IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/afc/cliome/v12y2018i1p33-60.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Biological well-being in late nineteenth-century Philippines

Author

Listed:
  • Jean-Pascal Bassino

    (IAO, ENS Lyon, University of Lyon, Lyon Cedex, France)

  • Marion Dovis

    (Aix-Marseille University (Aix-Marseille School of Economics), CNRS & EHESS, Marseille, France)

  • John Komlos

    (Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (emeritus), Munich, Germany)

Abstract

This paper investigates the biological standard of living in the Philippines toward the end of Spanish rule. We investigate levels, trends, and determinants of physical stature from the birth cohorts of the 1860s to the 1890s using data on 23,000 Filipino soldiers enlisted by the US military between 1901 and 1913. We estimate average heights and use province-level information for investigating the determinants of biological well-being. We find that at 159.3 cm (62.7 inches), the average height of soldiers born in the mid-1870s was very short even for the time. The low biological standard of living observed in late nineteenth-century Philippines was not due to the tropical disease environment alone since greater heights were recorded for the same period in other parts of Asia with a similar climate. The results also indicate a decline of more than 1.5 cm (0.6 inches) in the height of soldiers born between the early 1870s and the late 1880s. This decline occurred at a time when there was an expansion of commercial activity in cash crop production for export. Heights did not regain the level of the 1870s until the late 1930s and early 1940s.

Suggested Citation

  • Jean-Pascal Bassino & Marion Dovis & John Komlos, 2018. "Biological well-being in late nineteenth-century Philippines," Cliometrica, Journal of Historical Economics and Econometric History, Association Française de Cliométrie (AFC), vol. 12(1), pages 33-60, January.
  • Handle: RePEc:afc:cliome:v:12:y:2018:i:1:p:33-60
    DOI: 10.1007/s11698-016-0147-4
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11698-016-0147-4
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to journal subscribers

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s11698-016-0147-4?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version below or search for a different version of it.

