Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/26020 
Year of Publication: 
2007
Series/Report no.: 
CESifo Working Paper No. 1975
Publisher: 
Center for Economic Studies and ifo Institute (CESifo), Munich
Abstract: 
The use of height data to measure living standards is now a well-established method in economic history. Moreover, a number of core findings in this literature are widely agreed upon. There are still some populations, places, and times, however, for which anthropometric evidence remains thin. One example is African-Americans in the US Northeast and Middle Atlantic states during the 1800s. Here, a new data is used from the Pennsylvania state prison to track black and white male heights incarcerated between 1829 to 1909. Throughout the century, and controlling for a number of characteristics, Pennsylvania black men in were shorter than white men. The well-known mid-century height decline is confirmed among white men, however, extended to blacks as well.
JEL: 
N31
J15
J70
I12
I31
Document Type: 
Working Paper
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