This paper explores the relationship between adult heights and the distribution of income across populations of individuals. There is a long literature that examines the relationship between mean adult heights and living standards. If adult height is set by the balance between food intake and...

We investigate the childhood determinants of adult height in populations, focusing on the respective roles of income and of disease. We develop a model of selection and scarring, in which the early life burden of nutrition and disease is not only responsible for mortality in childhood but also...

We investigate age-specific mortality in Britain and the United States since 1950. Neither trends in income nor in income inequality provide plausible explanations. Britain and the US had different patterns of income growth but similar patterns of mortality decline. Patterns of income inequality...

This paper presents a new set of integrated poverty and inequality estimates for India and Indian states for 1987-88, 1993-94 and 1999-2000. The poverty estimates are broadly consistent with independent evidence on per-capita expenditure, state domestic product and real agricultural wages. They...

Poverty is a complex phenomenon involving multiple dimensions of deprivation, of which the lack of goods and services is only one. Even so, there is a good deal of consensus on the value of using a consumption aggregate as a summary measure of living standards, itself an important component of...

This paper is concerned with the effects that changes in demographic structure have had on Taiwan’s national saving rate, and how coming changes in its age structure—notably population aging—will affect the future saving rate. We examine this topic within the framework of the life-cycle...

Taller populations are typically richer populations, and taller individuals live longer and earn more In consequence, adult height has recently become a focus in understanding the relationship between health and wealth. We investigate the childhood determinants of population adult height,...

Using consumption data from the 43rd, 50th and 55th rounds of the National Sample Survey, this paper computes for each of the large Indian states, by urban and rural sectors separately, a range of consumer prices indexes for 1999-2000 relative to 1993-94 and for 1993-94 relative to 1987-88. The...

We use data from the Gallup World Poll and from the Demographic and Health Surveys to investigate how subjective wellbeing (SWB) is affected by mortality in sub-Saharan Africa, including mortality from HIV/AIDS. The Gallup data provide direct evidence on Africans’ own emotional and evaluative...