Illinois' Net Nutrition During US Economic Development and the Turner Hypothesis: A Microcosm of United States Net Nutrition and Biological Welfare

Scott A. Carson

No 12609, CESifo Working Paper Series from CESifo

Abstract: In 1893, Frederick Jackson Turner proposed that America's Far Western frontier was an economic 'safety-valve,' a place where settlers migrated when European and eastern states' economic and social conditions crystallized against their upward mobility. However, Turner's hypothesis has come under recent scrutiny, where it is proposed that weather asymmetries and farmers' inability to adjust their farm sizes and region-specific human capital decreased Central Plains' agricultural productivity. Despite challenges to the Turner hypothesis, the Illinois prison illustrates that Central Plains' average height, BMI, and weight by socioeconomic status, race, and urban residence remained constant and robust; heights were taller, BMIs were higher, and weights were heavier. Rather than decreasing, Illinois's net nutrition remained constant or improved, despite Chicago's rapid industrialization, indicating the Turner hypothesis, as measured by net nutrition, remains a viable economic and net nutritional explanation for conditions on the western frontier.

Keywords: stature, Body Mass Index, cumulative net nutrition, nativity; urbanization, race (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C1 C4 D1 I1 N3 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-agr and nep-his
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