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Health, Height and Welfare: Britain 1700-1980

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Roderick Floud
Bernard Harris

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Abstract

This paper reviews the evidence regarding the main trends in the height of the British population since the early eighteenth century. We argue that the average heights of successive birth cohorts of British males increased slowly between the middle of the eighteenth century and the first quarter of the nineteenth century. Average heights fell during the second quarter of the nineteenth century, before rising from the 1850s onwards. This analysis is supported by an examination of the main trends in children's heights during the twentieth century. Our findings are compared with the results of an alternative method of measuring human welfare - a modified version of the United Nations' Human Development Index. The main trends in human development reinforce the conclusions drawn from our own interpretation of the anthropometric evidence.

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Paper provided by National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc in its series NBER Historical Working Papers with number 0087.

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Date of creation: May 1996
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Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberhi:0087

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References listed on IDEAS
Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
  1. Lindert, Peter H. & Williamson, Jeffrey G., 1985. "English Workers' Real Wages: Reply to Crafts," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 45(01), pages 145-153, March. [Downloadable!]
  2. John Komlos, . "A Malthusian Episode Revisited: The Height of British and Irish Servants in Colonial America," Articles by John Komlos 18, Department of Economics, University of Munich.
  3. Woods, Robert, 1985. "The Effects of Population Redistribution on the Level of Mortality in Nineteenth-Century England and Wales," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 45(03), pages 645-651, September. [Downloadable!]
  4. Floud, Roderick, 1984. "Measuring the Transformation of the European Economies: Income, Health and Welfare," CEPR Discussion Papers 33, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  5. John Komlos, . "The Secular Trend in the Biological Standard of Living in the United Kingdom, 1730-1860," Articles by John Komlos 19, Department of Economics, University of Munich.
  6. John Komlos & Joo Han Kim, . "Estimating Trends in Historical Heights," Articles by John Komlos 25, Department of Economics, University of Munich.
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  1. Roderick Floud, 1998. "Height, Weight, and Body Mass of the British Population Since 1820," NBER Historical Working Papers 0108, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  2. Baten, Joerg & Wagner, Andrea, 2002. "Autarchy, Market Disintegration, and Health: The Mortality and Nutritional Crisis in Nazi Germany, 1933-1937," CESifo Working Paper Series CESifo Working Paper No. , CESifo Group Munich. [Downloadable!]
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