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Bassino, Jean-Pascal & Coclanis, Peter A., 2008. "Economic transformation and biological welfare in colonial Burma: Regional differentiation in the evolution of average height," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 6(2), pages 212-227, July.
    2. Morgan, Stephen L., 2009. "Stature and economic development in South China, 1810-1880," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 46(1), pages 53-69, January.
    3. H. Schneeweiss & J. Komlos & A. Ahmad, 2010. "Symmetric and asymmetric rounding: a review and some new results," AStA Advances in Statistical Analysis, Springer;German Statistical Society, vol. 94(3), pages 247-271, September.
    4. Williamson, Jeffrey G. & Bassino, Jean-Pascal, 2015. "From Commodity Booms to Economic Miracles: Why Southeast Asian Industry Lagged Behind," CEPR Discussion Papers 10611, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    5. Jan Luiten van Zanden & Joerg Baten & Peter Foldvari & Bas van Leeuwen, 2011. "The Changing Shape of Global Inequality - exploring a new dataset," Working Papers 0001, Utrecht University, Centre for Global Economic History.
    6. Friesen, Julia & Baten, Jörg & Prayon, Valeria, 2012. "Women Count: Gender (in-)equalities in the human capital development in Asia, 1900-60," University of Tübingen Working Papers in Business and Economics 29, University of Tuebingen, Faculty of Economics and Social Sciences, School of Business and Economics.
    7. Elisabetta De Cao, 2010. "The Height Production Function from Birth to Early Adulthood," CEIS Research Paper 165, Tor Vergata University, CEIS, revised 28 May 2010.
    8. Olds, Kelly B., 2003. "The biological standard of living in Taiwan under Japanese occupation," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 1(2), pages 187-206, June.
    9. Haddad, Lawrence J & Bouis, Howarth E, 1991. "The Impact of Nutritional Status on Agricultural Productivity: Wage Evidence from the Philippines," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 53(1), pages 45-68, February.
    10. Kris Inwood & Oliver Masakure, 2013. "Poverty and Physical Well-being among the Coloured Population in South Africa," Economic History of Developing Regions, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 28(2), pages 56-82, December.
    11. Morgan, Stephen L., 2004. "Economic growth and the biological standard of living in China, 1880-1930," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 2(2), pages 197-218, June.
    12. Blattman, Christopher & Hwang, Jason & Williamson, Jeffrey G., 2007. "Winners and losers in the commodity lottery: The impact of terms of trade growth and volatility in the Periphery 1870-1939," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 82(1), pages 156-179, January.
    13. Steckel, Richard H., 2009. "Heights and human welfare: Recent developments and new directions," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 46(1), pages 1-23, January.
    14. Yujiro Hayami & Cristina C. David & Piedad Flores‐Moya & Masao Kikuchi, 1978. "Agricultural Growth Against A Land Resource Constraint: The Philippine Experience: Reply," Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society, vol. 22(2-3), pages 210-210, 08-12.
    15. Baten, Joerg & Pelger, Ines & Twrdek, Linda, 2009. "The anthropometric history of Argentina, Brazil and Peru during the 19th and early 20th century," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 7(3), pages 319-333, December.
    16. Horton, Susan, 1986. "Child nutrition and family size in the Philippines," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 23(1), pages 161-176, September.
    17. Jean-Pascal Bassino & P. Coclanis, 2008. "Economic transformation and biological welfare in colonial Burma," Post-Print hal-03061153, HAL.
    18. Roy E. Bailey & Timothy J. Hatton & Kris Inwood, 2016. "Health, height, and the household at the turn of the twentieth century," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 69(1), pages 35-53, February.
    19. Jörg Baten & Mojgan Stegl & Pierre Eng, 2013. "The biological standard of living and body height in colonial and post-colonial Indonesia, 1770–2000," Journal of Bioeconomics, Springer, vol. 15(2), pages 103-122, July.
    20. Easterlin, Richard A., 1981. "Why Isn't the Whole World Developed?," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 41(1), pages 1-17, March.
    21. Jeffrey G. Williamson, 2008. "Globalization and the Great Divergence: Terms of Trade Booms and Volatility in the Poor Periphery 1782-1913," NBER Working Papers 13841, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    22. Komlos, John, 1998. "Shrinking in a Growing Economy? The Mystery of Physical Stature during the Industrial Revolution," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 58(03), pages 779-802, September.
    23. Salvatore, Ricardo D., 2007. "Heights, Nutrition, and Well-Being in Argentina, ca. 1850–1950. Preliminary Results," Revista de Historia Económica / Journal of Iberian and Latin American Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 25(1), pages 53-85, January.
    24. Kikuchi, Masao & Hayami, Yujiro, 1978. "Agricultural Growth against a Land Resource Constraint: A Comparative History of Japan, Taiwan, Korea, and the Philippines," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 38(4), pages 839-864, December.
    25. Jan Luiten Zanden & Joerg Baten & Peter Foldvari & Bas Leeuwen, 2014. "The Changing Shape of Global Inequality 1820–2000; Exploring a New Dataset," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 60(2), pages 279-297, June.
    26. Resnick, Stephen A., 1970. "The Decline of Rural Industry Under Export Expansion: A Comparison among Burma, Philippines, and Thailand, 1870–1938," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 30(1), pages 51-73, March.
    27. Josep M. Fradera, 2004. "The historical origins of the Philippine economy: a survey of recent research of the Spanish colonial era," Australian Economic History Review, Economic History Society of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 44(3), pages 307-320, November.
    28. Baten, Joerg & Ma, Debin & Morgan, Stephen & Wang, Qing, 2010. "Evolution of living standards and human capital in China in the 18-20th centuries: Evidences from real wages, age-heaping, and anthropometrics," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 47(3), pages 347-359, July.
    29. Kris Inwood & Les Oxley & Evan Roberts, 2010. "Physical Stature In Nineteenth‐Century New Zealand: A Preliminary Interpretation," Australian Economic History Review, Economic History Society of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 50(3), pages 262-283, November.
