Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-fbnjt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-18T16:50:06.909Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Unequal at Birth: A Long-Term Comparison of Income and Birth Weight

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 March 2009

Dora L. Costa
Dora L. Costa
Affiliation:
Associate Professor, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Economics, E52, 50 Memorial Drive, Cambridge, MA 02139; and Faculty Research Fellow, National Bureau of Economic Research.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Socioeconomic differences in birth weight have narrowed since 1900. The mother's nutritional status during her growing years, proxied by height, accounted for most of the differences in the past, but not today. Children born at the beginning of this century compared favorably to modem populations in terms of birth weights, but suffered high fetal and neonatal death rates. By day ten children in the past were at a disadvantage because best practice resulted in insufficient feeding. Improved obstetrical, medical, and nutritional knowledge has increased weight in the first days of life, which may account for increased adult stature.

Type
Articles
Information
The Journal of Economic History , Volume 58 , Issue 4 , December 1998 , pp. 987 - 1009
Copyright
Copyright © The Economic History Association 1998

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Antonovsky, Aaron, and Judith, Bernstein. “Social Class and Infant Mortality.” Social Science and Medicine 11, no. 8–9 (1977): 453–70.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Apple, Rima D.Mothers and Medicine: A Social History of Infant Feeding, 1890–1950. Madison: University of Wisconsin, 1987.Google Scholar
Baldwin, Bird T.The Physical Growth of Children from Birth to Maturity. University of Iowa Studies in Child Welfare. Vol. 1, no 1. Iowa City: University of Iowa, 1921.Google Scholar
Barker, D. J. P., Ed. Fetal and Infant Origins of Adult Disease. London: British Medical Journal, 1992.Google Scholar
Barker, D. J. P., Ed. Mothers, Babies, and Disease in Later Life. London: British Medical Journal, 1994.Google Scholar
Beal, Virginia A.Nutrition in the Life Span. New York: John Wiley and Sons, 1980.Google Scholar
Behrman, Richard E., and Vaughan, Victor C.. Nelson Textbook of Pediatrics, 12th Ed. Philadelphia: W.B. Saunders Company, 1983.Google Scholar
Bottoms, S. F., Paul, R. H., Iams, J. D., et al. “Obstetric determinants of neonatal survival: influence of willingness to perform cesarian delivery on survival of extremely low-birth-weight infants. National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Network of Maternal-Fetal Medicine Units.” American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology. 176, no. 5 (1997): 960–06.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Costa, Dora, and Steckel, Richard H.. “Long-term Trends in Health, Welfare, and Economic Growth in the United States.” In Health and Welfare during Industrialization, edited by Floud, Roderick and Steckel, Richard H., pp.47–89. Chicago: University of Chicago Press for NBER: 1997.Google Scholar
Davin, Eric Leif. “The Era of the Common Child: Egalitarian Death in Antebellum America.” Mid-America: An Historical Review 75, no. 2 (1993): 135–63.Google Scholar
Elo, Irma, and Preston, Samuel H.. “Are Educational Differentials in Adult Mortality Increasing in the United States?” Journal of Aging and Health 7, no. 4 (1995): 476–96.Google Scholar
Ewbank, Douglas, and Preston, Samuel H.. “Personal Health Behavior and the Decline in Infant and Child Mortality: The United States, 1900–1930.” Proceedings ofthe Health Transition Workshop, Canberra, Australia, 15–1905 1990.Google Scholar
Fitzgibbon, Gibbon. Obstetrics. Dublin: Browne and Nolan Limited, 1937.Google Scholar
Goldin, Claudia, and Margo, Robert A.. “The Poor at Birth: Birth Weights and Infant Mortality at Philadelphia's Almshouse Hospital, 1848–1873.” Explorations in Economic History 26, no. 3 (1989) 360–79.Google Scholar
Hardyment, Christina. Dream Babies: Child Care from Locke to Spock. London: Jonathan Cape, 1983.Google Scholar
Holt, Emmett L., and John, Howland. Holt's Diseases of Infancy and Childhood. New York: D. Appleton-Century Company, 1933.Google Scholar
Joyce, Theodore. “Self-selection, Prenatal Care, and Birth weight Among Blacks, Whites, and Hispanics in New York City.” Journal of Human Resources 29, no. 3 (1994): 762–94.Google Scholar
Kerley, Charles Gilmore, and Gaylord, Willis Graves. The Practice of Pediatrics. Philadelphia: Saunders Company, 1924.Google Scholar
Loudon, Irvine. Death in Childbirth: An International Study of Maternal Care and Mortality, 1800–1950. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1992.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lyman, George D.Care and Feeding of the Infant: Practical Advice for Mothers and Nurses. San Francisco: A.M. Robertson, 1922.Google Scholar
Preston, Samuel H., and Haines, Michael R.. Fatal Years. Child Mortality in Late Nineteenth Century America. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1991.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rosenzweig, Mark R., and Schultz, T. Paul. “The Behavior of Mothers as Inputs to Child Health: The Determinants of Birth Weight, Gestation, and Rate of Fetal Growth.” In Economic Aspects of Health, edited by Fuchs, Victor R., pp. 53–92. Chicago: University of Chicago Press for NBER, 1982.Google Scholar
Rosenzweig, Mark R., and Wolpin, Kenneth I.. “Inequality at Birth: The Scope for Policy Intervention.” Journal of Econometrics 50, no. 1–2 (1991): 205–28.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ruggles, Steven, and Matthew, Sobek. Integrated Public Use Microdata Series, IPUMS-95 Version 1.0. Social History Research Laboratory. Department of History. University of Minnesota, 1995.Google Scholar
Shears, George Peaslee. Obstetrics: Normal and Operative. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Company, 1928.Google Scholar
Singh, Gopal K., and Stella, M. Yu. “Infant Mortality Differentials in the United States:Trends, Differentials, and Projections, 1950 through 2010.” American Journal of Public Health 85, no. 7 (07 1995) 957–64.Google ScholarPubMed
The Society of the Lying-In Hospital of the City of New York. Annual Report. various editions.Google Scholar
Speert, Harold. Obstetrics and Gynecology in America, A History. Baltimore: Waverly Press, 1980.Google Scholar
Steckel, Richard H. “The Health and Mortality of Women and Children, 1850–1860.” this JOURNAL. 48, no. 2 (1988) 333–45.Google Scholar
Tanner, James M.Fetus into Man: Physical Growth from Conception to Maturity. London: Open Books, 1978.Google Scholar
Tuley, Henry Enos. Pediatrics: A Manual for Students and Practitioners. Philadelphia and New York: Lea Brothers and Company, 1904.Google Scholar
U.S. Bureau of the Census. Historical Statistics of the United States, Colonial limes to 1970. Washington, DC: GPO, 1975.Google Scholar
U. S. Bureau of the Census. Statistical Abstract of the United States: 1993. Washington, DC: GPO, 1993.Google Scholar
U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare. National Center for Health Statistics. Division of Vital Statistics. Weight at Birth and Cause of Death in the Neonatal Period; United States, Early 1950. Public Health Service Publication No.\ 1000-Series 21-No.\ 6, 1965.Google Scholar
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. National Center for Health Statistics. National Maternal and Infant Health Survey, ICPSR 9730. Ann Arbor, Ml: Inter- university Consortium for Political and Social Research, 1988.Google Scholar
Vital Statistics of the United States. Various issues.Google Scholar
Peter, Ward W.. Birth Weight and Economic Growth: Women's Living Standards in the Industrializing West. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1993.Google Scholar
Whitridge, Williams J.. Obstetrics. New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1931.Google Scholar