Household Survey Data 2010: Dams and Population Displacement on China’s Upper Mekong River

This is the data set used for the analysis in the paper "Dams and Population Displacement on China’s Upper Mekong River: Implications for Social Capital and Social-Ecological Resilience." In 2010, in collaboration with Chinese colleagues, we administered a household survey questionnaire to 729 households in more than 30 villages across Fengqing, Yun, and Lancang counties in Yunnan Province, China. Because of our specific interest in agriculture and social capital for this paper, we restricted the sample in our analysis to include only those households who reported participating in farming activities during the previous 12 months, removing 56 households. We also removed an additional 201 households who had not participated in at least some labor exchange during the previous 12 months, on the assumption that their farming practices were different, less reliant on labor exchange. Our final sample thus contained 472 households in the vicinity of four dam sites (Manwan=143, Dachaoshan=106, Xiaowan=150, Nuozhadu=73). The complete data set (Brown and Tilt 2010) includes modules on demographic, social, cultural and economic conditions; agricultural production; and other variables. However, this restricted data set includes only information on our independent variables (resettlement status, dam site), dependent variables (exchange of financial resources -- both number of households and amounts; and exchange of farm labor -- both number of households and amounts), and control variables (land holdings, ethnicity, and income).