    30. Cranfield, John & Inwood, Kris, 2007. "The great transformation: A long-run perspective on physical well-being in Canada," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 5(2), pages 204-228, July.
    31. Hooley, Richard, 2005. "American economic policy in the Philippines, 1902-1940: Exploring a dark age in colonial statistics," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 16(3), pages 464-488, June.
    32. Joerg Baten & Matthias Blum, 2012. "Growing Tall but Unequal: New Findings and New Background Evidence on Anthropometric Welfare in 156 Countries, 1810–1989," Economic History of Developing Regions, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 27(S1), pages 66-85.
    33. Richard H. Steckel, 1995. "Stature and the Standard of Living," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 33(4), pages 1903-1940, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Adolfo Meisel-Roca & María Teresa Ramírez-Giraldo & Daniela Santos-Cárdenas, 2018. "Socioeconomic Determinants and Spatial Convergence of Biological Well-being: The Case of Physical Stature in Colombia, 1920-1990," Borradores de Economia 1053, Banco de la Republica de Colombia.
    2. Meisel-Roca, Adolfo & Ramírez-Giraldo, María Teresa & Santos-Cárdenas, Daniela, 2019. "Long run relationship between biological well being, and economic development in Colombia," Working papers 24, Red Investigadores de Economía.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Jean-Pascal Bassino & Marion Dovis & John Komlos, 2015. "Biological Well-Being in Late 19th Century Philippines," NBER Working Papers 21410, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Steckel, Richard H., 2009. "Heights and human welfare: Recent developments and new directions," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 46(1), pages 1-23, January.
    3. Ward, W. Peter, 2013. "Stature, migration and human welfare in South China, 1850–1930," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 11(4), pages 488-501.
    4. Fourie, Johan & Inwood, Kris & Mariotti, Martine, 2022. "Living standards in settler South Africa, 1865–1920," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 47(C).
    5. Manuel Llorca-Jaña & Javier Rivas & Damian Clarke & Diego Barría Traverso, 2020. "Height of Male Prisoners in Santiago de Chile during the Nitrate Era: The Penalty of being Unskilled, Illiterate, Illegitimate and Mapuche," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(17), pages 1-24, August.
    6. BASSINO, Jean-Pascal & BATEN, Joerg, 2016. "A Curse of ‘Point Source’ Resources? : Cash Crops and Numeracy on the Philippines 19th-20th Century," Discussion paper series HIAS-E-22, Hitotsubashi Institute for Advanced Study, Hitotsubashi University.
    7. Llorca-Jaña, Manuel & Navarrete-Montalvo, Juan & Droller, Federico & Araya-Valenzuela, Roberto, 2018. "Height in eighteenth-century Chilean men: Evidence from military records, 1730–1800s," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 29(C), pages 168-178.
    8. Grajales-Porras, Agustín & López-Alonso, Moramay, 2011. "Physical stature of men in eighteenth century Mexico: Evidence from Puebla," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 9(3), pages 265-271, July.
    9. Arsenault Morin, Alex & Geloso, Vincent & Kufenko, Vadim, 2017. "The heights of French-Canadian convicts, 1780s–1820s," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 26(C), pages 126-136.
    10. Galofré-Vilà, Gregori, 2018. "Growth and maturity: A quantitative systematic review and network analysis in anthropometric history," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 28(C), pages 107-118.
    11. Kitae Sohn, 2015. "A World Record in the Improvement in Biological Standards of Living in Korea: Evidence from Age at Menarche," CEH Discussion Papers 037, Centre for Economic History, Research School of Economics, Australian National University.
    12. Chae, Minhee & Hatton, Timothy J. & Meng, Xin, 2023. "Explaining trends in adult height in China: 1950 to 1990," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 161(C).
    13. Baten, Joerg & Mumme, Christina, 2013. "Does inequality lead to civil wars? A global long-term study using anthropometric indicators (1816–1999)," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 32(C), pages 56-79.
    14. Carolin Schmidt, 2018. "Home is where the health is: Housing and adult height from the late 19th to the mid-20th centuries," ERES eres2018_33, European Real Estate Society (ERES).
    15. Bokang Mpeta & Johan Fourie & Kris Inwood, 2017. "Black living standards in South Africa before democracy: New evidence from heights," Working Papers 670, Economic Research Southern Africa.
    16. Stephen Morgan, 2010. "Adjustment of age-related height decline for Chinese: a ‘natural experiment’ longitudinal survey using archival data," Working Papers 10022, Economic History Society.
    17. Johan Fourie & Martine Mariotti & Kris Inwood, 2018. "Military technology and sample selection bias," Working Papers 03/2018, Stellenbosch University, Department of Economics.
    18. Baten, Joerg & Pelger, Ines & Twrdek, Linda, 2009. "The anthropometric history of Argentina, Brazil and Peru during the 19th and early 20th century," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 7(3), pages 319-333, December.
    19. Kris Inwood & Les Oxley & Evan Roberts, 2008. "Physical stature and its interpretation in nineteenth century New Zealand," Working Papers in Economics 08/22, University of Canterbury, Department of Economics and Finance.
    20. Llorca-Jaña, Manuel & Clarke, Damian & Navarrete-Montalvo, Juan & Araya-Valenzuela, Roberto & Allende, Martina, 2020. "New anthropometric evidence on living standards in nineteenth-century Chile," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 36(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Height; Biological standard of living; Human capital; Tropical diseases; Truncated regression; Philippines;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I10 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - General
    • N35 - Economic History - - Labor and Consumers, Demography, Education, Health, Welfare, Income, Wealth, Religion, and Philanthropy - - - Asia including Middle East
    • N95 - Economic History - - Regional and Urban History - - - Asia including Middle East

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:afc:cliome:v:12:y:2018:i:1:p:33-60. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/afcccea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.