Working Paper: NBER ID: w1628
Authors: Richard H. Steckel
Abstract: Underenumeration of vital events is a problem familiar topeople who work with historical demographic records. This paper proposes a method for recovering information about neonatal mortality.The approach utilizes average heights of young children to predict the birth weight of American slaves. The results suggest that slave newborns weighed on average about 5.1 pounds, which places them among the poorest populations of developing countries in the mid-twentieth century. The birth weight distribution and a schedule of mortality by birth weight suggest that previous estimates of slave infant mortality are too low. The poor health and stature of children and the relatively large size of slave adults is a pattern of growth and development that is unobserved among poor populations of the twentieth century. Thus slavery may have created an unusual pattern of nutritional resource allocation across ages.
Keywords: neonatal mortality; American slaves; birth weight; historical demography
JEL Codes: N31; I12
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| average heights of young slaves (J82) | birth weight (J13) |
| birth weight (J13) | neonatal mortality rates (J13) |
| average heights of young slaves (J82) | neonatal mortality rates (J13) |
| nutritional status of pregnant enslaved women (J82) | birth weight (J13) |
| slavery practices (J47) | health outcomes of slave children (I12) |