"This is the first study of its kind to apply an institutional framework to advance our understanding of the interplay between macro-economic and population policies on the one hand and micro-fertility behaviour on the other in post-reform rural China." "The research is based on primary fieldwork data accumulated over a period of seventeen months in a Hebei village (north China) from July 1992 to November 1993. It depicts the ways in which individual fertility motivations have been influenced by two decades of state-instigated economic reforms." "The changing institution of marriage, family structure and systems and the community authority structure are amongst the themes examined in depth." "In contrast to the expectations of scholars and government, however, contemporary couples not only prefer to have fewer children, their motivation for having girls has also become stronger, although the preference for sons persists. Clearly, individual fertility does not follow strictly the state norms, and the state-planned birth policy is increasingly mediated by individual desires and the discretionary decisions taken by local government."--Jacket.