The Antebellum Puzzle' describes the situation of declining stature and pos mortality in the three decades prior to the … the mortality environment a have worsened (or at least did not improve), connected with factors such as urba …, mortality was not improving in the antebellum period and was deterio York City. For the United States and for New York State …

was an excellent predictor of older age mortality from ischemic heart disease or stroke. Changes in frame size explain … roughly three-fifths of the mortality decline among white men between 1915 and 1988 and predict even sharper declines in older … age mortality between 1988 and 2022. Data accompanying this paper can be found at <a href="http://www.nber.org/gould">www.nber.org/gould</a> …