IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ctl/louvde/v82y2016i4p459-482.html

A Culture of Kinship: Chinese Genealogies as a Souce for Research in Demographic Economics

Author

Listed:
  • Carol H. SHIUE

    (University of Colorado, NBER, CEPR)

Abstract

This paper discusses the use of Chinese genealogies for research on economic demography. I focus both on what is known about the genealogy as a data source, and what are the open questions for future research. Chinese genealogies contain records at the individual level. With the publication of new catalogs and efforts to collect genealogies, the number of genealogies is even larger than previously thought, with most dating to the late Ming (1368–1644) and Qing (1644–1911) Dynasties. These records contain a rich source of information about the Chinese population history, over a period for which there is no alternative source of information. Yet, the source still remains largely unexploited. Although the work of transcribing the data is significant, and selection biases need to be carefully considered, preliminary analysis of the data for a sample of married men for Tongcheng County in Anhui Province suggests these data are a rich source of information for demographic and economics research.

Suggested Citation

  • Carol H. SHIUE, 2016. "A Culture of Kinship: Chinese Genealogies as a Souce for Research in Demographic Economics," JODE - Journal of Demographic Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 82(4), pages 459-482, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:ctl:louvde:v:82:y:2016:i:4:p:459-482
    DOI: 10.1017/dem.2016.24
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1017/dem.2016.24
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1017/dem.2016.24?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Hu, Sijie, 2020. "Survival of the Confucians: social status and fertility in China, 1400-1900," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 104040, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    2. Zhao, Shuai & Hou, Linke, 2025. "Climbing the social ladder: Clans and intergenerational mobility in China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 94(PC).
    3. Shiue, Carol, 2019. "Social Mobility in the Long Run: A Temporal Analysis of China from 1300 to 1900," CEPR Discussion Papers 13589, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    4. Wolfgang Keller & Carol H. Shiue, 2023. "Intergenerational Mobility of Daughters and Marital Sorting: New Evidence from Imperial China," NBER Working Papers 31695, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    5. Hu, Sijie, 2025. "Celebrating legacy: The intergenerational transmission of reproduction and human capital in Ming-Qing Chinese families," GLO Discussion Paper Series 1572, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    6. Sijie Hu, 2023. "Survival of the literati: Social status and reproduction in Ming–Qing China," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 36(4), pages 2025-2070, October.
    7. Xie, Jian & Yuan, Song, 2025. "The cultural origins of family firms," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 53(1), pages 1-24.
    8. Carol H. Shiue, 2017. "Human capital and fertility in Chinese clans before modern growth," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 22(4), pages 351-396, December.
    9. Wang-Sheng Lee & Ben G. Li, 2019. "Extreme Weather and Long-term Health: Evidence from Two Millennia of Chinese Elites," CEH Discussion Papers 09, Centre for Economic History, Research School of Economics, Australian National University.
    10. Carol H. Shiue & Wolfgang Keller, 2024. "Elite Strategies for Big Shocks: The Case of the Fall of the Ming," NBER Working Papers 33121, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    11. Carol H. Shiue & Wolfgang Keller, 2025. "People versus Places: Elite Persistence after the Fall of the Ming," NBER Working Papers 34451, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    12. Lee, Wang-Sheng & Li, Ben G., 2021. "Extreme weather and mortality: Evidence from two millennia of Chinese elites," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 76(C).
    13. David de la Croix & Matthias Doepke & Joel Mokyr, 2018. "Clans, Guilds, and Markets: Apprenticeship Institutions and Growth in the Preindustrial Economy," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 133(1), pages 1-70.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • J10 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - General
    • N00 - Economic History - - General - - - General

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ctl:louvde:v:82:y:2016:i:4:p:459-482. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sebastien SCHILLINGS (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/iruclbe.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.