IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/lmu/muenec/466.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Spatial Correlates of U.S. Heights and BMIs, 2002

Author

Listed:
  • Komlos, John
  • Lauderdale, Benjamin E.

Abstract

Aiming to further explore possible underlying causes for the recent stagnation in American heights, this paper describes the result of analysis of the commercial U.S. Sizing Survey. Using zip codes available in the data set, we consider geographic correlates of height such as local poverty rate, median income, and population density. We find that after adjusting for variables known to influence height such as income and education, population density is negatively correlated with height among white men, but only marginally among white women. Similar analysis of Body Mass Index (BMI) also shows a negative correlation with population density after adjustment for income, education, and age for both sexes. Local economic conditions as measured by median income, unemployment rate or poverty rate do not have a strong correlation with height or weight after adjusting for individual income and education.

Suggested Citation

  • Komlos, John & Lauderdale, Benjamin E., 2004. "Spatial Correlates of U.S. Heights and BMIs, 2002," Discussion Papers in Economics 466, University of Munich, Department of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:lmu:muenec:466
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://epub.ub.uni-muenchen.de/466/1/USheights2002-2.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Komlos, John & Smith, Patricia K. & Bogin, Barry, 2003. "Obesity and the Rate of Time Preference: Is there a Connection?," Discussion Papers in Economics 60, University of Munich, Department of Economics.
    2. Sunder, Marco, 2003. "The making of giants in a welfare state: the Norwegian experience in the 20th century," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 1(2), pages 267-276, June.
    3. Peters, H Elizabeth, 1992. "Patterns of Intergenerational Mobility in Income and Earnings," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 74(3), pages 456-466, August.
    4. Nicola Persico & Andrew Postlewaite & Dan Silverman, 2004. "The Effect of Adolescent Experience on Labor Market Outcomes: The Case of Height," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 112(5), pages 1019-1053, October.
    5. Sandra L. Decker & Dahlia K. Remler, 2004. "How Much Might Universal Health Insurance Reduce Socioeconomic Disparities in Health? A Comparison of the US and Canada," NBER Working Papers 10715, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    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. Komlos, John & Lauderdale, Benjamin E., 2006. "Underperformance in affluence: the remarkable relative decline in American heights in the second half of the 20th-century," Discussion Papers in Economics 1241, University of Munich, Department of Economics.
    2. Maria-Dolores, Ramon & Martínez Carrion, José Miguel, 2012. "The comovement between height and some economic development indicators in Spain," UMUFAE Economics Working Papers 26464, DIGITUM. Universidad de Murcia.
    3. Komlos, John & Baur, Marieluise, 2004. "From the tallest to (one of) the fattest: the enigmatic fate of the American population in the 20th century," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 2(1), pages 57-74, March.
    4. Joan Costa-i-Font & Lucia Kossarova, 2015. "Anthropometric Dividends of Czechoslovakia’s Break Up," LEQS – LSE 'Europe in Question' Discussion Paper Series 95, European Institute, LSE.
    5. Costa-Font, Joan & Kossarova, Lucia, 2014. "Anthropometric dividends of Czechoslovakia’s break up," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 60719, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    6. María-Dolores, Ramón & Martínez-Carrión, José Miguel, 2011. "The relationship between height and economic development in Spain, 1850-1958," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 9(1), pages 30-44, January.
    7. 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.
    8. Costa-Font, Joan & Gil, Joan, 2008. "Generational effects and gender height dimorphism in contemporary Spain," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 6(1), pages 1-18, March.
    9. Atella, Vincenzo & Pace, Noemi & Vuri, Daniela, 2008. "Are employers discriminating with respect to weight?: European Evidence using Quantile Regression," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 6(3), pages 305-329, December.
    10. Joan Costa-i-Font & Lucia Kossarova, 2014. "Anthropometric Dividends of Czechoslovakia's Break Up," CESifo Working Paper Series 5081, CESifo.
    11. Azevedo, Viviane & Bouillon, César P., 2009. "Social Mobility in Latin America: A Review of Existing Evidence," IDB Publications (Working Papers) 1656, Inter-American Development Bank.
    12. 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.
    13. Tao, Hung-Lin, 2014. "Height, weight, and entry earnings of female graduates in Taiwan," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 13(C), pages 85-98.
    14. Ibragimov, Rustam, 2008. "A Tale of Two Tails: Peakedness Properties in Inheritance Models of Evolutionary Theory," Scholarly Articles 2624003, Harvard University Department of Economics.
    15. Chong Lu, 2022. "The effect of migration on rural residents’ intergenerational subjective social status mobility in China," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 56(5), pages 3279-3308, October.
    16. By Tyas Prevoo & Bas ter Weel, 2015. "The importance of early conscientiousness for socio-economic outcomes: evidence from the British Cohort Study," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 67(4), pages 918-948.
    17. Petter Lundborg & Carl Hampus Lyttkens & Paul Nystedt, 2016. "The Effect of Schooling on Mortality: New Evidence From 50,000 Swedish Twins," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 53(4), pages 1135-1168, August.
    18. Janet Currie & Tom Vogl, 2013. "Early-Life Health and Adult Circumstance in Developing Countries," Annual Review of Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 5(1), pages 1-36, May.
    19. Fatimah, Alfariany Milati & Kofol, Chiara, 2023. "Migrating for children’s better future: Intergenerational mobility of internal migrants’ children in Indonesia," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 86(C).
    20. Ozturk, Orgul & Chyi, hau, 2006. "The Effects of Single Mothers' Welfare Participation and Work Decisions on Children's Attainments," MPRA Paper 10110, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 2008.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Height ; Biological Standard of Living ; Anthropometry ; Social inequality ; Health ; Physical Stature ; BMI ; Weight;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D60 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - General
    • I10 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - General
    • I31 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - General Welfare, Well-Being
    • J15 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Minorities, Races, Indigenous Peoples, and Immigrants; Non-labor Discrimination

    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:lmu:muenec:466. 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: Tamilla Benkelberg (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/vfmunde.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.