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Title: Selection and Anthropometrics in Economic History
Citation Type: Dissertation/Thesis
Publication Year: 2016
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Abstract: This dissertation combines three studies in anthropometric history, a field of economic history that uses measurements of the human body to make inference about the standard of living in historical contexts. Chapter 1 of this dissertation places the three studies into the context of this field, which it also surveys very briefly as it relates to the present research. Chapters 2 and 3 of this dissertation study the Antebellum Puzzle, a simultaneous decline in average stature and rise in GDP per capita—coupled with lower average stature in richer regions—in the antebellum United States. Chapter 2 addresses recent suggestions that the Antebellum Puzzle may be an artifact of sample-selection bias, stemming from a reliance on data from military volunteers to construct height samples. This chapter provides the first empirical test of this argument by using a two-step semi-parametric sample-selection model to estimate trends and patterns in average stature in the antebellum United States that are corrected for selection into military service on the basis of both observable and unobservable characteristics. I find that the Antebellum Puzzle is robust to these corrections, and therefore is not an artifact of sample-selection bias. This result, however, does not imply that sample-selection bias can be disregarded in studies of historical heights. On the contrary, the degree of sample-selection bias is shown to vary over birth cohorts and across regions and sectors, and accounting for sample selection meaningfully and statistically significantly alters . . .
Url: https://search.proquest.com/docview/1826027848/abstract/F42D34905B424562PQ/1?accountid=14586
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Authors: Zimran, Ariell Elan
Institution: Northwestern University
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Pages: 410
Data Collections: IPUMS USA
Topics: Other
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