ABSTRACT
Although the decline of infant mortality in China is one of the great achievements of the post-1949 era, remarkably little is known about its causes. It is widely thought that the decline was driven by the multifaceted social and economic revolution that began with the formation of the People's Republic of China (PRC) in 1949. The first two decades of the PRC were characterized by income redistribution, rising female education, and public health initiatives aimed at eliminating disease vectors and extending basic medical services to the rural population. In the 1970s and 1980s, a family-planning revolution brought marriage and childbearing under bureaucratic control. The dismantling of the collective economy in the 1980s brought rapid growth of income and inequality. Each of these changes could have influenced infant health conditions.
