Mexican Body Mass Index Values in the Late-19th-Century American West

Posted: 15 Mar 2007

See all articles by Scott Alan Carson

Scott Alan Carson

University of Texas of the Permian Basin; CESifo (Center for Economic Studies and Ifo Institute)

Abstract

No research has been done on the body mass index values of the 19th-century Mexican population. This paper introduces a new data source of 19th-century Mexican male inmates in American prisons and finds that the majority of Mexican body mass was in the normal range (18.5-24.9). Few Mexicans were underweight or obese by modern standards. Body mass varied little (0-0.9 units) by occupations possibly because criminals probably came from the lower end of the socioeconomic distribution; however, it did vary with crimes for which inmates were incarcerated.

Keywords: Nineteenth-century Mexico, Anthropometrics, Body mass index

JEL Classification: I12, I31, I32, J15, N30, N36, N96

Suggested Citation

Carson, Scott Alan, Mexican Body Mass Index Values in the Late-19th-Century American West. Economics & Human Biology, Vol. 5, No. 1, pp. 37-47, March 2007, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=970114

Scott Alan Carson (Contact Author)

University of Texas of the Permian Basin ( email )

4901 East University
Odessa, TX 79762
United States

CESifo (Center for Economic Studies and Ifo Institute)

Poschinger Str. 5
Munich, DE-81679
Germany

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