Malthusian Dynamics in a Diverging Europe: Northern Italy 1650-1881

Recent empirical research has questioned the validity of using Malthusian theory in pre-industrial England. Using real wage and vital rate data for the years 1650-1881, I provide empirical estimates for a different region { Northern Italy. The empirical methodology is theoretically underpinned by a simple Malthusian model, in which population, real wages and vital rates are determined endogenously. My findings strongly support the existence of a `Malthusian' economy where population growth depressed living standards, which in turn influenced vital rates. In addition, I find no evidence of Boseru- pian effects as increases in population failed to spur sustained technological growth.Economic History, Demographic Economics

Exporting Poor Health: The Irish in England

The Irish-born population in England is in worse health than both the native population and the Irish population in Ireland, a reversal of the commonly observed healthy migrant effect. Recent birth-cohorts living in England and born in Ireland, however, are healthier than the English population. The substantial Irish health penalty arises principally for cohorts born between 1920 and 1960. This paper attempts to understand the processes that generated this migrant health pattern. Our results suggest a strong role for early childhood conditions and economic selection in driving the dynamics of health differences between the Irish-born migrants and White English populations.

Human Capital and the Quantity-Quality Trade-Off during the Demographic Transition: New Evidence from Ireland

In this article I measure the child quantity-quality relationship in 1911 Ireland. My analysis shows that sibship size had a strong impact on the probability of school enrollment in both Belfast and Dublin. However, the magnitude of the relationship varied considerably across different cohorts, most noticeably between the two cities. The existence of this relationship shows how the demographic transition played a vital role in the expansion of human capital and is highly consistent with the theoretical foundations of various long-run growth theories.Quantity-Quality, Human Capital, Demographic Transition, Unified Growth Theory

Atmospheric Pollution, Health and Height in Late Nineteenth Century Britain

Atmospheric pollution was an important side effect of coal-fired industrialisation in the nineteenth century. In Britain emissions of black smoke were on the order of fifty times as high as they were a century later. In this paper we examine the effects of these emissions on child development by analysing the heights on enlistment during the First World War of men born in England and Wales in the 1890s. We use the occupational structure to measure the coal intensity of the districts in which these men were observed as children in the 1901 census. We find strong negative effects of coal intensity on height, which amounts to difference of almost an inch between the most and least polluted localities. These results are robust to a variety of specification tests and they are consistent with the notion that the key channel of influence on height was via respiratory infection. The subsequent reduction of emissions from coal combustion is one factor contributing to the improvement in health (and the increase in height) during the twentieth century