Did smallpox reduce height? Stature and the standard of living in London, 1770-1873
In this paper, we re-examine the effect of smallpox on the height attained by those who suffered from this disease. To this end, we analyse a dataset assembled by Floud, Wachter and Gregory on the height of recruits into the Marine Society, 1770-1873. Using both time series and cross-sectional analy...
| Main Authors: | , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Working paper |
| Published: |
University of Oxford
1995
|
| _version_ | 1797072798091313152 |
|---|---|
| author | Voth, H Leunig, T |
| author_facet | Voth, H Leunig, T |
| author_sort | Voth, H |
| collection | OXFORD |
| description | In this paper, we re-examine the effect of smallpox on the height attained by those who suffered from this disease. To this end, we analyse a dataset assembled by Floud, Wachter and Gregory on the height of recruits into the Marine Society, 1770-1873. Using both time series and cross-sectional analysis, we show that smallpox was indeed an important determinant of height: those who had suffered from smallpox were significantly shorter. This suggests that the increase in heights documented by Floud et al. may be explained not just by increased nutritional intake, but also by the eradication of smallpox. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-06T23:12:54Z |
| format | Working paper |
| id | oxford-uuid:6619b8da-0138-4a18-b57c-fd152dcf33e7 |
| institution | University of Oxford |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-06T23:12:54Z |
| publishDate | 1995 |
| publisher | University of Oxford |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | oxford-uuid:6619b8da-0138-4a18-b57c-fd152dcf33e72022-03-26T18:29:44ZDid smallpox reduce height? Stature and the standard of living in London, 1770-1873Working paperhttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_8042uuid:6619b8da-0138-4a18-b57c-fd152dcf33e7Bulk import via SwordSymplectic ElementsUniversity of Oxford1995Voth, HLeunig, TIn this paper, we re-examine the effect of smallpox on the height attained by those who suffered from this disease. To this end, we analyse a dataset assembled by Floud, Wachter and Gregory on the height of recruits into the Marine Society, 1770-1873. Using both time series and cross-sectional analysis, we show that smallpox was indeed an important determinant of height: those who had suffered from smallpox were significantly shorter. This suggests that the increase in heights documented by Floud et al. may be explained not just by increased nutritional intake, but also by the eradication of smallpox. |
| spellingShingle | Voth, H Leunig, T Did smallpox reduce height? Stature and the standard of living in London, 1770-1873 |
| title | Did smallpox reduce height? Stature and the standard of living in London, 1770-1873 |
| title_full | Did smallpox reduce height? Stature and the standard of living in London, 1770-1873 |
| title_fullStr | Did smallpox reduce height? Stature and the standard of living in London, 1770-1873 |
| title_full_unstemmed | Did smallpox reduce height? Stature and the standard of living in London, 1770-1873 |
| title_short | Did smallpox reduce height? Stature and the standard of living in London, 1770-1873 |
| title_sort | did smallpox reduce height stature and the standard of living in london 1770 1873 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT vothh didsmallpoxreduceheightstatureandthestandardoflivinginlondon17701873 AT leunigt didsmallpoxreduceheightstatureandthestandardoflivinginlondon17701873 |