Stunting and wasting in a growing economy: biological living standards in Portugal during the twentieth century

Cermeño, Alexandra, Nuno Palma and Renato Pistola
Authors registered in the RePEc Author Service: Alexandra L. Cermeño

No 16617, CEPR Discussion Papers from C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers

Abstract: Portugal's real income per head grew by a factor of eight during the second half of the twentieth century, a period of fast convergence towards Western European living standards. We use a new sample of about 3,400 infants and children living in Lisbon to document trends in the prevalence of stunting and wasting between 1906 and 1994. We find that stunting and wasting fell quickly from around 1950, for both males and females. We additionally use a sample of more than 26,000 young adult males covering the entire country, which shows a consistent decrease in wasting and stunting with the expected time lag. We discuss these trends in relation to changes in income and public policy, which affected the ontogenetic environment of children. Sustained progress began well before the introduction of democracy.

Keywords: Anthropometrics; Poverty; Economic development; Child health (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I15 N34 O15 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022-04
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://cepr.org/publications/DP16617 (application/pdf)
CEPR Discussion Papers are free to download for our researchers, subscribers and members. If you fall into one of these categories but have trouble downloading our papers, please contact us at subscribers@cepr.org

Related works:
Journal Article: Stunting and wasting in a growing economy: biological living standards in Portugal during the twentieth century (2023)
Working Paper: Stunting and Wasting in a Growing Economy: Biological Living Standards in Portugal during the Twentieth Century (2023)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:16617

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
https://cepr.org/publications/DP16617

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in CEPR Discussion Papers from C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers Centre for Economic Policy Research, 33 Great Sutton Street, London EC1V 0DX.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by ().