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Southeastern institutional change and biological variation: evidence from the 19th century Tennessee State Prison

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 October 2010

SCOTT ALAN CARSON
SCOTT ALAN CARSON*
Affiliation:
School of Business, University of Texas, Permian Basin, 4901 East University, Odessa, Texas 79762, USA and University of Munich, CESifo, Shackstrasse 4, 80539 Munich, Germany
*
*Email: [email protected]
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Abstract:

The use of height data to measure living standards is now a well-established method in economics, and a number of core findings in the literature are widely agreed upon. There are still some populations, places, and times, however, for which anthropometric evidence remains thin. This paper introduces a new dataset from the Tennessee State Prison to track the heights of comparable black and white males born between 1820 and 1906. Shorter statures were associated with close proximity to the Mississippi River, and the largest share of the white–black stature gap was associated with nativity. Black and white statures declined throughout the 19th century, and farmers were taller than non-farmers.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Institutional Economics , Volume 7 , Special Issue 3: Evolution of Institutions , September 2011 , pp. 455 - 471
Copyright
Copyright © The JOIE Foundation 2010

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