New Sources for Comparative Social Science: Historical Population Panel Data From East Asia

Abstract

Comparison and comparability lie at the heart of any comparative social science. Still, precise comparison is virtually impossible without using similar methods and similar data. In recent decades, social demographers, historians, and economic historians have compiled and made available a large number of micro-level data sets of historical populations for North America and Europe. Studies using these data have already made important contributions to many academic disciplines. In a similar spirit, we introduce five new microlevel historical panel data sets from East Asia, including the China Multi-Generational Panel Dataset–Liaoning (CMGPD-LN) 1749–1909, the China Multi-Generational Panel Dataset– Shuangcheng (CMGPD-SC) 1866–1913, the Japanese Ninbetsu-Aratame-Cho Population Register Database–Shimomoriya and Niita (NAC-SN) 1716–1870, the Korea Multi-Generational Panel Dataset–Tansung (KMGPD-TS) 1678–1888, and the Colonial Taiwan Household Registration Database (CTHRD) 1906–1945. These data sets in total contain more than 3.7 million linked observations of 610,000 individuals and are the first such Asian data to be made available online or by application. We discuss the key features and historical institutions that originally collected these data; the subsequent processes by which the data were reconstructed into individual-level panels; their particular data limitations and strengths; and their potential for comparative social scientific research.

Postmarital residence and child sex selection: Evidence from northeastern Japan, 1716–1870

“…However, records of children are balanced between sexes and are relatively complete overall in the Japanese data. In comparison to similar household registration data in East Asia, and unlike the common omission of child records in some other Chinese and Korean historical population registration data, this argues against the systematic omission of children of either sex in the Japanese registration (Dong et al 2015). Moreover, remaining documents of the basic law and ordinance of the Nihonmatsu domain to which these two villages belonged also demonstrate the completeness and thoroughness of the registration (Goryounai ninbetu aratame no oboe, transcribed in Nihonmatsu-han Shi Kanko-kai 1992: 518-519).…”

“…However, such a tendency is likely to exist, since otherwise, given the dominant patriarchal culture, we would expect to find that uxorilocal marriages have a greater son preference than virilocal marriages to shape the next generation. As the construction of similar data, transcribed from Japanese historical population registers and other East Asian sources, is underway (Dong et al 2015), soon we will have further evidence.…”

“…Exits for unknown reasons were rare, accounting for less than 1% of all recorded exits in the NAC registers in both villages. Thus, their quality and length make these NAC registers some of the best documentation of historical populations in Japan, and possibly in East Asia (Tsuya and Kurosu 2004;Dong et al 2015).…”

“…This restriction ensures that our estimated coefficients represent the effect on the probability of having a birth in the next year. Attrition is not a substantial concern in the NAC-SN data since the average rate of linking individual observations between registers is around 95%, the highest among comparable historical population panel data in East Asia (Dong et al 2015). After the above-mentioned data restrictions, our analytical sample comprises 13,888 annual observations of 1,045 wives, of whom 978 have a first birth and 700 have second and later births.…”

Interethnic marriage in Northeast China, 1866–1913

“…Previous studies using the CMGPD-SC and CMGPD-LN establish these datasets as valuable source for studying social, economic, and demographic history (Chen 2017;Dong et al 2015;Dong 2016;Lee and Campbell 1997). The suitability of the registers for studying marriage has already been demonstrated in studies of community and household influences on the chances of marrying or remarrying (Chen, Campbell, and Lee 2014;Campbell and Lee 2008a;Dong 2016).…”