An Anthropometric History of Early Modern Europe with Special Consideration of the Holy Roman Empire, 1670 – 1760
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An Anthropometric History of early modern Europe with special consideration of the Holy Roman Empire, 1670 – 1760 Inaugural-Dissertation zur Erlangung des Grades Doctor oeconomiae publicae (Dr. oec. publ.) an der Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München 2017 vorgelegt von Michael Specht Referent: Prof. John Komlos, PhD. Korreferent: Prof. Dr. Joachim Winter Promotionsabschlussberatung 31. Januar 2018 Tag der mündlichen Prüfung: 15. Januar 2018 Namen der Berichterstatter: John Komlos, Joachim Winter, Davide Cantoni “Any form of knowledge has a chance of resonating with other kinds” Gregory Benford – In the Ocean of Night Acknowledgements The guidance by Prof. John Komlos was an integral part in writing this dissertation. He was a very patient supervisor who nevertheless was extraordinarily dedicated. He granted me the opportunity to analyze a new, unexplored dataset he discovered, a debt that can never be repaid. In addition, he provided comments and advice that were always helpful and motivating. I am also grateful for the support I received from Prof. Joachim Winter, who agreed to be my co-supervisor and provided helpful comments and advice. His efforts made it possible that I could participate in teaching activities at the faculty of Economics, a task that was intellectually and emotionally very rewarding for me. I would like to thank Prof. Davide Cantoni for agreeing to be on my doctoral committee, and for helpful comments and discussions. A special thanks goes to Dr. Matthias Zehetmayer and Prof. Martin Spindler, who both provided supported that extended beyond the academic field. I thank Brian A’Hearn for helpful comments, in particular but not limited to chapter 4. I thank Francesco Cinnirella, Golo Feige, Nadine Geiger, Raphael Guber, Betty Hoang, Dr. Daniel Koch, Cathrin Mohr, Daniel Nallin, Karina Rollnik, Tobias Rossmann, Katharina Schüssler, Dr. Bettina Siflinger, Dr. Andreas Steinmayr, Sarah Weise, Sebastian Wichert, Christoph Winter and Prof. Amelie Wuppermann for helpful comments and conversations. I appreciate Peter McCune’s helpful comments on my style of language in chapters 1 to 3 and the corresponding appendix. I also profited from comments made by the participants of the 36th annual meeting of the Social Science History Association (2011). All remaining errors are mine. Finally, I would like to thank my parents, Karl and Gertrud Specht, as well as my grandmother Christine Ehrlich for their support in every aspect of life. Michael Specht Munich, September 2017 I Table of contents Introduction ............................................................................................................... 1 References ................................................................................................................... 8 1. The nutritional status in the Holy Roman Empire, ca.1670 to 1760 ........................................................................................................................... 11 1.1. Review of the literature. ..................................................................................................... 13 1.2. Data and Methodology ......................................................................................................... 14 1.2.1. Minimum height requirement ..................................................................................................... 15 1.2.2. Econometric Methodology ............................................................................................................ 22 1.3. Descriptive statistics ............................................................................................................ 24 1.4. Secular trend in height using observations from the entire Empire .................. 28 1.4.1. National and international comparison ................................................................................... 36 1.5. Regional trends ...................................................................................................................... 39 1.5.1. East ................................................................................................................................................... 40 1.5.2. Central-West ....................................................................................................................................... 43 1.5.3. South ................................................................................................................................................... 47 1.5.4. Habsburg territories ........................................................................................................................ 50 1.5.5. Territories on the frontier of the Empire and the Kingdom of France ........................ 54 1.5.6. Summary of regional trends ......................................................................................................... 57 2. Discussion of secular trends in stature in the Holy Roman Empire, ca. 1670 to 1760 ..................................................................................................... 60 2.1. Secular trends ......................................................................................................................... 61 2.1.1. Agricultural conditions ................................................................................................................... 62 2.1.2. Population growth ........................................................................................................................... 73 2.1.3. Regression results ............................................................................................................................ 78 2.2. Cross-sectional pattern ....................................................................................................... 89 II 2.3. Determinants of stature not considered in our analysis ......................................... 99 2.3.1. Inadequate data ................................................................................................................................. 99 2.3.2. Determinants of height unlikely to drive our results .......................................................102 2.4. Conclusion .............................................................................................................................. 104 References .............................................................................................................. 106 3. Height and grain prices in the 17th and 18th century: Evidence from French army records .......................................................................................... 112 3.1. Data and Methodology ....................................................................................................... 113 3.1.1. Minimum height requirement ...................................................................................................114 3.1.2. Econometric methodology ..........................................................................................................120 3.2. Descriptive statistics .......................................................................................................... 122 3.3. Mean height of recruits born in countries with a low number of observations ............................................................................................................................................................ 123 3.4. Secular trends in stature of European countries ..................................................... 125 3.4.1. France .................................................................................................................................................125 3.4.2. Italy .................................................................................................................................................126 3.4.3. Switzerland .......................................................................................................................................128 3.4.4. Ireland .................................................................................................................................................129 3.4.5. England ...............................................................................................................................................131 3.4.6. Scotland ..............................................................................................................................................133 3.5. Relationship of height and grain prices ...................................................................... 134 3.6. Conclusion .............................................................................................................................. 141 References .............................................................................................................. 144 4. Notes on A’Hearn’s restricted truncated estimator ....................... 148 4.1. Introduction .......................................................................................................................... 148 4.2. ML estimation, restricted and unrestricted ............................................................... 148 4.3. Our methodology and its relation to A’Hearn’s results ......................................... 150 III 4.4. MSE performance: Simulation results .......................................................................... 153 4.4.1. Re-estimation of A’Hearn’s (2004) model ............................................................................155