IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ces/ceswps/_5571.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Mexican and Hispanic Net Nutrition in the 19th Century American West

Author

Listed:
  • Scott A. Carson

Abstract

When traditional methods for measuring economic welfare are scarce or unreliable, heights and BMIs are now well accepted measurements that represent biological conditions during economic development. Weight, after controlling for height, is an alternative measure to BMI for current net nutrition. Little is known about how weights varied among Mexicans living in the 19th century American West. Between 1870 and 1920, average Mexican weight decreased slightly. Mexican farmers had the heaviest weights, and unskilled worker weights were low. For combined characteristics, weight varied the most with height and age, two uncontrollable characteristics, indicating that 19th century Mexican current net nutrition varied the most with factors over which individuals of Mexican descent had no control.

Suggested Citation

  • Scott A. Carson, 2015. "Mexican and Hispanic Net Nutrition in the 19th Century American West," CESifo Working Paper Series 5571, CESifo.
  • Handle: RePEc:ces:ceswps:_5571
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.cesifo.org/DocDL/cesifo1_wp5571.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. Komlos, John, 1987. "The Height and Weight of West Point Cadets: Dietary Change in Antebellum America," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 47(4), pages 897-927, December.
    3. 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.
    4. Koenker,Roger, 2005. "Quantile Regression," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521608275, October.
    5. Carson, Scott Alan, 2005. "The biological standard of living in 19th century Mexico and in the American West," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 3(3), pages 405-419, December.
    6. Edward E. Leamer, 2010. "Tantalus on the Road to Asymptopia," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 24(2), pages 31-46, Spring.
    7. Scott Alan Carson, 2005. "Chinese Sojourn Labor and the American Transcontinental Railroad," Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics (JITE), Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen, vol. 161(1), pages 80-102, March.
    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, 2015. "The Weight of Inequality: Variation with Industrialization and Wealth," CESifo Working Paper Series 5629, CESifo.
    2. Scott A. Carson, 2008. "Demographic, Residential, and Socioeconomic Effects on the Distribution of 19th Century African-American Stature," CESifo Working Paper Series 2479, CESifo.
    3. Scott Alan Carson, 2020. "Net nutrition, insolation, mortality, and the antebellum paradox," Journal of Bioeconomics, Springer, vol. 22(2), pages 77-98, July.
    4. 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.
    5. Scott Carson, 2015. "A Weighty Issue: Diminished Net Nutrition Among the U.S. Working Class in the Nineteenth Century," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 52(3), pages 945-966, June.
    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, 2007. "Slave Prices, Geography and Insolation in 19th Century African-American Stature," CESifo Working Paper Series 2105, CESifo.
    8. Scott A. Carson, 2017. "Late 19th and Early 20th Century Native and Immigrant Body Mass Index Values," CESifo Working Paper Series 6771, CESifo.
    9. Scott A. Carson, 2018. "The 19th Centure Net Nutrition Transition from Free to Bound Labor: A Difference-in-Decompositions Approach," CESifo Working Paper Series 6932, CESifo.
    10. Baten, Joerg & Pelger, Ines & Twrdek, Linda, 2009. "The anthropometric history of Argentina, Brazil and Peru during the 19th and early 20th century," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 7(3), pages 319-333, December.
    11. Scott A. Carson, 2010. "A Quantile Approach to the Relationship between Body Mass, Wealth, and Inequality," CESifo Working Paper Series 3288, CESifo.
    12. Scott A. Carson, 2019. "Body weight and United States economic development, 1840-1940," CESifo Working Paper Series 7573, CESifo.
    13. Scott A. Carson, 2013. "Statures, BMIs, and Weight: A Reassessment," CESifo Working Paper Series 4540, CESifo.
    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 A. Carson, 2009. "Demographic, Residential, and Socioeconomic Effects on the Distribution of 19th Century US White Statures," CESifo Working Paper Series 2563, CESifo.
    16. Scott A. Carson, 2020. "Nineteenth through early 20th Century Female and Male Statures within the Household," CESifo Working Paper Series 8616, CESifo.
    17. Carson, Scott Alan, 2007. "Mexican body mass index values in the late-19th-century American West," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 5(1), pages 37-47, March.
    18. Carson, Scott Alan, 2019. "Late 19th, early 20th century US, foreign-born body mass index values in the United States," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 34(C), pages 26-38.
    19. Scott A. Carson, 2018. "In Support of the Turner Hypothesis for the 19th Century American West: A Biological Response to Recent Criticisms," CESifo Working Paper Series 6969, CESifo.
    20. Scott A. Carson, 2016. "Frederick Jackson Turner and the Westward Expanse: Changing Net Nutrition with Economic Development," CESifo Working Paper Series 5869, CESifo.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    anthropometrics; nineteenth century US weights; net nutrition; health;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I10 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - General
    • J11 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Demographic Trends, Macroeconomic Effects, and Forecasts
    • J15 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Minorities, Races, Indigenous Peoples, and Immigrants; Non-labor Discrimination
    • N00 - Economic History - - General - - - General
    • N31 - Economic History - - Labor and Consumers, Demography, Education, Health, Welfare, Income, Wealth, Religion, and Philanthropy - - - U.S.; Canada: Pre-1913

    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:_5571. 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.