Working Paper: NBER ID: w1661
Authors: Kenneth W. Wachter; Annabel Gregory
Abstract: It is easier to discover why people died in the past than how healthy they were during their lives. However, in both Europe and North America, much evidence survives about the health of young males from the medical examination of recruits to the armed forces. The paper discusses the possibility of generalizing from one such source, that of British volunteer recruits, to the health of the male working class. It concludes that the source is not seriously biassed and that, after some statistical correction, the data suggest a gradual improvement in the nutritional status, measured by average height, of the British working class.This finding contradicts much contemporary opinion that the British were physically deteriorating in the late nineteenth century.
Keywords: health; British working class; army recruits; nutritional status; historical analysis
JEL Codes: No JEL codes provided
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| average height of recruits (Z22) | nutritional status of the population (I32) |
| average height of recruits (Z22) | health of the British working class (I14) |
| health conditions prevalent in the working population (J28) | reasons for rejection of recruits (H56) |
| nutritional status of the population (I32) | health of the British working class (I14) |