From John.Komlos at econhist.vwl.uni-muenchen.de Wed Mar 10 03:39:40 2004 From: John.Komlos at econhist.vwl.uni-muenchen.de (John Komlos) Date: Wed Nov 16 18:04:32 2005 Subject: EHB: Table of Contents of Vol 2. no. 1 of Economics and Human Biology Message-ID: ----------------- EHB POSTING ----------------- Dear Colleague, The Table of Contents of Vol 2. no. 1 of Economics and Human Biology can be found below. Please have a look at the new issue by visiting: http://www.elsevier.com/homepage/sae/econworld/econbase/ehb/frame.htm A restricted maximum likelihood estimator for truncated height samples, Pages 5-19 Brian A'Hearn SummaryPlus | Full Text + Links | PDF (141 K) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---- 3. Macro shocks and micro outcomes: child nutrition during Indonesia's crisis, Pages 21-44 Steven A. Block , Lynnda Kiess , Patrick Webb , Soewarta Kosen , Regina Moench-Pfanner , Martin W. Bloem and C. Peter Timmer SummaryPlus | Full Text + Links | PDF (353 K) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---- 4. Observations on the history of Dutch physical stature from the late-Middle Ages to the present, Pages 45-55 Hans de Beer SummaryPlus | Full Text + Links | PDF (206 K) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---- 5. From the tallest to (one of) the fattest: the enigmatic fate of the American population in the 20th century, Pages 57-74 John Komlos and Marieluise Baur SummaryPlus | Full Text + Links | PDF (166 K) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---- 6. The height of Tennessee convicts: another piece of the "antebellum puzzle", Pages 75-86 Marco Sunder SummaryPlus | Full Text + Links | PDF (292 K) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---- 7. Socio-economic transition, inequality, and mortality in Lithuania, Pages 87-95 Ramune Kalediene and Jadvyga Petrauskiene SummaryPlus | Full Text + Links | PDF (83 K) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---- 8. The effect of the economic transition on the body mass index of conscripts in Poland, Pages 97-106 Sawomir Kozie , Zygmunt Welon , Tadeusz Bielicki , Alicja Szklarska and Stanley Ulijaszek SummaryPlus | Full Text + Links | PDF (92 K) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---- 9. Social inequality and obesity in Czech school children, Pages 107-118 J. Vignerová , P. Bláha , K. Oancová and Z. Roth SummaryPlus | Full Text + Links | PDF (156 K) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---- 10. On the incidence of diarrhoea among young Indian children, Pages 119-138 Vani K. Borooah SummaryPlus | Full Text + Links | PDF (129 K) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---- 11. Infant feeding practices and chronic child malnutrition in the Indian states of Karnataka and Uttar Pradesh, Pages 139-158 Lance Brennan , John McDonald and Ralph Shlomowitz ------------ FOOTER TO EHB POSTING ------------ For information, send the message "info EHB" to lists@eh.net. From John.Komlos at econhist.vwl.uni-muenchen.de Mon Mar 29 05:45:49 2004 From: John.Komlos at econhist.vwl.uni-muenchen.de (John Komlos) Date: Wed Nov 16 18:04:32 2005 Subject: EHB: THE NEW YORKER Message-ID: ----------------- EHB POSTING ----------------- The curent issue of the "The New Yorker" magazine, March 29, 2004 has an interesting article on The Height Gap: Europeans are getting taller; why aren’t we? by Burkhard Bilger You might be interested in it as well. jk ------------ FOOTER TO EHB POSTING ------------ For information, send the message "info EHB" to lists@eh.net. From John.Komlos at econhist.vwl.uni-muenchen.de Mon Mar 29 06:08:35 2004 From: John.Komlos at econhist.vwl.uni-muenchen.de (John Komlos) Date: Wed Nov 16 18:04:32 2005 Subject: EHB: THE NEW YORKER Message-ID: ----------------- EHB POSTING ----------------- The curent issue of the "The New Yorker" magazine, March 29, 2004 has an interesting article on The Height Gap: Europeans are getting taller; why aren’t we? by Burkhard Bilger You might be interested in it as well. jk ------------ FOOTER TO EHB POSTING ------------ For information, send the message "info EHB" to lists@eh.net. From John.Komlos at econhist.vwl.uni-muenchen.de Mon Mar 29 08:21:02 2004 From: John.Komlos at econhist.vwl.uni-muenchen.de (John Komlos) Date: Wed Nov 16 18:04:32 2005 Subject: EHB: WG: Are we getting older? Message-ID: ----------------- EHB POSTING ----------------- Does anyone have a good answer for this question? -----Ursprüngliche Nachricht----- Von: Molinari, Luciano [mailto:Luciano.Molinari@kispi.unizh.ch] Gesendet: Montag, 29. März 2004 14:49 An: 'John Komlos' Betreff: Are we getting older? Dear John, Has the proportion of older people been increasing in recent years. Well, of course it has, I guess. But can we go a little farther? Is my life expectation after 60 (that is assuming that I am alive at 60, which is exactly my case) higher than it was a hundred years ago? or for my parents? And what about the life expectation after 80 or 90? Or perhaps even more subtle: has the life expectation of very old HEALTHY people, been increasing in the recent past? Of course many, most, people die for some specific medical reason, but