Sociologist to study China's one-child policy

Wang Feng, UC Irvine sociology professor and chair, recently received a $500,000 grant from the MacArthur Foundation to study China’s controversial one-child per couple birth control policy. Wang and colleagues will study the policy’s social and economic implications in light of the country’s looming healthcare and labor shortage crisis. “With China’s low fertility level, we’re certain to see the number of new entrants to the workforce cut in half within the next 10 years,” he says. “We also will see the median age of the entire country increase to 50 years old by 2050 if the current demographic trend continues.”