Full Citation

Title: On the 'Biological Standard of Living' of the Middle Class in 19th Century America

Citation Type: Working Paper

Publication Year: 2003

ISBN:

ISSN:

DOI:

NSFID:

PMCID:

PMID:

Abstract: A newly collected sample on heights of U.S. passport applicants is analyzed in order to re-address the trend in physical stature of the American population during the 19th century. It has been observed among various samples of the native born free population that the average (male) physical stature decline during the mid-19th century, starting with cohorts born in the 1830s. This has become known as the "Antebellum puzzle." In spite of considerable work on this phenomenon, the question about the extent to which the decline in the biological standard of living was brought about by economic processes concomitant to the onset of modern economic grown or by a deterioration in the disease environment remains. Hence, it is worthwhile to compare the physical stature of the middle class to the evidence of the native born U.S. population at large. On the basis of our evidence we hold the view that middle class trend deviates sufficiently from that of the U.S. population, and is in particular not subject to secular downturn in the Antebellum decades, to argue that the puzzle is rooted in changes in economic conditions to a considerable degree.

User Submitted?: No

Authors: Sunder, Marco

Series Title:

Publication Number:

Institution: Department of Economics, LMU-University of Munich

Pages:

Publisher Location: Munich, Germany

Data Collections: IPUMS NHGIS

Topics: Other

Countries: