Year: 2011
Type: article
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: Why are some countries richer than others?Modern growth theories assign a pivotal role to human capital accumulation, particularly in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.Unfortunately, testing this conjecture is relatively impractical due to data limitations.Standard human capital measures, such as cognitive test scores and years of schooling, are generally unavailable, while more data-abundant alternatives, such as literacy rates, poorly proxy human capital.To mitigate this problem, this thesis presents evidence that adult height is a relatively suitable proxy for human capital.Using data from the early and late twentieth century, I show that taller individuals and populations were, and still are, substantially more productive than their shorter counterparts.Furthermore, my results attribute this outcome to the significant association between adult height and both cognitive and non-cognitive abilities.Chapter 1 studies the contemporary pathways through which taller workers earn more than their shorter counterparts.Earlier studies attribute this -stature premium‖ to non-cognitive abilities, which are associated with height and rewarded in the labor market.While more recent research suggests that cognitive abilities cause the staturewage relationship.This paper reconciles the competing views by recognizing that net nutrition, a major determinant of adult height, is integral to cognitive and non-cognitive development.Using contemporary British data from the National Childhood i v their shorter counterparts, and that this result is due, in large part, to a strong correlation between adult height and accumulating human capital.v Acknowledgements First, I would like to thank my advisor, Richard Steckel, whose enthusiasm motivated me even in the darkest days of winter.Research is a marathon, and sometimes the hardest part is continuing to move forward.Thank you for giving me the encouragement necessary to endure.Without it, I would have never understood what it truly means to enjoy academics.I am very appreciative of the contributions provided by Trevon Logan.Trevon always gave me great advice, usually through the use of three pen colors.I still do not know what the red, green and blue pen marks represent.However, they played a pivotal role in improving my abilities as a researcher.I am also grateful to
Author: Andreas Schick
Institution: The Ohio State University
Language: English
Subfield: Economics and Econometrics
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2597400262