#  Sharing Data Through Harvard Dataverse Network 

 



**Replication Data with code and documentation for "Half-Life of History: The Case of the Chinese Communist Party's Anti-Japanese War Legacy".**

 ![convergence.jpg](/sites/g/files/omnuum3141/files/koss/files/convergence.jpg)

 



 

##  Panel Dataset: Chinese Communist Party Membership 

Clicking [here](http://thedata.harvard.edu/dvn/), searching for "Chinese Communist Party" and then clicking "Daniel Koss", you will find material accompanying my unpublished paper, "Half-Life of History: The Case of the Chinese Communist Party's Anti-Japanese War Legacy". In order to access the files, you will have to register with Harvard Dataverse Network, which is for free. Then you will be able to access four files:

- Replication data: Number of party members, 325 province-year observations.
- Documentation: Source of data, variable definition, unit of analysis, missing observations.
- Code to estimate the parameters of a parsimonious model of absolute convergence. How fast does the party move away from its traditional power base to a more even penetration of its realm?
- Code to produce the graph below.

*Short explanation of the graph: Based on a formally derived party-growth model, whose coefficients are fitted with actual party membership data, the graphs show a simulation of party membership growth, making projections until 2050. When the People's Republic of China was founded in 1949, party membership patterns were highly uneven as the result of war contingencies. Despite governmental efforts to even out its reach throughout its realm, regional party membership patterns today remain significantly correlated to these initial membership patterns. Only in 2020 will this correlation begin to disappear. By 2020, provinces with many party members in 1949 (like Hebei) will almost look like provinces with few party members in 1949 (like Guangxi). This illustrates the half-life of history. In this case, historical legacies do fade away, albeit at a very slow pace.*

 ![convergence.jpg](/sites/g/files/omnuum3141/files/koss/files/convergence_0.jpg)