IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ces/ceswps/_8447.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Female and Male Body Mass, Height, and Weight during US Economic Development: 1860s-1930s

Author

Listed:
  • Scott A. Carson

Abstract

When other measures for economic welfare are scarce or unreliable, the use of biological measures are now standard in economics. This study uses late 19th and early 20th century BMI, statures, and weight to assess how net nutrition accumulated to women and men during US economic development. Throughout the late 19th and early 20th centuries, female and male BMIs, statures, and weight remained constant over time. Unskilled laborers’ BMIs were higher, their statures were taller, and their weights heavier than workers in other occupations. Women and men from the Northeast and Middle Atlantic had higher BMIs and shorter statures, while their counterparts from the South were taller and had lower BMIs, indicating that it was superior Southern cumulative net nutrition associated with lower BMIs.

Suggested Citation

  • Scott A. Carson, 2020. "Female and Male Body Mass, Height, and Weight during US Economic Development: 1860s-1930s," CESifo Working Paper Series 8447, CESifo.
    • Handle: RePEc:ces:ceswps:_8447
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.cesifo.org/DocDL/cesifo1_wp8447_1.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Claudia Goldin & Hugh Rockoff, 1992. "Introduction to "Strategic Factors in Nineteenth Century American Economic History: A Volume to Honor Robert W. Fogel"," NBER Chapters, in: Strategic Factors in Nineteenth Century American Economic History: A Volume to Honor Robert W. Fogel, pages 1-8, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Claudia Goldin & Hugh Rockoff, 1992. "Strategic Factors in Nineteenth Century American Economic History: A Volume to Honor Robert W. Fogel," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number gold92-1, May.
    3. Eric B. Schneider, 2017. "Children's growth in an adaptive framework: explaining the growth patterns of American slaves and other historical populations," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 70(1), pages 3-29, February.
    4. Fogel, Robert W. & Grotte, Nathaniel, 2011. "Major Findings from The Changing Body: Health, Nutrition, and Human Development in the Western World since 1700," The Journal of Economic Asymmetries, Elsevier, vol. 8(2), pages 1-9.
    5. Clay, Karen & Lewis, Joshua & Severnini, Edson, 2018. "Pollution, Infectious Disease, and Mortality: Evidence from the 1918 Spanish Influenza Pandemic," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 78(4), pages 1179-1209, December.
    6. Moradi, Alexander & Baten, Joerg, 2005. "Inequality in Sub-Saharan Africa: New Data and New Insights from Anthropometric Estimates," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 33(8), pages 1233-1265, August.
    7. Steckel, Richard H., 1979. "Slave height profiles from coastwise manifests," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 16(4), pages 363-380, October.
    8. Floud,Roderick & Fogel,Robert W. & Harris,Bernard & Hong,Sok Chul, 2011. "The Changing Body," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521705615.
      • Floud,Roderick & Fogel,Robert W. & Harris,Bernard & Hong,Sok Chul, 2011. "The Changing Body," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521879750.
    9. Roderick Floud & Robert W. Fogel & Bernard Harris & Sok Chul Hong, 2011. "The Changing Body: Health, Nutrition, and Human Development in the Western World since 1700," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number foge10-1, May.
    10. Robert Fogel & Dora Costa, 1997. "A theory of technophysio evolution, with some implications for forecasting population, health care costs, and pension costs," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 34(1), pages 49-66, February.
    11. Carson, Scott Alan, 2019. "Late 19th, early 20th century US, foreign-born body mass index values in the United States," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 34(C), pages 26-38.
    12. Goldin, Claudia, 1992. "Understanding the Gender Gap: An Economic History of American Women," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780195072709.
    13. Komlos, John & Carson, Scott, 2017. "The BMI values of the lower classes likely declined during the Great Depression," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 26(C), pages 137-143.
    14. Hoyt Bleakley & Dora Costa & Adriana Lleras-Muney, 2014. "Health, Education, and Income in the United States, 1820–2000," NBER Chapters, in: Human Capital in History: The American Record, pages 121-159, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    15. Clay, Karen & Lewis, Joshua & Severnini, Edson, 2019. "What explains cross-city variation in mortality during the 1918 influenza pandemic? Evidence from 438 U.S. cities," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 35(C), pages 42-50.
    16. Goldin, Claudia & Sokoloff, Kenneth, 1982. "Women, Children, and Industrialization in the Early Republic: Evidence from the Manufacturing Censuses," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 42(4), pages 741-774, December.
    17. Costa, Dora L. (ed.), 2003. "Health and Labor Force Participation over the Life Cycle," National Bureau of Economic Research Books, University of Chicago Press, edition 1, number 9780226116181, December.
    18. Fogel, Robert W, 1994. "Economic Growth, Population Theory, and Physiology: The Bearing of Long-Term Processes on the Making of Economic Policy," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 84(3), pages 369-395, June.
    19. Komlos, John & Kelly, Inas (ed.), 2016. "The Oxford Handbook of Economics and Human Biology," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780199389292.
    20. Wilson, Sven E., 2019. "Does adult height predict later mortality?: Comparative evidence from the Early Indicators samples in the United States," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 34(C), pages 274-285.
    21. Murray, John E., 1997. "Standards of the Present for People of the Past: Height, Weight, and Mortality among Men of Amherst College, 1834–1949," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 57(3), pages 585-606, September.
    22. Bodenhorn, Howard, 1999. "A Troublesome Caste: Height and Nutrition of Antebellum Virginia's Rural Free Blacks," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 59(4), pages 972-996, December.
    23. Dora L. Costa, 2003. "Health and Labor Force Participation over the Life Cycle: Evidence from the Past," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number cost03-1, May.
    24. Robert W. Fogel & Nathaniel Grotte, 2011. "An Overview of The Changing Body: Health, Nutrition, and Human Development in the Western World Since 1700," NBER Working Papers 16938, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    25. Scott Alan Carson, 2013. "Socioeconomic Effects on the Stature of Nineteenth-Century US Women," Feminist Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 19(2), pages 122-143, April.
    26. Koch, Daniel, 2011. "Waaler revisited: The anthropometrics of mortality," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 9(1), pages 106-117, January.
    27. Gretchen Condran & Rose Cheney, 1982. "Mortality trends in Philadelphia: Age- and cause-specific death rates 1870–1930," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 19(1), pages 97-123, February.
    28. repec:ucp:bknber:9780226301129 is not listed on IDEAS
    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. Stéphane Gauthier, 2021. "Height Growth from Exhaustive Historical Panel Data," PSE Working Papers halshs-03117083, HAL.

