Accurate vital statistics are required to understand the evolution of racial disparities in infant health and the causes of rapid secular decline in infant mortality during the early twentieth century. Unfortunately, infant mortality rates prior to 1950 suffer from an upward bias stemming from a...

The Great Black Migration from the rural South to the urban North in the first half of the 20th century drastically lowered the health environment of infants. We show that migrating to northern cities increased the likelihood that an infant born to a migrant would die in the first year of life....

Accurate vital statistics are required to understand the evolution of racial disparities in infant health and the causes of rapid secular decline in infant mortality during the early twentieth century. Unfortunately, infant mortality rates prior to 1950 suffer from an upward bias stemming from a...