Intergenerational transmission of longevity is not affected by other familial factors: evidence from 16,905 Dutch families from Zeeland, 1812-1962

Studies have shown that long-lived individuals seem to pass their survival advantage on to their offspring. Offspring of long-lived parents had a lifelong survival advantage over individuals without long-lived parents, making them more likely to become long-lived themselves. We test whether the survival advantage enjoyed by offspring of long-lived individuals is explained by environmental factors. 101,577 individuals from 16,905 families in the 1812–1886 Zeeland cohort were followed over time. To prevent that certain families were overrepresented in our data, disjoint family trees were selected. Offspring was included if the age at death of both parents was known. Our analyses show that multiple familial resources are associated with survival within the first 5 years of life, with stronger maternal than paternal effects. However, between ages 5 and 100 both parents contribute equally to offspring’s survival chances. After age 5, offspring of long-lived fathers and long-lived mothers had a 16-19% lower chance of dying at any given point in time than individuals without long-lived parents. This survival advantage is most likely genetic in nature, as it could not be explained by other, tested familial resources and is transmitted equally by fathers and mothers

Global Absolute Poverty: Present and Past since 1820

This chapter relies on a global data set on basic commodity prices to provide first estimates of global extreme poverty in the long run using a “cost of basic needs” approach.1 For 135 years since 1820, more than half of the global population lived in conditions of extreme poverty. It took another 46 years to cut this rate in half, which only happened as recently as 2001. In the years that followed, the reduction of extreme poverty accelerated tremendously, and in 13 more years the global poverty rate was halved again. Compared to other available estimates, the world in the 19th century was less poor than we had thought, but poorer in the more recent period. Notably, the total number of people living in conditions of extreme poverty in 1820 stands at 757 million, which is almost identical with the count two centuries later in 2018, at 764 million

A composite view of well-being since 1820

This chapter provides a parsimonious overview of the trends in various well-being dimensions covered in the previous chapters by constructing a composite index of well-being. It discusses the crucial problem of choosing a set of weights to calculate such a composite index. Related problems include normalisation of individual indices and dealing with missing observations. The chapter discusses the advantages of various options, and their implications for the final results. It finds that empirically a wide range of aggregation methods generate comparable results. They all indicate that progress in well-being was commonplace since the early 20th century, with the possible exception of Sub-Saharan Africa. It is also found that since the 1970s between-country inequality in composite well-being is lower than in GDP per capita, while being more pronounced in the period before

From orphan to artisan: apprenticeship careers and contract enforcement in The Netherlands before and after the guild abolition

Employing novel data on over 400 apprenticed orphaned boys from the Dutch cities of Leiden and Utrecht, this article explores the functioning of apprenticeship during and after the guilds. Although the mobility of apprentices was high and contracts were uncertain, no complaints arose from masters or guilds. Wages paid to these apprentices demonstrate that their labour made a gradually increasing contribution to the workshop from the start of their term. This enticed masters to take on apprentices and removed the need for contract enforcement. After the guilds were abolished, the number of apprenticed orphans in the crafts grew, suggesting that guilds previously hampered access to training. Additional data collected for regular (non-orphan) apprentices corroborates these findings

Property, power and participation in local administration in the Dutch delta in the early modern period

According to the literature inspired by the ideas of Robert Brenner, leaseholders, small farmers and craftsmen did not participate in the local administration of those districts in the Dutch Republic where the majority of land was owned by large landowners. However, in this article we show that, at least in the Dutch river clay area, where water management was an essential part of the population’s struggle to survive the annual floods, the battle against the elements induced people, regardless of their property relations and social distinctions, to share power in order to overcome the challenges they all faced. The study also contributes to the growing literature about the effects of water management on political culture in the North Sea area

Global Absolute Poverty: Behind the Veil of Dollars

The widely applied “dollar-a-day” methodology identifies global absolute poverty as declining precipitously since the early 80’s throughout the developing world. The methodological underpinnings of the “dollar-a-day” approach have been questioned in terms of adequately representing equivalent welfare conditions in different countries and years. These key issues of measuring global poverty are addressed here using the concept of the bare bones consumption basket (BBB). This methodology pinpoints equivalent levels of welfare, both internationally and intertemporally. The results validate the critique against the “dollar-a-day” methodology, showing large variations in costs of BBB between countries and years, even when one explicitly allows for additional expenses such as education and health. This volatility represents the differential among the typically used average CPI and a price index which is more relevant to those living in absolute poverty. On a point estimate level, success in terms of the first Millennium Development Goal (MDG) appears marginal. Once uncertainty in the estimates is accounted for, the BBB poverty lines provide the ground to dispute MDG 1 early celebrations. While BBB absolute poverty remains at very low levels during the entire 1983–2014 period, it also demonstrates strong persistence throughout. On the contrary, the higher welfare level BBB derivative shows overall much less flattering poverty levels

East of Eden: The place of Poland in The Little Divergence debate

Why are some countries rich whereas others remain poor? What are the origins of the exemplary economic development of North-Western Europe that remains one of the most prosperous regions of the world and why are so many countries unable to embark on a similar growth trajectory? Discussions about the timing and the explanations of the onset of the distinctive economic growth of England and the Netherlands and the reasons behind the underdevelopment of the less successful countries within Europe are known as the Little Divergence debate. Malinowski’s research brings Poland into the debate. It shows that standards of living in Poland were already lower than that in England and the Netherlands by the 15th century. There was a significant increase in income levels in Poland in the 16th century. However, the growth was not sufficient to close the income gap entirely. The period of economic expansion was followed by a crisis. The dissimilarity in income levels grew again in the 17th and the 18th century as a result of a contraction of the Polish economy on the one hand, and continuous growth of the North-Western economies on the other. Malinowski focuses on the factors that contributed to the crisis that occurred in Poland in the 17th century. He challenges the conventional knowledge that the crisis was brought about by serfdom – the landmark institution regulating social relations in the country. Malinowski shows that there was a market crisis in the 17th century and proposes that it, rather than serfdom, brought about the economic demise of the country. According to the author, serfdom might have had a relatively beneficial effect on urban growth during the market crisis. This is because, the higher duties charged to the serfs could have fostered commercialization of agricultural production that, otherwise, would not have found its way to a market. Malinowski puts forward empirical support for this idea with use of a new dataset on urban settlements and market conditions in early modern Poland. He identifies a positive effect of the interaction between unconstrained legal jurisdiction over peasantry and market disintegration on urban population growth