: Received wisdom versus reality: height, nutrition, and urbanization in mid-nineteenth-century France

Laurent Heyberger ()
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Laurent Heyberger: UTBM, Belfort, France

Cliometrica, Journal of Historical Economics and Econometric History, 2014, vol. 8, issue 1, 115-140

Abstract: Since the pioneering study of Le Roy Ladurie and his team, the idea that mean height can be considered as a reliable indicator of the standard of living has emerged from a long debate among historians and economists. Considering height in this respect, nineteenth-century France, unlike most Western countries, did not pay an urban penalty. Thanks to a substantial set of individual data (105,324 observations), based on the draft lottery of Frenchmen born in the year 1848, we are able to prove that this “French exception” did not, in fact, exist. The larger the town, the shorter were the conscripts. Among the towns, Paris had the shortest conscripts. By combining individual data with the agricultural survey of 1852, we are able to identify those factors that compensated for this urban penalty-that were positively correlated with height: nutritional availability, the literacy rate, and life expectancy.

Keywords: Height; France; Urbanisation; Nutrition; Anthropometrics; Biological standard of living (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I32 N33 N93 O13 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (8)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:afc:cliome:v:8:y:2014:i:1:p:115-140

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