New Sources for Global Social Science: Historical Panel Data from East Asia

Comparison and comparability lie at the heart of any global social science. But, precise comparison is virtually impossible without similar methods and similar data. Comparable datasets are scarce in particular for historical periods. This paper introduces and compares four new historical panel datasets from East Asia: the China Multi-Generational Panel Dataset-Liaoning (CMGPD-LN), the China Multi-Generational Dataset-Shuangcheng (CMGPD-SC), the Korean Multi-Generational Dataset-Tansong (KMGPD-TS) and Taiwan Colonial Household Register Database . It discusses the key features of these datasets; the historical institutions which produced the original data; the subsequent processes by which the data were reconstructed into individual level panels; the completeness of recording and problems of missing registers; and their potential for important social science research. The paper shows how these data are important to identify and differentiate what are particular and different among these populations and what are general and similar. It also shows how the comparative method applied to these datasets can illuminate the local as well as the global, or at least regional. Such comparison should give us a much more nuanced comparative understanding of East Asian historical sociology and global social science in general.