2014/03/27 by Jöerg Baten, Matthias Blum · 2 citations
Economics, Econometrics and Finance · Environmental Science · Social Sciences · #Agricultural economics #Agricultural productivity #Agriculture #Archaeology #Economic Growth and Productivity #Economic geography #Economics #Geography #Income, Poverty, and Inequality #Microeconomics #Natural resource economics #Political science #Production (economics) #Proximate #Proximate and ultimate causation #Sustainable Development and Environmental Policy
paper · doi:10.1093/ereh/heu003
openalex publication_date 2014/03/27 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/01
We analyze the proximate determinants of the biological standard of living from a global perspective, namely high-quality nutrition and the disease environment during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Until the mid-twentieth century, the local availability of cattle, meat, and milk per capita and the local disease environment mainly determined the stature of the population – and, by implication, how long they lived and how healthy they were. During the late twentieth century, the trade of agricultural products and health-promoting technologies increased in relative importance; hence, the local availabilities became less decisive in explaining height differences.