IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/man/sespap/2110.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Stunting and Wasting in a Growing Economy: Biological Living Standards in Portugal during the Twentieth Century

Author

Listed:
  • Alexandra L. Cermeño
  • Nuno Palma
  • Renato Pistola

Abstract

Portugal's real income per head grew by a factor of eight during the second half of the twentieth century, a period of fast convergence towards Western European living standards. We use a new sample of about 3,400 infants and children living in Lisbon to document trends in the prevalence of stunting and wasting between 1906 and 1994. We find that stunting and wasting fell quickly from around 1950, for both males and females. We additionally use a sample of more than 26,000 young adult males covering the entire country, which shows a consistent decrease in wasting and stunting with the expected time lag. We discuss these trends in relation to changes in income and public policy, which affected the ontogenetic environment of children. Sustained progress began well before the introduction of democracy.

Suggested Citation

  • Alexandra L. Cermeño & Nuno Palma & Renato Pistola, 2021. "Stunting and Wasting in a Growing Economy: Biological Living Standards in Portugal during the Twentieth Century," Economics Discussion Paper Series 2110, Economics, The University of Manchester, revised Jun 2023.
    • Handle: RePEc:man:sespap:2110
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hummedia.manchester.ac.uk/schools/soss/economics/discussionpapers/EDP-2110.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Freire Costa,Leonor & Lains,Pedro & Münch Miranda,Susana, 2019. "An Economic History of Portugal, 1143–2010," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9781108705936.
    2. Palma, Nuno & Reis, Jaime, 2021. "Can autocracy promote literacy? Evidence from a cultural alignment success story," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 186(C), pages 412-436.
    3. Luciano Amaral, 2015. "Measuring competition in Portuguese commercial banking during the Golden Age (1960-1973)," Business History, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 57(8), pages 1192-1218, November.
    4. Palma, Nuno & Reis, Jaime, 2019. "From Convergence to Divergence: Portuguese Economic Growth, 1527–1850," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 79(2), pages 477-506, June.
    5. Lains, Pedro, 2003. "Catching up to the European core: Portuguese economic growth, 1910-1990," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 40(4), pages 369-386, October.
    6. Luciano Amaral, 2019. "The Modern Portuguese Economy in the Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries," Palgrave Studies in Economic History, Palgrave Macmillan, number 978-3-030-24548-1, December.
    7. Luciano Amaral, 2019. "The Estado Novo Period After World War II: The Golden Age of Economic Growth," Palgrave Studies in Economic History, in: The Modern Portuguese Economy in the Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries, chapter 0, pages 171-224, Palgrave Macmillan.
    8. Yvonne Stolz & Joerg Baten & Jaime Reis, 2013. "Portuguese living standards, 1720–1980, in European comparison: heights, income, and human capital," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 66(2), pages 545-578, May.
    9. Luciano Amaral, 2013. "Imperfect but hard competition: the Portuguese banking sector in the Golden Age (1950-1973)," Nova SBE Working Paper Series wp575, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Nova School of Business and Economics.
    10. Prados de la Escosura, Leandro & Rosés, Joan R. & Sanz-Villarroya, Isabel, 2011. "Economic reforms and growth in Franco's Spain*,†," Revista de Historia Económica / Journal of Iberian and Latin American Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 30(1), pages 45-89, August.
    11. Amaral, Luciano, 2013. "Imperfect but true competition: innovation and profitability in Portuguese banking during the golden age (1950–1973)," Financial History Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 20(3), pages 305-333, December.
    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. Cermeño, Alexandra L. & Palma, Nuno & Pistola, Renato, 2021. "Stunting and wasting in a growing economy:biological living standards in Portugal,1924-1994," CAGE Online Working Paper Series 585, Competitive Advantage in the Global Economy (CAGE).
    2. Kedrosky, Davis & Palma, Nuno, 2021. "The Cross of Gold: Brazilian Treasure and the Decline of Portugal," CAGE Online Working Paper Series 574, Competitive Advantage in the Global Economy (CAGE).
