Infant mortality and the health of survivors: Britain, 1910-50

"The early decades of the twentieth century witnessed an intense debate over the key influences on the health of children and their subsequent fitness as adults. Most of the experts argued that an unfavourable disease environment led to high infant mortality and impaired health during childhood. A few suggested that the selection effect of infant mortality should have led to healthier survivors. Thus infant mortality could be related positively to subsequent health through a selection effect and negatively through a scarring effect. I examine these effects using town-level panel data on the heights of school children reported by school medical inspectors from 1910 to 1950. Econometric estimates provide no evidence for the selection effect but some support for the scarring effect. The results suggest that the improvement in the disease environment, as reflected by the decline in infant mortality, accounted for a quarter of the increase in average heights in the first half of the twentieth century."