IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ces/ceswps/_3383.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Demographic, Residential, and Socioeconomic Effects on the Distribution of 19th Century White Body Mass Index Values

Author

Listed:
  • Scott A. Carson

Abstract

Little research exists on the body mass index values of 19th century Americans of European descent. Using a new BMI data set and robust statistics, between 1860 and 1880, BMIs decreased across the distribution; however, after 1880, BMIs in the highest quantiles increased, while those in lower BMI quantiles continued to decrease. Late 19th and early 20th century white BMIs increased at older ages in higher quantiles and decreased in lower quantiles, indicating significant net biological disparity by age. During industrialization, white BMIs were lower in Kentucky, Missouri, and urban Philadelphia.

Suggested Citation

  • 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.
    • Handle: RePEc:ces:ceswps:_3383
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.cesifo.org/DocDL/cesifo1_wp3383.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Komlos, John & Coclanis, Peter, 1997. "On the Puzzling Cycle in the Biological Standard of Living: The Case of Antebellum Georgia," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 34(4), pages 433-459, October.
    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. 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.
    4. 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.
    5. Murray, John E., 1997. "Standards of the Present for People of the Past: Height, Weight, and Mortality among Men of Amherst College, 1834–1949," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 57(3), pages 585-606, September.
    6. 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.
    7. John Komlos & Peter Coclanis, "undated". "On the 'Puzzling' Antebellum Cycle of the Biological Standard of Living: the Case of Georgia," Articles by John Komlos 9, Department of Economics, University of Munich.
    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. 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.
    2. Scott A. Carson, 2013. "US Male Obesity from 1800-2000: A Long Term Perspective," CESifo Working Paper Series 4366, CESifo.
    3. 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.
    4. 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.
    5. Scott A. Carson, 2010. "Nineteenth Century US African-American and White Female Statures: Insight from US Prison Records," CESifo Working Paper Series 3169, 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, 2012. "Nineteenth Century US BMIs by Race: Socioeconomics and Biology," CESifo Working Paper Series 3971, CESifo.
    8. 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.
    9. 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.
    10. Komlos, John & A’Hearn, Brian, 2017. "Hidden negative aspects of industrialization at the onset of modern economic growth in the U.S," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 43-52.
    11. Carson, Scott Alan, 2009. "Racial differences in body mass indices of men imprisoned in 19th Century Texas," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 7(1), pages 121-127, March.
    12. Scott A. Carson, 2010. "A Quantile Approach to the Relationship between Body Mass, Wealth, and Inequality," CESifo Working Paper Series 3288, CESifo.
    13. Komlos, John, 2010. "The recent decline in the height of African-American women," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 8(1), pages 58-66, March.
    14. Scott A. Carson, 2008. "Geography and Insolation in 19th Century US African-American and White Statures," CESifo Working Paper Series 2229, CESifo.
    15. Scott Carson, 2011. "Demographic, residential, and socioeconomic effects on the distribution of nineteenth-century African-American stature," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 24(4), pages 1471-1491, October.
    16. David Cutler & Angus Deaton & Adriana Lleras-Muney, 2006. "The Determinants of Mortality," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 20(3), pages 97-120, Summer.
    17. Scott A. Carson, 2009. "Demographic, Residential, and Socioeconomic Effects on the Distribution of 19th Century US White Statures," CESifo Working Paper Series 2563, CESifo.
    18. Bodenhorn, Howard, 2010. "Height and body mass index values of nineteenth-century New York legislators," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 8(1), pages 121-126, March.
    19. Scott Alan Carson, 2013. "The Significance and Relative Contributions of Demographic, Residence, and Socioeconomic Status in Nineteenth-Century U.S. BMI Variation," Historical Methods: A Journal of Quantitative and Interdisciplinary History, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 46(2), pages 67-76, June.
    20. Scott A. Carson, 2015. "The Weight of Inequality: Variation with Industrialization and Wealth," CESifo Working Paper Series 5629, CESifo.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    body mass index; 19th century race relations;

    JEL classification:

    • I10 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - 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:_3383. 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.