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Economics, human biology and inequality: A review of “puzzles” and recent contributions from a Deatonian perspective

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  • Baten, Joerg

Abstract

The Nobel laureate Angus Deaton concentrated his work on puzzling developments and phenomena in economics. Puzzles are exciting elements in economics, because readers feel challenged by the question of how they can be solved. Among the puzzles analyzed by Deaton are: (1) Mortality increase of white, U.S. non-Hispanic men (2000 to today); (2) Why are height and income sometimes closely correlated, but not always?; (3) Height inequality among males and females; and (4) The Indian puzzle of declining consumption of calories during overall expenditure growth.

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  • Baten, Joerg, 2017. "Economics, human biology and inequality: A review of “puzzles” and recent contributions from a Deatonian perspective," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 25(C), pages 3-8.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ehbiol:v:25:y:2017:i:c:p:3-8
    DOI: 10.1016/j.ehb.2016.10.012
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    2. Boris Branisa & José Peres-Cajías & Nigel Caspa, 2019. "The Biological Standard of Living in Urban Bolivia, 1880s – 1920s: Stagnation and Persistent Inequality," Development Research Working Paper Series 03/2019, Institute for Advanced Development Studies.
    3. Manuel Llorca-Jaña & Javier Rivas & Damian Clarke & Diego Barría Traverso, 2020. "Height of Male Prisoners in Santiago de Chile during the Nitrate Era: The Penalty of being Unskilled, Illiterate, Illegitimate and Mapuche," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(17), pages 1-24, August.

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