«Urban Premium» or «Urban Penalty»? The Case of Lisbon, 1840-1912

Using an anthropometric approach, this paper shows that Lisbon, a large and industrialized city, did not suffer from an «urban penalty» during the second half of the nineteenth century. If anything, its residents enjoyed an «urban premium». Two reasons account for this. People in the city, on average, had more regular and better paid jobs, often requiring skills and education. This was much less the case in the countryside. Secondly, rural people in similar occupations were materially less well off. Together, these features gave Lisbon’s inhabitants a welfare advantage over their rural counterparts despite the harsher conditions of the urban environment.