Smallpox really did reduce height: a reply to Razzell

Tim Leunig and Hans-Joachim Voth

LSE Research Online Documents on Economics from London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library

Abstract: Razzell argues that the quality of smallpox recording in the Marine Society data set is so poor that ‘the impact of smallpox on average height cannot be settled by analysis of the Marine Society data set’. We believe that this grossly overstates the problems of the records, and is based on a careless reading of the original records on his part. Furthermore, insofar as his claim that some of the boys who are recorded as escaping smallpox had in fact suffered the disease, the direction of bias strengthens rather than weakens the statistical evidence that smallpox reduced height.

JEL-codes: N0 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2001-02
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

Published in Economic History Review, February, 2001, 54(1), pp. 110-114. ISSN: 0013-0117

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Journal Article: Smallpox really did reduce height: a reply to Razzell (2001)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ehl:lserod:496

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