Famine and Malnutrition in Franco's Spain. An Anthropometric Balance

José M. Martínez Carrión () and Javier Puche
Additional contact information
José M. Martínez Carrión: Department of Applied Economics, University of Murcia, Spain
Javier Puche: Department of Applied Economics and Economic History and Instituto Agroalimentario de Aragón, IA2 (UNIZAR-CITA), University of Zaragoza, Spain
Authors registered in the RePEc Author Service: José Miguel Martínez-Carrión ()

No 2103, Documentos de Trabajo (DT-AEHE) from Asociación Española de Historia Económica

Abstract: This paper examines the effects of hunger and malnutrition on the biological standards of living of the Spanish during the Francoist autarky. With data on adult heights, mainly of adolescent men available in the military recruitment records, net nutrition is analysed. It presents a balance of anthropometric history that shows the variability of the heights in different parts of the Spanish geography. The increase in adolescent height observed during the first third of the 20th century was truncated during the Civil War (1936-39). Average height decreased in the 1940s. The deterioration in nutritional status was more severe than in other European countries who suffered famines during the World War II. The drop in the average height of the recruits lasted until 1947 and in some rural areas of the interior until 1953. There are important regional differences, within the same territory and by socioeconomic groups. Recent studies show an increase in rural-urban and social gaps, including differences within large cities, between rich and poor neighbourhoods, which reveal the magnitude of the nutritional crisis.

Keywords: height; nutritional status; biological well-being; inequality; Francoist autarky; Spain (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D63 I31 N34 N54 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 22 pages
Date: 2021-07
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-his
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://media.timtul.com/media/web_aehe/DT-AEHE-2103_20240108092648.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ahe:dtaehe:2103

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Documentos de Trabajo (DT-AEHE) from Asociación Española de Historia Económica Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Andreu Seguí Beltrán ().