The 19th Century Net Nutrition Transition from Free to Bound Labor: A Difference-in-Decompositions Approach

53 Pages Posted: 8 May 2018

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)

Date Written: March 14, 2018

Abstract

The body mass index (BMI) reflects current net nutrition and health during economic development. This study introduces a difference-in-decompositions approach to show that although 19th century African-American current net nutrition was comparable to working class whites, it was made worse-off with the transition to free-labor. BMI reflects net nutrition over the life-course, and like stature, slave children’s BMIs increased more than whites as they approached entry into the adult slave labor force. Agricultural worker’s net nutrition was better than workers in other occupations but was worse-off under free-labor and industrialization. Within-group BMI variation was greater than across-group variation, and white within-group variation associated with socioeconomic status was greater than African-Americans.

Keywords: BMI variation, current net nutrition, Oaxaca decomposition

JEL Classification: C100, C400, D100, I100, N300

Suggested Citation

Carson, Scott Alan, The 19th Century Net Nutrition Transition from Free to Bound Labor: A Difference-in-Decompositions Approach (March 14, 2018). CESifo Working Paper Series No. 6932, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3172005 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3172005

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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