Développement économique et stature en France, XIXe-XXe siècles - article ; n°3 ; vol.45, pg 755-777

Annales. Économies, Sociétés, Civilisations - Année 1990 - Volume 45 - Numéro 3 - Pages 755-777
Economic Development and Human Height in France, XIXth-XXth Centuries.
The first section of this paper deals with the historical French debate on the factors explaining variations human height. Villermé stated already in 1829 the existence of a close relationship between height of conscripts and material well-being. His thesis is now generally accepted by scholars in medicine and anthropology. Based on this idea a mathematical model is developed in the second section, in which variations in median height of french conscripts over the periode 1835-1913 are predicted with great accuracy by a lagged series of per capita income. Finally the precision of the model enables an estimation of median height offrench conscripts for the period 1914-1986, a period for which no annual height series were available, but for which per capita income figures exist. Confronted with earlier estimates the results of the model proof to be very pre cise for period of more than half a century.
23 pages
Source : Persée ; Ministère de la jeunesse, de l’éducation nationale et de la recherche, Direction de l’enseignement supérieur, Sous-direction des bibliothèques et de la documentation.