Clans and Calamity: How Social Organizations Saved Lives During China’s Great Famine

This paper examines the role of clans, one of the most important social organizations in China, in disaster relief during China’s Great Famine. Using a county-year panel and a difference-in-differences strategy, we find that the rise in the mortality rate during famine years is significantly less in counties with stronger clan strength. A nationally representative household survey corroborates this finding. Investigation of potential mechanisms suggests that the clan’s impact on famine may have operated through enabling collective action against excessive government procurement. These results indicate that societal forces can reduce the damage of faulty government policies in times of crisis.