Working Paper: NBER ID: w20177
Authors: Bernard Harris; Roderick Floud; Sok Chul Hong
Abstract: In The Changing Body (Cambridge University Press and NBER, 2011), the authors presented a series of estimates showing the number of calories available for human consumption in England and Wales at various points in time between 1700 and 1909/13. The current paper corrects an error in those figures but also compares the estimates of The Changing Body with those published by a range of other authors. The differences reflect disagreements over a number of issues, including the amount of land under cultivation, the extraction and wastage rates for cereals and pulses and the number of animals supplying meat and dairy products. The paper considers recent attempts to achieve a compromise between these estimates and challenges claims that there was a dramatic reduction in either food availability or the average height of birth cohorts in the late-eighteenth century.
Keywords: No keywords provided
JEL Codes: N01; N33; N53; O1; O13; O52
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| method of estimating food availability (Q11) | perceived historical food availability (N53) |
| perceived historical food availability (N53) | understanding of living standards (I31) |
| perceived historical food availability (N53) | health outcomes (I14) |
| historical narrative of decline (N93) | corrected estimates of food availability (Q11) |
| corrected estimates of food availability (Q11) | interpretations of health (I10) |
| corrected estimates of food availability (Q11) | interpretations of economic growth (O49) |
| food source estimates (Q47) | total calorie availability (D24) |