IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/bci/wpaper/2302.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Scarring through the German hyperinflation

Author

Listed:
  • Gregori Galofre-Vila

    (Universitat de Valencia)

Abstract

I study the link between the 1923 German hyperinflation and health by linking monthly data on the cost-of-living index with monthly infant and cause-specific adult mortality rates in 280 cities. By exploring panel data with a range of fixed effects, I find that hyperinflation boosted mortality rates. The largest increases in mortality came from rises in amenable mortality, which are cause-specific deaths plausibly linked to deteriorating social conditions over the short-term, such as deaths from influenza, meningitis, scarlet fever, tuberculosis, and whooping cough. I also rely on children's heights and weights to show that worsening health was related to impaired nutrition. The results are robust to a range of specifications, placebo tests, and Conley standard errors.

Suggested Citation

  • Gregori Galofre-Vila, 2023. "Scarring through the German hyperinflation," Documentos de Trabajo EH-Valencia (DT-EHV) 2302, Economic History group at the Universitat de Valencia.
  • Handle: RePEc:bci:wpaper:2302
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.ehvalencia.es/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/DT_EHV_2023_02.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Bartels, Charlotte, 2019. "Top Incomes in Germany, 1871-2014," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 79(3), pages 669-707.
    2. Christopher J. Ruhm, 2000. "Are Recessions Good for Your Health?," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 115(2), pages 617-650.
    3. Jose A Lopez & Kris James Mitchener, 2021. "Uncertainty and Hyperinflation: European Inflation Dynamics after World War I [Modeling and forecasting realized volatility]," The Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 131(633), pages 450-475.
    4. Fogel, Robert W. & Grotte, Nathaniel, 2011. "Major Findings from The Changing Body: Health, Nutrition, and Human Development in the Western World since 1700," The Journal of Economic Asymmetries, Elsevier, vol. 8(2), pages 1-9.
    5. Bernard Harris, 2021. "Anthropometric history and the measurement of wellbeing," Vienna Yearbook of Population Research, Vienna Institute of Demography (VID) of the Austrian Academy of Sciences in Vienna, vol. 19(1), pages 91-123.
    6. Doocy, Shannon & Ververs, Mija-Tesse & Spiegel, Paul & Beyrer, Chris, 2019. "The food security and nutrition crisis in Venezuela," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 226(C), pages 63-68.
    7. Roderick Floud & Robert W. Fogel & Bernard Harris & Sok Chul Hong, 2011. "The Changing Body: Health, Nutrition, and Human Development in the Western World since 1700," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number foge10-1, January.
    8. Robert W. Fogel & Nathaniel Grotte, 2011. "An Overview of The Changing Body: Health, Nutrition, and Human Development in the Western World Since 1700," NBER Working Papers 16938, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    9. Galofré-Vilà, Gregori, 2018. "Growth and maturity: A quantitative systematic review and network analysis in anthropometric history," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 28(C), pages 107-118.
    10. Feldman, Gerald D., 1997. "The Great Disorder: Politics, Economics, and Society in the German Inflation, 1914-1924," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780195101140.
    11. Crew, David F., 1998. "Germans on Welfare: From Weimar to Hitler," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780195053111.
    12. Schneider, Eric B., 2018. "Sample selection biases and the historical growth pattern of children," Economic History Working Papers 87075, London School of Economics and Political Science, Department of Economic History.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Daniel Gallardo-Albarrán, 2024. "Capital, Productivity, and Human Welfare Since 1870," Springer Books, in: Claude Diebolt & Michael Haupert (ed.), Handbook of Cliometrics, edition 3, pages 2023-2048, Springer.
    2. Schneider, Eric B., 2023. "The determinants of child stunting and shifts in the growth pattern of children: a long-run, global review," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 120392, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    3. Eric B. Schneider & Kota Ogasawara & Tim J. Cole, 2021. "Health Shocks, Recovery, and the First Thousand Days: The Effect of the Second World War on Height Growth in Japanese Children," Population and Development Review, The Population Council, Inc., vol. 47(4), pages 1075-1105, December.
    4. José Joaquín García-Gómez & Juan Diego Pérez-Cebada, 2020. "A Socio-Environmental History of a Copper Mining Company: Rio-Tinto Company Limited (1874–1930)," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(11), pages 1-17, June.
