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Net nutrition, insolation, mortality, and the antebellum paradox

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Journal of Bioeconomics Aims and scope

Abstract

When other measures for material welfare are scarce or unreliable, stature is a well-established measure for cumulative net nutrition. The antebellum paradox is the ironic result that average stature decreased during the nineteenth century’s second and third quarters at the same time that wages and income increased. Nevertheless, because of selection concerns, recent criticisms call into question the antebellum paradox’s authenticity. This study illustrates that the nineteenth century’s observed second and third quarter stature diminution was real, but the antebellum paradox is not the timing of the stature decrease but nutrition and disease conditions. Average statures increased with access to pork and dairy, were lower in virulent disease environments, and had an inverted U-shape in both insolation and population density, indicating that the antebellum paradox was resource variation rather than simply stature variation over time.

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Notes

  1. It is generally agreed that the majority of height is genetically determined but residual sources of height variation are significant (Luke et al. 2001; Lai 2006a, b; Visshner 2008; Cho et al. 2009). Around 60% of height variation is determine genetically in developing countries; whereas, around 80% of height variation in developed counties is determine genetically.

  2. IGF-I is molecularly the same in bovine and human milk; however, bovine milk has about three times as much total protein (Baten and Murray 2000; Wiley 2005, p. 427).

  3. Stature was also related to state-level dairy production and calcium, which reflects the net interaction between osteoblasts and osteoclasts. Osteoblasts are cells necessary for bone growth, whereas osteoclasts are cells that absorb bone tissue and promotes bone repair and healing. Osteoblasts have important anabolic relationships with developing skeletal tissue and are involved in calcium and phosphate metabolism. Osteoblasts are related to age, and IGF-I levels peak around mid-puberty. At younger ages osteoblasts are in greater concentration than osteoclasts, and net result is calcium formation and bone growth. However, in older ages, osteoclast concentrations are greater than osteoblasts and the net result is poor calcium absorption and skeletal decline. Both osteoblasts and osteoclasts are sensitive to access to calcium and available vitamin D.

  4. There are dietary sources of vitamin D. Before the sixteenth through nineteenth century’s forced migration of Africans to North America, individuals of African descent evolved to require more insolation per day than individuals who evolved in northerly latitudes. Because Africa is geographically closer to the equator, individuals required less sunlight to produce vitamin D (Kiple and King 1981). However, because of greater melanin in the skin epidermis, Africans were less prone to skin cancer because melanin concentrations provide a natural defense against cell mutations associated with skin cancer (Gluster and Neal 2006; Jablonski 2006, pp. 137–140). There are other evolutionary-biological responses associated with the forced migration of Africans to North America. For example, African hemoglobin evolved differently between African and European locations, and Africans were biologically suited to swampy, mosquito infested regions compared to Europeans. Nonetheless, this evolutionary response had negative adaptations that made individuals with darker complexions more susceptible to blood mutations and cycle-cell anemia (Miller 1994). Sunlight exposure varied between Africa and North America. For instance, a random sample of African locations receives about 5.6 h of direct sunlight per day, with a standard deviation of .53 hours per day, whereas a random sample of regions in the United States average insolation is only 4.10 hours of insolation per day, with a standard deviation of .61 hours per day.

  5. Access and exposure to infant vitamin D supplementation increases immune-globalization and reduces allergies (Shafief et al. 2011; Baek et al. 2014).

  6. For example, infectious diseases have greater claims on calories consumed (Dasgupta 1993, pp. 12–13; Floud et al. 2011, pp. 11–12).

  7. Consistency is related to the root mean square error, and the RMSE decreases with inconsistency. Subsequently, the RMSE increases as the omitted variable bias increases.

  8. Oaxaca and Ransom (1999) indicate decompositions into returns to characteristics and average characteristics can be misleading because estimates vary with respect to selected dummy variable omitted category. The \( \left( {\bar{X}_{\text{w}} - \bar{X}_{\text{b}} } \right)\beta_{\text{b}} \) component has little concern. However, the intercept is sensitive to the omitted variable, which makes \( \left( {\alpha_{\text{w}} - \alpha_{\text{b}} } \right) + \left( {\beta_{\text{w}} - \beta_{\text{b}} } \right)\bar{X}_{\text{w}} \)’s identification is less clear, and there is some degree of arbitrariness that is unavoidable (Yun 2008; Fortin et al. 2011, pp. 40 and 45).

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Acknowledgements

I appreciate comments from John Komlos, Lee Carson, and two anonymous reviewers. Shahil Sharma, Chinuedu Akah, Meekam Okeke, Ryan Keifer, Tiffany Grant, Bryce Harper, Greg Davis, and Kellye Manning provided research assistance.

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  1. University of Texas, Permian Basin, 4901 East University, Odessa, TX, 79762, USA

    Scott Alan Carson

  2. University of Münich and CESifo, Shackstrasse 4, 80539, Munich, Germany

    Scott Alan Carson

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Carson, S.A. Net nutrition, insolation, mortality, and the antebellum paradox. J Bioecon 22, 77–98 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10818-020-09293-6

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