We trace the introduction of anthropometric indicators into development and labor economics in the late 1970s.

We trace the introduction and use of anthropometric indicators (height, weight, body mass index) into development and labor economics in the late 1970s. These biological markers are used as a proxy measure for health human capital, the degree of poverty or malnutrition, net nutritional status,...

In his recent presidential address to the American Economic History Association, Paul Hohenberg argued that anthropometric history does not meet his criteria for useful research in the field of economic history. He considers research useful if (a) it "helps shape one of our underlying...

In 1979, when anthropometric history was still in its infancy, Robert Fogel and collaborators reported that the height of the US male white population began to decline quite unexpectedly around the birth cohorts of 1830. This was quite a conundrum on account of the fact that according to...