Transitions that Matter? Czechoslovakia’s Break up and Human Stature

Joan Costa-Font and Lucia Kossarova
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Joan Costa-Font: Department of Health Policy, London School of Economics and Political Science, London WC2A 2AE, UK
Lucia Kossarova: Department of Health Policy, London School of Economics and Political, London WC2A 2AE, UK

IJERPH, 2019, vol. 16, issue 24, 1-13

Abstract: Changes in a population’s average stature are virtuous pointers of wellbeing which are sensitive to improvements in psychosocial environments during childhood. A major structural change that could have altered an environment during childhood is the transition from communist to a liberal democracy, and, more specifically, the meltdown of the Soviet bloc provides for a quasi-natural experiment. This paper examines the trends in heights in the Czech Republic and Slovakia before and after the transition and the subsequent break-up of the Czechoslovakian federation. We find that one additional year of exposure to a liberal democracy while growing up is associated with an increasing population stature of 0.28 cm among Slovaks and 0.15 cm among Czechs. We only find changes in stature among men who are more sensitive to environmental stress, especially at the lower end of the current socio-economic status. Results are robust to alternative datasets and measures of democracy.

Keywords: height; democracy; transition; secession; Czechoslovakia; Slovakia; Czech Republic (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
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