Numeracy and the Impact of High Food Prices in Industrializing Britain, 1780–1850

Joerg Baten, Dorothee Crayen and Hans-Joachim Voth

The Review of Economics and Statistics, 2014, vol. 96, issue 3, 418-430

Abstract: Using census-based data on the ability to recall one's age, we show that low levels of nutrition impaired numeracy in industrializing England, 1780 to 1850: cognitive ability declined among those born during the Napoleonic wars. The effect was stronger in areas where grain was expensive and relief for the poor, an early form of welfare support was limited. Nutritional shortages had a nonlinear effect on numeracy, with, severe shortages impairing numeracy more. Nutrition during childhood also mattered for labor market outcomes: individuals born in periods or counties with low numeracy typically worked in occupations with lower earnings.© 2014 The President and Fellows of Harvard College and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Keywords: nutrition; cognitive development; age heaping; numeracy; occupational choice; Industrial Revolution; social spending; poverty traps; effects of war. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I28 N33 O11 O15 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (43)

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