Inequality and living standards under early communism: Anthropometric evidence from Czechoslovakia, 1946-1966

Tomas Cvrcek ()

Explorations in Economic History, 2009, vol. 46, issue 4, pages 436-449

Abstract: A sample of adolescent heights and weights from the Czechoslovak city of Liberec is analyzed to shed light on the changes in biological standard of living between 1946 and 1966, the early years of Communist rule in Czechoslovakia. The long-term trend in average height was upwards for all social groups but differences in stature between social groups were about as large as in Communist Czechoslovakia as in market economies, such as the UK. Sons of blue-collar fathers and of parents employed in agriculture were generally shorter than sons of clerks and professional employees (teachers, doctors, lawyers). The anthropometric record also suggests that in the immediately post-war years inequality was greater than in the late 1950s and early 1960s.

Keywords: Physical; stature; Biological; standard; of; living; Communism; Czechoslovakia; Command; economies; Anthropometric; history (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2009

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/B6WFJ ... 3e4de8fe8d04c5fecfd5
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

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: http://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:exehis:v:46:y:2009:i:4:p:436-449

Access Statistics for this article

Explorations in Economic History is edited by R. A. Margo

More articles in Explorations in Economic History from Elsevier
Series data maintained by Heidi Boesdal ().