    3. Jaime Reis, 2016. "The Gross Agricultural Output of Portugal: A Quantitative, Unified Perspective, 1500-1850," Working Papers 0098, European Historical Economics Society (EHES).
    4. Sofia Teives Henriques & Paul Sharp, 2021. "Without coal in the age of steam and dams in the age of electricity: an explanation for the failure of Portugal to industrialize before the Second World War," European Review of Economic History, European Historical Economics Society, vol. 25(1), pages 85-105.
    5. Leonor Freire Costa & Maria Manuela Rocha & Paulo B. Brito, 2018. "The alchemy of gold: interest rates, money stock, and credit in eighteenth‐century Lisbon," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 71(4), pages 1147-1172, November.
    6. Palma, Nuno & Reis, Jaime & Rodrigues, Lisbeth, 2023. "Historical gender discrimination does not explain comparative Western European development: evidence from Portugal, 1300-1900," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 88(C).
    7. Nuno Palma & Jaime Reis & Mengtian Zhang, 2020. "Reconstruction of regional and national population using intermittent census-type data: The case of Portugal, 1527–1864," Historical Methods: A Journal of Quantitative and Interdisciplinary History, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 53(1), pages 11-27, January.
    8. Fernández, Martín & Tortorici, Gaspare, 2024. "Male and female self-selection during the Portuguese mass migration, 1885–1930," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 92(C).
    9. Rafael Cariello & Thales Zamberlan Pereira, 2024. "Goodbye, Mr. Portugal: Fiscal crisis, constitutional revolution, and the independence of Brazil (1808–22)," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 77(2), pages 728-749, May.
    10. Jaime Reis, 2017. "Deviant behaviour? Inequality in Portugal 1565–1770," Cliometrica, Springer;Cliometric Society (Association Francaise de Cliométrie), vol. 11(3), pages 297-319, September.
    11. Leonor Freire Costa & António Henriques & Nuno Palma, 2022. "Anatomy of a Premodern State," Economics Discussion Paper Series 2208, Economics, The University of Manchester.
    12. Rosés, Joan R., 2008. "Proximate causes of economic growth in Spain, 1850-2000," IFCS - Working Papers in Economic History.WH wp08-12, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid. Instituto Figuerola.
    13. Jordi Guilera, 2011. "Extending the Kuznets Curve," Working Papers in Economics 257, Universitat de Barcelona. Espai de Recerca en Economia.
    14. Rodolfo G. Campos & Iliana Reggio & Jacopo Timini, 2022. "Thick borders in Franco’s Spain: the costs of a closed economy," Working Papers 2209, Banco de España.
    15. Palma, Nuno & Reis, Jaime, 2019. "From Convergence to Divergence: Portuguese Economic Growth, 1527–1850," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 79(2), pages 477-506, June.
    16. Bassino, Jean-Pascal & Broadberry, Stephen & Fukao, Kyoji & Gupta, Bishnupriya & Takashima, Masanori, 2019. "Japan and the great divergence, 730–1874," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 1-22.
    17. Leticia Arroyo Abad & Nuno Palma, 2020. "The Fruits of El Dorado: The Global Impact of American Precious Metals," Working Papers 0179, European Historical Economics Society (EHES).
    18. Beltrán Tapia, Francisco J. & Díez-Minguela, Alfonso & Martinez-Galarraga, Julio, 2018. "Tracing the Evolution of Agglomeration Economies: Spain, 1860–1991," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 78(1), pages 81-117, March.
    19. Jane Humphries & Jacob Weisdorf, 2019. "Unreal Wages? Real Income and Economic Growth in England, 1260–1850," The Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 129(623), pages 2867-2887.
    20. Adam Brzezinski & Nuno Palma & François R. Velde, 2024. "Understanding money using historical evidence," Lewis Lab Working Papers Series 0004, Arthur Lewis Lab, The University of Manchester.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • I15 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Health and Economic Development
    • N34 - Economic History - - Labor and Consumers, Demography, Education, Health, Welfare, Income, Wealth, Religion, and Philanthropy - - - Europe: 1913-
    • O15 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Economic Development: Human Resources; Human Development; Income Distribution; Migration

    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:man:sespap:2110. 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: Marianne Sensier (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/semanuk.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.