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Changes in American and British Stature Since the Mid-Eighteenth Century: A Prelimanary Report on the Usefulness of Data on Height..

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Author Info
Robert W. Fogel
Stanley L. Engerman
Roderick Floud
Richard H. Steckel
James Trussell

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Abstract

This paper is a progress report on the usefulness of data on physical height for the analysis of long-ten changes in the level of nutrition and health on economic, social, and demographic behavior. It is based on a set of samples covering the U.S. and several other nations over the years from 1750 to the present. The preliminary results indicate that native-born. American Revolution, but there were long periods of declining nutrition and height during the 19th century. Similar cycling has been established for England. A variety of factors, including crop mix, urbanization, occupation, intensity of labor, and immigration affected the level of height and nutrition, although the relative importance of these factors has changed over time. There is evidence that nutrition affected labor productivity. In one of the samples individuals who were one standard deviation above the mean height (holding weight per inch of height constant) were about 8% more productive than individuals one standard deviation below the mean height. Another finding is that death did not choose people at random. Analysis of data for Trinidad indicates that the annual death rate for the shortest quintile of males was more than twice as great as for the tallest quintile of males.

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Paper provided by National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc in its series NBER Working Papers with number 0890.

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Date of creation: May 1982
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Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:0890

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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. Johnston, Bruce F, 1977. "Food, Health, and Population in Development," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 15(3), pages 879-907, September. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  2. Schaefer, Donald F & Schmitz, Mark D, 1979. "The Relative Efficiency of Slave Agriculture: A Comment," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 69(1), pages 208-12, March. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  3. Freudenberger, Herman & Cummins, Gaylord, 1976. "Health, work, and leisure before the industrial revolution," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 13(1), pages 1-12, January. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  1. James Trussell & Kenneth W. Wachter, 1984. "Estimating the Covariates of Historical Heights," NBER Working Papers 1455, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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