Institutions, Gender, and Net Nutrition during Economic Development: The United States from 1860s–1930s

Abstract

Gender-based institutions influence resource allocation within the household and when other measures for economic welfare are scarce or unreliable, the use of biological measures are now standard in economics. This study uses late nineteenth and early twentieth century BMI, statures, and weight to assess how net nutrition accumulated to women and men during U.S. economic development. Throughout the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, female and male BMIs, statures, and weight remained constant over time. Unskilled laborers’ BMIs were higher, their statures were taller, and their weights heavier than workers in other occupations. Women and men from the Northeast and Middle Atlantic had higher BMIs and shorter statures, while their counterparts from the South were taller and had lower BMIs, indicating that it was superior Southern cumulative net nutrition associated with lower BMIs

Keywords:

• household as institution
• gender-based net nutrition
• household resource allocation

JEL Classification Codes:

• C1
• C4
• D1
• I1
• N3

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

There is also concern regarding the use of BMI variation over time because international populations have encountered a modern obesity epidemic, indicating care is used when interpreting BMI variation. However, late nineteenth and early twentieth century females and males were in healthy weight ranges, indicating that nineteenth century health was not related to BMIs. Interpreting historical changes in BMI is also different from interpreting modern BMI variation because individuals historically were in lower weight categories compared to their modern counterparts.

2 BMIs that minimize mortality risk among healthy populations may be lower than 25 (Garcia et al. 2021, 755).

3 There are multiple terms within the literature to describe women’s non-labor force work. Women’s work is economic and material. Use of “non-economic and non-material” used here regards women’s non-paid labor force work.

4 BMIs less than 18.5 are classified as underweight. Individuals with BMIs between 18.5 and 24.9 are classified as normal weight. BMIs between 24.9 and 29.9 are classified as overweight. Individuals with BMIs over 29.9 are classified as obese.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Scott Alan Carson

Scott Alan Carson is at the University of Texas, Permian Basin in Odessa, Texas and Research Fellow at the University of Münich and CESifo in Münich, Germany. The author appreciate comments from John Komlos, Lee Carson, and Paul Hodges. Shahil Sharma, Chinuedu Akah, Meekam Okeke, Ryan Keifer, Tiffany Grant, Bryce Harper, Greg Davis, and Kellye Manning provided research assistance. The author declares that no living human subjects were used in the course of this research. The author declares that there are no competing financial or non-financial interests that directly or indirectly apply related to this work submitted for publication. There are no funding details to report. The author is responsible for all material in this manuscript.