Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/213513 
Year of Publication: 
2019
Series/Report no.: 
Development Research Working Paper Series No. 03/2019
Publisher: 
Institute for Advanced Development Studies (INESAD), La Paz
Abstract: 
Based on almost 5.000 direct observations on National Identification Cards, this paper offers the first estimation of the evolution of average heights in urban Bolivia for the decades 1880s-1920s. The analysis focuses on men aged 19-50 years registered in the city of La Paz. Despite city's growing economic importance and modernization, average heights remained stagnant around 163 cm. This level is not so different to that found in the still disperse available evidence for rural Bolivia. Furthermore, there is evidence of inequalities throughout the period under study: those men who were indigenous, illiterate or worked in manual occupations were persistently shorter than non-indigenous, literates and non-manual workers, respectively. In coincidence with recent studies on Latin America, these findings suggest that the boost in exports and the regained dynamism of the economy that took place at the onset of the 20th century were not accompanied by improvements in biological standards of living.
Subjects: 
anthropometric history
heights
welfare
inequality
first globalization
JEL: 
I31
N16
N36
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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