Batinti, Alberto and Costa‐Font, Joan and Hatton, Timothy J (2022) 'Voting Up? The Effects of Democracy and Franchise Extension on Human Stature.' Economica, 89 (353). pp. 161-190. ISSN 0013-0427

Text 2_Revised manuscript Final.pdf - Accepted Version Restricted to Repository staff only until 12 September 2023. Download (624kB) | Request a copy

Abstract

We study the effect of the spread of democracy on population health in 15 European countries since the middle of the 19th century, and more specifically the average height of adult males by five-year birth cohort, and we estimate the effect of transitions to democracy using within-country variation. We find that the advent of democracy increased average height by about 0.7 cm. When we also account for the extension of the franchise to women, this increases to 1 cm or about 9% of the total increase in height of birth cohorts from the 1870s to the 1970s. Intervening mechanisms include reduced inequality and increased expenditure on social and health services. Our results are robust to a wide range of econometric tests.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	height, democracy, transition, voting rights, franchise, inequality, political contestation, health services
Divisions:	Faculty of Social Sciences Faculty of Social Sciences > Economics, Department of
SWORD Depositor:	Elements
Depositing User:	Elements
Date Deposited:	12 Oct 2021 12:45
Last Modified:	06 Jan 2022 14:32
URI:	http://repository.essex.ac.uk/id/eprint/31300

Actions (login required)

View Item