Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/123130 
Year of Publication: 
2015
Series/Report no.: 
CESifo Working Paper No. 5499
Publisher: 
Center for Economic Studies and ifo Institute (CESifo), Munich
Abstract: 
Heights and body mass index values (BMIs) are now well accepted measures that reflect net nutrition during economic development and institutional change. This study uses 19th century weights instead of BMIs to measure factors associated with current net nutrition. Across the weight distribution and throughout the 19th century, white and black average weights decreased by 8.5 and 6.3 percent, respectively. Farmers and unskilled workers had positive weight returns associated with rural agricultural lifestyles. Weights in the Deep South were greater than other regions within the US, indicating that while Southern infectious disease rates were high, Southern current net nutrition was better than elsewhere within the US.
Subjects: 
weight
biological measurements
19th century health
quantile estimation
JEL: 
I10
J11
J71
N31
Document Type: 
Working Paper
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