    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. Scott A. Carson, 2020. "Biological Differences between Late 19th and Early 20th Century Urban and Rural Residence," CESifo Working Paper Series 8523, CESifo.
    2. Scott Alan Carson, 2022. "Body mass, nutrition, and disease: nineteenth century current net nutrition during economic development," Journal of Bioeconomics, Springer, vol. 24(1), pages 37-65, April.
    3. Scott A. Carson, 2020. "Nineteenth through early 20th Century Female and Male Statures within the Household," CESifo Working Paper Series 8616, CESifo.
    4. Scott A. Carson, 2019. "Body weight and United States economic development, 1840-1940," CESifo Working Paper Series 7573, CESifo.
    5. Scott A. Carson, 2020. "Body Mass, Nutrition, and Disease: Current Net Nutrition during US Economic Development," CESifo Working Paper Series 8464, CESifo.
    6. Scott Alan Carson, 2020. "Net nutrition, insolation, mortality, and the antebellum paradox," Journal of Bioeconomics, Springer, vol. 22(2), pages 77-98, July.
    7. Scott Alan Carson, 2018. "Black and white female body mass index values in the developing late 19th and early 20th century United States," Journal of Bioeconomics, Springer, vol. 20(3), pages 309-330, October.
    8. Scott A. Carson, 2016. "The Lasting Effects of Maternal Net Nutrition during US Economic Development," CESifo Working Paper Series 5827, CESifo.
    9. Scott A. Carson, 2014. "Nineteenth Century Black and Mulatto Physical Activity, Calories, and Life Expectancy," CESifo Working Paper Series 4899, CESifo.
    10. Scott Alan Carson & Scott A. Carson, 2023. "Late 19th and Early 20th Century Urban Net Nutrition by Gender and Race," CESifo Working Paper Series 10703, CESifo.
    11. Dora L. Costa, 2015. "Health and the Economy in the United States from 1750 to the Present," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 53(3), pages 503-570, September.
    12. Scott A. Carson, 2018. "In Support of the Turner Hypothesis for the 19th Century American West: A Biological Response to Recent Criticisms," CESifo Working Paper Series 6969, CESifo.
    13. Komlos, John, 2012. "A Three-Decade “Kuhnian” History of the Antebellum Puzzle: Explaining the shrinking of the US population at the onset of modern economic growth," Discussion Papers in Economics 12758, University of Munich, Department of Economics.
    14. Komlos, John & A’Hearn, Brian, 2017. "Hidden negative aspects of industrialization at the onset of modern economic growth in the U.S," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 43-52.
    15. Brian A'Hearn & John Komlos, 2015. "The Decline in the Nutritional Status of the U.S. Antebellum Population at the Onset of Modern Economic Growth," CESifo Working Paper Series 5691, CESifo.
    16. Scott A. Carson, 2014. "Nineteenth Century White Physical Activity and Calories: Socioeconomic Status and Diets," CESifo Working Paper Series 4886, CESifo.
    17. Scott A. Carson, 2022. "Female and Male Calories Across the 19th and Early 20th Century Distributions Using Quantile Regression," CESifo Working Paper Series 10051, CESifo.
    18. Scott Carson, 2015. "A Weighty Issue: Diminished Net Nutrition Among the U.S. Working Class in the Nineteenth Century," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 52(3), pages 945-966, June.
    19. Scott A. Carson, 2017. "Assessing Cumulative Net Nutrition and the Transition from 19th Century Bound to Free-Labor by Ethnic Status," CESifo Working Paper Series 6813, CESifo.
    20. Marco-Gracia, Francisco J. & Puche, Javier, 2021. "The association between male height and lifespan in rural Spain, birth cohorts 1835-1939," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 43(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    BMI variation; stature; economic transition; Oaxaca Decompositions;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C10 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric and Statistical Methods and Methodology: General - - - General
    • C40 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric and Statistical Methods: Special Topics - - - General
    • D10 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - General
    • I10 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - General
    • N30 - Economic History - - Labor and Consumers, Demography, Education, Health, Welfare, Income, Wealth, Religion, and Philanthropy - - - General, International, or Comparative

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:ces:ceswps:_8447. 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: Klaus Wohlrabe (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/cesifde.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.