Abstract
During the second half of the nineteenth and the first half of the twentieth centuries, The Netherlands experienced a remarkable growth in stature, both in absolute and relative terms, which resulted in making the Dutch the tallest people on earth. Given the known impact of early life diseases and nutrition on stature, this trend indicates a remarkable improvement in health. In the proposed project we aim to understand this development, by zooming in on processes at both micro and macro levels. We study the impact on young adult stature of heritability and early life conditions such as family size, parental socioeconomic status, the availability of nutrition and the local disease environment. Moreover, we look at the consequences of adult height and health on people?s later lives. Were taller people more successful on the marriage market, in their careers, and in reproduction? Can we discern ?virtuous cycles? or selection processes which allowed each successive generation to be taller? At the macro level we will study the role of (changing national and regional socioeconomic) inequality in explaining the Dutch gains in heights and health. We will make use of an extraordinary database: the reconstructed life courses (occupations, family formation, mobility) of Dutch persons born between 1811 and 1922 (Historical Sample of the Netherlands). We will enrich this database with information on heights of a representative sample of about 30000 individuals, namely of the HSN male persons themselves, as well as of their fathers, brothers and sons. Thus, we gain a unique longitudinal and intergenerational perspective on the remarkable history of heights and health in The Netherlands.