Latin American anthropometrics, past and present—An overview

Baten, Jöerg; Carson, Scott Alan

doi:10.1016/j.ehb.2010.05.011

Cited by 19 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 13 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…In Peru and Colombia average heights were much lower (163-165 cm) in the early 19th century, still sizable by European standards. Mexican heights probably fell in between (see Baten and Carson, 2010 for an overview). For Mexico, other evidence supports the inverted U-curve evolution of real wages.…”

Section: Interpretation: the Other Regionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Between conquest and independence: Real wages and demographic change in Spanish America, 1530–1820

Abad

Davies

Zanden

2012

Explorations in Economic History

113

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

On the basis of a newly constructed dataset, this paper presents long-term series of the price levels, nominal wages, and real wages in Spanish Latin America -more specifically in Mexico, Peru, Bolivia, Colombia, Chile, and Argentina -between ca. 1530 and ca. 1820. It synthesizes the work of scholars who have collected and published data on individual cities and periods, and presents comparable indices of real wages and prices in the colonial period that give a reasonable guide to trends in the long run. We show that nominal wages and prices were on average much higher than in Western Europe or in Asia, a reflection of the low value of silver that must have had consequences for competitiveness of the Latin American economies. Labour scarcity was the second salient feature of Spanish Latin America and resulted in real wages much above subsistence and in some cases (Mexico, Bolivia, Argentina) comparable to levels in Northwestern Europe. For Mexico, this was caused by the dramatic decline of the population after the Conquest. For Bolivia, the driving force was the boom in silver mining in Potosi that created a huge demand for labour. In the case of Argentina, low population density was a pre-colonial feature. Perhaps due to a different pattern of depopulation, the real wages of other regions (Peru, Colombia and Chile) were much lower, and only increased above subsistence during the first half of the 18th century. These results are consistent with independent evidence on biological standards of living and with estimates of GDP per capita at the beginning of the 19th century.

show abstract

Section: Interpretation: the Other Regionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Between conquest and independence: Real wages and demographic change in Spanish America, 1530–1820

Abad

Davies

Zanden

2012

Explorations in Economic History

113

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Literature on Ibero-American anthropometric history can be seen inMeisel and Vega (2007), Martínez Carrión (2009),Baten and Carson (2010), and López-Alonso (2016).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Inequality and Well-Being in Iberian and Latin American Regions Since 1820. New Approaches From Anthropometric History

Martínez-Carrión

Salvatore

2019

RHE / JILAEH

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

“…In the past 15 years there have been studies published on the anthropometric history of Mexico that examine the second half of the 18 th century and the early part of the 19 th century (Challú 2009(Challú , 2010Dobado-1 For individual country studies, for Mexico see López-Alonso and Porras Condey (2003); for Colombia, Meisel et al (2007); Vega 2007a, 2007b;Acosta and Meisel 2013;Baten and Baltzer, 2008;Salvatore et al 2010;for Guatemala Rios 2009;for Brazil, Monasterio et al (2010); Frank and Shelhoub (2006); Franken (this issue); for Chile, Núñez and Pérez (2015); Llorca-Jaña et al (2018); for comparative studies see Baten et al (2009); Baten and Carson (2010); Baltzer and Baten (2008); Challú and Silva-Castañeda, (2016).…”

Section: Anthropometric History Of Mexico: a Backgroundmentioning

confidence: 99%

Height and Inequality in Post-1950 Mexico: A History of Stunted Growth

López-Alonso

Vélez-Grajales²

2019

RHE / JILAEH

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Using data from two national surveys (ENSA, 2000; ENSANUT, 2006) we assess the evolution of biological standards of living of the Mexican population born during the second half of the 20th century. Our results show that there was an improvement in living standards reflected in an increase in stature, but this amelioration was limited. We observe differences across socio-economic strata, across educational levels, and between men and women. Persistent structural inequality has been byproduct of a system of security and social protection that was limited, segmented and hampered the potentially positive effects of social-welfare policies. We corroborate the relatively modest improvement in heights by comparing outcomes in Mexico with other Latin American countries.

show abstract

Latin American anthropometrics, past and present—An overview

Cited by 19 publications

References 13 publications

Between conquest and independence: Real wages and demographic change in Spanish America, 1530–1820

Between conquest and independence: Real wages and demographic change in Spanish America, 1530–1820

Inequality and Well-Being in Iberian and Latin American Regions Since 1820. New Approaches From Anthropometric History

Height and Inequality in Post-1950 Mexico: A History of Stunted Growth

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About