By‐employment in the Yangtze Valley in the long twentieth century: Specialization, structural change, and the land systems

Ying Dai

Economic History Review, 2026, vol. 79, issue 1, 3-30

Abstract: Evidence on by‐employment in long‐run economic development is limited in existing literature worldwide. This study constructed a new dataset comprising 74 515 occupational observations with 4890 by‐employed individuals derived from Chinese lineage genealogies. The dataset suggests a double‐peak pattern of by‐employment in the Yangtze Valley over the long twentieth century, reflecting China's unique historical trajectory and revealing specialization, structural change and the land systems as key shaping factors. Specialization associated with the transition of industrial production towards factories spanned the entire twentieth century, but large‐scale shifts of the labour force out of agriculture were delayed until the last two decades of the century. The first peak in by‐employment was attributable to low levels of specialization, while the second increase was driven by radical structural changes in the labour force. This latter peak was further facilitated by a land system providing broad access to agricultural land use rights, while the trough between the two peaks was deepened by the collective agricultural system in place between the 1950s and 1970s. Comparative analysis suggests that divergent by‐employment patterns across historical Eurasia can be attributed to differing stages of structural change, as well as variations in land systems and gendered divisions of labour.

Date: 2026
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