IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ces/ceswps/_3288.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

A Quantile Approach to the Relationship between Body Mass, Wealth, and Inequality

Author

Listed:
  • Scott A. Carson

Abstract

Little research exists on the historical relationship between BMI variation, wealth, and inequality. This study finds that 19th century US black and white BMIs were distributed symmetrically; neither wasting nor obesity was common. Nineteenth century BMI values were also greater for blacks than whites. There was a positive relationship between 19th century BMIs and average state-level wealth, and an inverse relationship between BMI and wealth inequality. After controlling for wealth and inequality, rural agricultural farmers had greater BMI values than their urban counterparts in other occupations.

Suggested Citation

  • Scott A. Carson, 2010. "A Quantile Approach to the Relationship between Body Mass, Wealth, and Inequality," CESifo Working Paper Series 3288, CESifo.
    • Handle: RePEc:ces:ceswps:_3288
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.cesifo.org/DocDL/cesifo1_wp3288.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Joshua D. Angrist & Jörn-Steffen Pischke, 2010. "The Credibility Revolution in Empirical Economics: How Better Research Design Is Taking the Con out of Econometrics," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 24(2), pages 3-30, Spring.
    2. John Strauss & Duncan Thomas, 1998. "Health, Nutrition, and Economic Development," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 36(2), pages 766-817, June.
    3. Wilkinson, Richard G & Pickett, Kate E., 2006. "Income inequality and population health: A review and explanation of the evidence," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 62(7), pages 1768-1784, April.
    4. David M. Cutler & Edward L. Glaeser & Jesse M. Shapiro, 2003. "Why Have Americans Become More Obese?," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 17(3), pages 93-118, Summer.
    5. Fogel, Robert W, 1994. "Economic Growth, Population Theory, and Physiology: The Bearing of Long-Term Processes on the Making of Economic Policy," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 84(3), pages 369-395, June.
    6. Bodenhorn, Howard, 1999. "A Troublesome Caste: Height and Nutrition of Antebellum Virginia's Rural Free Blacks," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 59(4), pages 972-996, December.
    7. Costa, Dora L., 2004. "The Measure of Man and Older Age Mortality: Evidence from the Gould Sample," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 64(1), pages 1-23, March.
    8. Angus Deaton, 2008. "Height, Health, and Inequality: The Distribution of Adult Heights in India," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 98(2), pages 468-474, May.
    9. repec:pri:rpdevs:deaton_height_health_inequality_revised_ack_jan08.pdf is not listed on IDEAS
    10. Haines, Michael R. & Craig, Lee A. & Weiss, Thomas, 2003. "The Short and the Dead: Nutrition, Mortality, and the “Antebellum Puzzle” in the United States," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 63(2), pages 382-413, June.
    11. Richard H. Steckel, 1982. "Height and Per Capita Income," NBER Working Papers 0880, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    12. Edward E. Leamer, 2010. "Tantalus on the Road to Asymptopia," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 24(2), pages 31-46, Spring.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Darshan Zala, 2013. "Challenging The Spirit Level: Is There Really a Relationship between Inequality and Obesity?," Economic Affairs, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 33(2), pages 232-245, June.

    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. Scott Carson, 2013. "Differences in body mass indices for males imprisoned in the 19th century American South," Journal of Bioeconomics, Springer, vol. 15(1), pages 1-16, April.
    2. Scott A. Carson, 2010. "Nineteenth Century US African-American and White Female Statures: Insight from US Prison Records," CESifo Working Paper Series 3169, CESifo.
    3. Scott A. Carson, 2015. "The Weight of Inequality: Variation with Industrialization and Wealth," CESifo Working Paper Series 5629, CESifo.
    4. Scott A. Carson, 2010. "Racial Differences in Body-Mass Indices for Men Imprisoned in 19th Century US Prisons: A Multinomial Approach," CESifo Working Paper Series 3016, CESifo.
    5. Scott A. Carson, 2011. "Demographic, Residential, and Socioeconomic Effects on the Distribution of 19th Century African-American Body Mass Index Values," CESifo Working Paper Series 3338, CESifo.
    6. Carson, Scott Alan, 2011. "Height of female Americans in the 19th century and the antebellum puzzle," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 9(2), pages 157-164, March.
    7. Scott A. Carson, 2008. "Geography and Insolation in 19th Century US African-American and White Statures," CESifo Working Paper Series 2229, CESifo.
    8. Scott A. Carson, 2012. "Nineteenth Century US BMIs by Race: Socioeconomics and Biology," CESifo Working Paper Series 3971, CESifo.
    9. Scott A. Carson, 2012. "Obesity in Black and White: Accounting for 19th Century US BMI Differences by Socioeconomic Status and Biology," CESifo Working Paper Series 3913, CESifo.
    10. Scott A. Carson, 2013. "Black and White Body Mass Index Values in Developing 19th Century Nebraska," CESifo Working Paper Series 4268, CESifo.
    11. Steckel, Richard H., 2009. "Heights and human welfare: Recent developments and new directions," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 46(1), pages 1-23, January.
    12. Carson, Scott Alan, 2011. "Was the 19th century stature-insolation relationship similar across independent samples? Evidence from soldiers and prisoners," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 40(2), pages 199-207, April.
    13. Carson, Scott Alan, 2013. "Body mass, wealth, and inequality in the 19th century: Joining the debate surrounding equality and health," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 11(1), pages 90-94.
    14. Scott Alan Carson, 2020. "Net nutrition, insolation, mortality, and the antebellum paradox," Journal of Bioeconomics, Springer, vol. 22(2), pages 77-98, July.
    15. Scott A. Carson, 2008. "Demographic, Residential, and Socioeconomic Effects on the Distribution of 19th Century African-American Stature," CESifo Working Paper Series 2479, CESifo.
    16. Scott A. Carson, 2011. "Demographic, Residential, and Socioeconomic Effects on the Distribution of 19th Century White Body Mass Index Values," CESifo Working Paper Series 3383, CESifo.
    17. John Komlos, 2009. "Recent Trends in Height by Gender and Ethnicity in the US in Relation to Levels of Income," NBER Working Papers 14635, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    18. Scott Alan Carson & Scott A. Carson, 2022. "Nineteenth and Early 20th Century Physical Activity and Calories by Gender and Race," CESifo Working Paper Series 10140, CESifo.
    19. Komlos, John, 2012. "A Three-Decade “Kuhnian” History of the Antebellum Puzzle: Explaining the shrinking of the US population at the onset of modern economic growth," Discussion Papers in Economics 12758, University of Munich, Department of Economics.
    20. Schultz, T. Paul, 2010. "Population and Health Policies," Handbook of Development Economics, in: Dani Rodrik & Mark Rosenzweig (ed.), Handbook of Development Economics, edition 1, volume 5, chapter 0, pages 4785-4881, Elsevier.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    BMI; wealth; inequality; and race;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I10 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - General
    • N00 - Economic History - - General - - - General

    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:ces:ceswps:_3288. 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: Klaus Wohlrabe (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/cesifde.html .

    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.