La mortalidad antes de entrar en la vida activa en España Comparaciones regionales e internacionales, 1860–1960

Xavier Cussó and Roser Nicolau

Revista de Historia Económica / Journal of Iberian and Latin American Economic History, 2000, vol. 18, issue 3, 525-551

Abstract: Este artículo analiza la evolución de las disparidades regionales de la mortalidad de los jóvenes españoles entre 1860 y 1960. En primer lugar, muestra que las infecciones digestivas fueron la causa inmediata de la sobremortalidad española y la causa más importante también de sus variaciones regionales internas. En segundo lugar, considera el singular contexto ecológico de las regiones de la España húmeda como el factor decisivo para explicar las ventajas comparativas que en términos de salud y sobrevivencia alcanzaron aquellas regiones antes de finales del siglo XIX. Finalmente explica por qué a partir de entonces, con los descubrimientos de la microbiología, se estableció una nueva y más estrecha relación entre la renta y la mortalidad regionales. ABSTRACT In this work we analyse the changes in the regional distribution of mortality for young Spaniards between 1860 and 1960. First we show that digestive infectious diseases were the immediate cause of excess mortality in Spain compared to Northern and Central European countries. These diseases were also the main factor in the regional differences of mortality in Spain. In our second point we single out the peculiar ecological setting of Atlantic Spanish regions as the most important factor for their comparative advantage in morbidity and mortality at the end of the nineteenth century, relative to the rest of Spain and also to some Northern European regions. In the last part we argue that it was the microbiological revolution that established the direct relation between the standard of living and regional mortality differences that characterise Spain in the twentieth century.

Date: 2000
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cup:reveco:v:18:y:2000:i:03:p:525-551_00

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