in AFDC expenditures (Blau and Allison, 1998, p. 104). Subsidizing child care costs for all single mothers may be an important policy tool leading to lower AFDC recipiency rates. These subsidies could be packaged with existing federal TANF program restrictions on length of total, lifetime welfare recipiency, and work requirements to improve living standards for ex-recipients by helping to "make work pay."
Conclusion
This paper looks specifically at the effect of child care costs on the decisions of single mothers concerning employment and AFDC recipiency. In doing so, it seeks to answer the questions made so relevant first by the Family Support Act of 1988 and more recently by the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996: Can subsidizing child care reduce the welfare dependency of single mothers? The answer seems to be an unequivocal yes, though the size of the estimated effect is found to be sensitive to the estimation strategy used.
In the short run, AFDC benefits should be made more uniform across states, and raised, at a minimum, up to the federal poverty level. If the policy goal is to expand the labor market options available to welfare recipients, the most important consideration should not be welfare reform, but rather raising the effective wages of the work that is available. Such a change, which would affect all single mothers, not merely those collecting public assistance, would begin with the important first step of raising the minimum wage.
Publicly provided health care and child care programs are needed if women are to support themselves and their families through participation in the labor market. Child care must also be available for low-income working women. First steps toward the establishment of a national child care system include the extension of Head Start, a federally funded program for economically disadvantaged preschool children.
For too long social policy has assumed that single mothers should derive income from either the labor market or the state. Today's welfare-to-work programs presume that paid employment will end women's need for government support. However, the reality for most single mothers is that neither labor market income nor public assistance at current levels can adequately support their families. A meaningful family policy would expand the opportunities and the income available to women with children--both from the labor market and from the state.
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