    5. Damian Clarke & Manuel Llorca Jaña & Daniel Pailañir, 2023. "The use of quantile methods in economic history," Historical Methods: A Journal of Quantitative and Interdisciplinary History, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 56(2), pages 115-132, April.
    6. Galofré-Vilà, Gregori, 2018. "Growth and maturity: A quantitative systematic review and network analysis in anthropometric history," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 28(C), pages 107-118.
    7. Meisel-Roca, Adolfo & Ramírez-Giraldo, María Teresa & Santos-Cárdenas, Daniela, 2019. "Long run relationship between biological well being, and economic development in Colombia," Working papers 24, Red Investigadores de Economía.
    8. Gregori Galofré-Vilà & Martin McKee & David Stuckler, 2022. "Quantifying the mortality impact of the 1935 old-age assistance," European Review of Economic History, European Historical Economics Society, vol. 26(1), pages 62-77.
    9. Eric B. Schneider, 2016. "Health, Gender and the Household: Children’s Growth in the Marcella Street Home, Boston, MA, and the Ashford School, London, UK," Research in Economic History, in: Research in Economic History, volume 32, pages 277-361, Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
    10. Ewout Depauw & Deborah Oxley, 2017. "Toddlers, teenagers & terminal heights: The determinants of adult male stature Flanders 1800-76," Oxford Economic and Social History Working Papers _157, University of Oxford, Department of Economics.
    11. Daniel Gallardo‐Albarrán, 2020. "Sanitary infrastructures and the decline of mortality in Germany, 1877–1913," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 73(3), pages 730-757, August.
    12. Owen Thompson, 2017. "Gene–Environment Interaction in the Intergenerational Transmission of Asthma," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 26(11), pages 1337-1352, November.
    13. Tommy Bengtsson & Martin Dribe & Jonas Helgertz, 2020. "When Did the Health Gradient Emerge? Social Class and Adult Mortality in Southern Sweden, 1813–2015," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 57(3), pages 953-977, June.
    14. Antonio M. Linares-Luján & Francisco M. Parejo-Moruno, 2021. "Rural Height Penalty or Socioeconomic Penalization? The Nutritional Inequality in Backward Spain," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(9), pages 1-25, April.
    15. Kota Ogasawara & Ian Gazeley & Eric B. Schneider, 2020. "Nutrition, Crowding, And Disease Among Low‐Income Households In Tokyo In 1930," Australian Economic History Review, Economic History Society of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 60(1), pages 73-104, March.
    16. Marco-Gracia, Francisco J. & Puche, Javier, 2021. "The association between male height and lifespan in rural Spain, birth cohorts 1835-1939," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 43(C).
    17. Goldin, Claudia & Lleras-Muney, Adriana, 2019. "XX > XY?: The changing female advantage in life expectancy," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 67(C).
    18. Enrique Acosta & Alain Gagnon & Nadine Ouellette & Robert R. Bourbeau & Marilia R. Nepomuceno & Alyson A. van Raalte, 2020. "The boomer penalty: excess mortality among baby boomers in Canada and the United States," MPIDR Working Papers WP-2020-003, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany.
    19. Ian Gazeley & Rose Holmes & Andrew Newell & Kevin Reynolds & Hector Gutierrez Rufrancos, 2023. "Escaping from hunger before WW1: the nutritional transition and living standards in Western Europe and USA in the late nineteenth century," Cliometrica, Springer;Cliometric Society (Association Francaise de Cliométrie), vol. 17(3), pages 533-565, September.
    20. Ramon Ramon-Muñoz & Josep-Maria Ramon-Muñoz & Begoña Candela-Martínez, 2021. "Sibship Size, Height and Cohort Selection: A Methodological Approach," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(24), pages 1-29, December.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Hyperinflation; monetary policy; mortality; anthropometry; weimar;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • N14 - Economic History - - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics; Industrial Structure; Growth; Fluctuations - - - Europe: 1913-
    • N34 - Economic History - - Labor and Consumers, Demography, Education, Health, Welfare, Income, Wealth, Religion, and Philanthropy - - - Europe: 1913-
    • N44 - Economic History - - Government, War, Law, International Relations, and Regulation - - - Europe: 1913-
    • D7 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making
    • D72 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - Political Processes: Rent-seeking, Lobbying, Elections, Legislatures, and Voting Behavior

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bci:wpaper:2302. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Alfonso Diez Minguela (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.ehvalencia.es .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.