Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/247072 
Year of Publication: 
2018
Series/Report no.: 
EHES Working Paper No. 142
Publisher: 
European Historical Economics Society (EHES), s.l.
Abstract: 
Anthropometric historical analysis depends on the assumption that human characteristics—such as height—are normally distributed. I propose and evaluate a metric entropy, based on nonparametrically estimated densities, as a statistic for a consistent test of normality. My first test applies to full distributions for which other tests already exist and performs similarly. A modified version applies to truncated samples for which no test has been previously devised. This second test exhibits correct size and high power against standard alternatives. In contrast to the distributional prior of Floud et al. (1990), the test rejects normality in large parts of their sample; the remaining data reveal a downward trend in height, not upward as they argue.
Subjects: 
test of normality
truncated samples
anthropometrics
JEL: 
C12
C14
N3
N13
J11
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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