Suchergebnisse

Using data from late 19th and early 20th century US prisons, this study considers how black and mulatto basal metabolic rates and calories varied with economic development. During the 19th century, black physical activity and net nutrition declined during the late 19th and early 20th centuries across their BMR and calorie distributions, and increasing black life expectancy was not likely due to improved nutrition. Physically active farmers had greater BMRs and received more calories per day than workers in other occupations. Black diets, nutrition, and calories varied by residence, and rural blacks in the Deep South consumed the most calories per day, while their Northeastern urban counterparts consumed the least. Policy implications are that public sanitation facilities are of greater import than nutrition during economic development.

Using data from late 19th and early 20th century US prisons, this study estimates the basal metabolic rates and calories for Americans of European descent. Throughout the 19th century, white basal metabolic rates (BMRs) and calories declined across their respective distributions, and much of the decrease coincides with economic development. White life expectancy increased at the same time that nutrition decreased, indicating that the most important source of increased life expectancy was not improved nutrition. Physically active farmers had greater BMRs and received more calories per day than workers in other occupations. White diets, nutrition, and calories varied by residence, and whites in the rural Deep South consumed the most calories per day, while Northeastern urban whites consumed the least.

Much has been written about the modern obesity epidemic, and historical BMIs are low compared to their modern counterparts. However, interpreting BMI variation is difficult because BMIs increase when weight increases or when stature decreases, and the two have different implications for human health. An alternative measure for net current biological conditions is body weight. After controlling for height, African-American and white weights decreased throughout the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Farmers had greater average weights than workers in other occupations. Individuals from the South had taller statures, greater BMIs, and heavier weights than workers in other US regions, indicating that even though the South had higher 19th century disease rates, it had better net nutritional conditions.

Little research exists on the body mass index values of 19th century Americans of European descent. Using a new BMI data set and robust statistics, between 1860 and 1880, BMIs decreased across the distribution; however, after 1880, BMIs in the highest quantiles increased, while those in lower BMI quantiles continued to decrease. Late 19th and early 20th century white BMIs increased at older ages in higher quantiles and decreased in lower quantiles, indicating significant net biological disparity by age. During industrialization, white BMIs were lower in Kentucky, Missouri, and urban Philadelphia.

The use of height data to measure living standards is now a well-established method in economics. Nevertheless, a neglected area in historical stature studies is the relationship between stature and family size, and statures are documented here to be positively related with family size. The relationship between material inequality and heath is the subject of considerable debate, and there was an inverse relationship between material inequality and stature. The paper also supports a bio-spatial relationship between the environment and stature.

AbstractCommunities urbanize when the net benefits to urbanization exceed rural areas. Body mass, height, and weight are biological welfare measures that reflect the net difference between calories consumed and calories required for work and to withstand the physical environment. Individuals of African-decent had greater BMIs, heavier weights, and shorter statures. Urban farmers had lower BMIs, shorter statures, and lower weight than rural farmers. Over the late 19th and early 20th centuries, urban and rural BMIs, height, and weight were constant, and rural farmers had greater BMIs, taller statures, and heavier weights than urban farmers and workers in other occupations.

When other economic measurements are scarce or unreliable, height and the body mass index (BMI) are now well accepted measures for cumulative and current net nutrition. However, as the ratio of weight to height, BMI is the ratio of current to cumulative net nutrition, therefore, does not fully isolate changes in current net nutrition. This study uses weight after controlling for height as a measure for current net nutrition and shows that US Black and White weights decreased throughout the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, were higher in the South, and for farmers and unskilled workers. Like stature and BMI, nineteenth century weight was higher in states with greater average wealth and population density and lower in states with greater wealth inequality.

Abstract. Minnesota's Senator Amy Klobuchar takes up educating the American public on competition policy in her book Antitrust: Taking on Monopoly Power from the Gilded Age to the Digital Age. Concerns regarding undue market power in the Tech Sector run across the political aisle, and there are multiple cases under review in the United States against: Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix, and Google.Keywords. Monopoly Power, Gilded Age, Digital Age.JEL. A13, C70, D11.

AbstractWhen other measures for material conditions are scarce or unreliable, the use of height is now common to evaluate economic conditions during economic development. However, throughout US economic development, height data by gender have been slow to emerge. Throughout the late 19thand early 20thcenturies, female and male statures remained constant. Agricultural workers had taller statures than workers in other occupations, and the female agricultural height premium was over twice that of males. For both females and males, individuals with fairer complexions were taller than their darker complexioned counterparts. Gender collectively had the greatest explanatory effect associated with stature, followed by age and nativity. Socioeconomic status and birth period had the smallest collective effects with stature.

Abstract. The Federal Reserve chair Paul Volker led the US through its tumultuous 1970s and 1980s. His biography, Keeping at It, chronicles his thinking and actions throughout his time in public service.Keywords. Monetary policy, Government, Good Government.JEL. B21, D00, D20, D40.

Anne Case and Angus Deaton in Deaths of Despair and the Future of Capitalism attribute much of the increase in white mortality in opioid overdose deaths to the US pharmaceutical industry and a failed US health care system. They extend human capital to health and economic progress outcomes unique to white US populations since the 1960s. Case and Deaton and Deaths of Despair add to this literature that links education, human capital, and white deaths of despair.Keywords. Monetary policy, Government, Good Government.JEL. B21, D00, D20, D40.

A population's weight conditioned on height reflects its current net nutrition and demonstrates health variation during economic development. This study builds on the use of weight as a measure for current net nutrition and uses a difference-in-decompositions technique as it relates to institutional change to illustrate how Black and White current net nutrition varied with the transition to free-labor. Adult Black age-related weight gain was greater with the transition to free-labor yet was not as large as the adult White age-related weight gain. Agricultural worker's current net nutrition was better than workers in other occupations, but was worse-off with the transition to free labor. Birth place within the United States had the greatest effect with across and within-group weight changes and the transition to free-labor. Within-group weight variation was greater than across-group variation.