Homemakers and heights. Intra-household resource allocation and male stature in the Netherlands, 1860–1930

• Published in: Economics and human biology 2019-08, Vol.34, p.194-207
• Main Authors: Quanjer, Björn, Kok, Jan
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Birth Order; Body Height; Breadwinner-homemaker model; Consumer/producer ratio; Family Characteristics - history; Food - economics; Heights; History, 19th Century; History, 20th Century; Household composition; Humans; Male; Military Personnel; Netherlands; Nutritional Status; Resource dilution; Sex Factors; Sibship size; Socioeconomic Factors - history; Women, Working - history; Women, Working - statistics & numerical data; Young Adult
• ISSN: 1570-677X; 1873-6130
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ehb.2019.04.003

•The consumer/producer ratio captures resource dilution better than sibship size.•Those born last in the birth order profit most from income pooling.•The rise of the breadwinner-homemaker model improved household living standards.•The number of brothers has a stronger effect on height than total sibship size.•Death of the mother resulted in lower stature indicating an independent care effect. In this article we test the hypothesis that the secular increase in heights in the course of the second half of the nineteenth century was associated with the rise of the breadwinner-homemaker household. In these ‘modern’ households, women raised the living standards (quality and quantity of food, hygiene and care) for all members, especially the children. We model the assumed contributions to the family budget by age and gender of household members, and find that a strong imbalance between consumers and producers in the household put severe strains on effective resource allocation, leading to lower net nutrition and lower young adult heights. We suggest a carefully calibrated consumer/producer ratio as an indicator to capture these effects. The ratio is not meant to replace others, and we show that sibling rank order as well as gender preferences also played a role in intra-household resource allocation. For our research, we have used a database with reconstructed life histories (including co-residence) of 3003 Dutch army recruits. Our results indicate that the consumer/producer ratio as experienced by recruits in their early life indeed had a strong impact (-1,8 cm) on their heights. However, this effect differed by social class, which can be explained by differences in acceptance of the income pooling model.