what about the others? Does the question make sense? What is your opinion? Are you aware of some recent paper on this topic? And where could one find suitable data to study the problem? Best regards, Luciano ------------ FOOTER TO EHB POSTING ------------ For information, send the message "info EHB" to lists@eh.net. From rdmurphy at vt.edu Tue Mar 30 03:31:14 2004 From: rdmurphy at vt.edu (Russell D. Murphy Jr.) Date: Wed Nov 16 18:04:32 2005 Subject: EHB: WG: Are we getting older? Message-ID: ----------------- EHB POSTING ----------------- John Komlos writes: | ----------------- EHB POSTING ----------------- | Does anyone have a good answer for this question? | -----Ursprüngliche Nachricht----- | Von: Molinari, Luciano [mailto:Luciano.Molinari@kispi.unizh.ch] | Gesendet: Montag, 29. März 2004 14:49 | | Is my life expectation after 60 (that is assuming that I am alive at 60, | which is exactly my case) higher than it was a hundred years ago? or for my | parents? And what about the life expectation after 80 or 90? I have a paper which uses the distribution of lifetime as a measure of the distribution of welfare. I present some calculations of the expected years of life conditional, not on age, but on position in the mortality distribution. So, for Americans (by birth cohort): Expected years of life conditional on distribution position (position (x,y): from percentile x to percentile y) ( ., 10) (10, 25) (25, 75) (75, 90) (90, .) -------- -------- -------- -------- ------- 1900 0 9 63 85 94 1920 0 38 74 89 96 1940 12 58 79 91 98 1960 26 63 81 92 99 1980 37 67 83 94 101 2000 43 68 84 95 102 Change, 1900-2000 43 59 21 10 8 The first column shows, for six birth cohorts, the life expectancy of those in the bottom 10 percent of the mortality distribution. Infant mortality was high enough early in the century that life expectancy was less than a year. The third column shows the middle 50%, the last column shows the top 10%, and the other two round out the top and bottom quartiles. There have been very big changes at the bottom end of the mortality distribution, but sizeable changes at the top end as well. And, the 21 year increase in the middle of the distribution is pretty remarkable. The US changes are consistent with similar calculations for Western European countries. The data used to calculate these figures are cohort life tables from the US Social Security administration, so the figures for all of the cohorts include projections about future mortality experiences. The above is Table 3 from: Your money or your life? Inequality of lifetimes and welfare: 20,000 BC to 2,000 AD VPI Working Paper E2003-2, September, 2003 http://www.econ.vt.edu/~rdmurphy/papers/life.pdf Hope this helps- Russ Murphy -- Russell D. Murphy Department of Economics Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University Blacksburg, Virginia 24061 (540) 231-4537 ------------ FOOTER TO EHB POSTING ------------ For information, send the message "info EHB" to lists@eh.net. From John.Komlos at econhist.vwl.uni-muenchen.de Tue Mar 30 03:34:09 2004 From: John.Komlos at econhist.vwl.uni-muenchen.de (John Komlos) Date: Wed Nov 16 18:04:32 2005 Subject: EHB: AW: JOB ANNOUNCEMENT Message-ID: ----------------- EHB POSTING ----------------- ANNOUNCEMENT OF POSITION OPENING The Human Ecology Department of the M=E9rida Campus (Yucat=E1n), of Mex= ico=92s national research center, Centro de Investigaci=F3n y de Estudios Avanzad= os del I.P.N. (CINVESTAV) announces a position opening for a physical anthropologist or human biologist, specialized in the biology of human populations with a focus on the interactions of human biology, socio-cultural systems, and ecosystems. The responsibilities of the position include teaching courses and directing theses in the Master=B4s = of Science program in Human Ecology. Those who are interested must have completed their doctorate and have published at least two articles in indexed journals or two chapters in bo= oks by recognized academic presses. Preferably they will also have experienc= e in teaching and thesis advising. Fluency in Spanish is required. Applicants should belong to the Sistema Nacional de Investigadores (SNI, = a national registry of scientific researchers officially recognized for the quality of their work) or have the necessary qualifications to request appointment to this body (for details, see www.conacyt.mx). Candidates should send the following documents: 1. A letter with the applicant=92s reasons for wishing to join this department. 2. A copy of the doctoral diploma or an official university transcript documenting the doctorate. 3. An updated curriculum vitae, including the amount and source of financing for research projects, as well as a complete list of publicatio= ns. 4. A copy of the letter naming the candidate to the SNI, if he or she = is already a member. 5. The name and address of the department chair(s) in previous positio= ns and those of the dissertation advisor. 6. Copies of the five most important publications. (If a publication = is not in either Spanish or English, it will be necessary to provide a translation in either of these languages). 7. Evidence of fluency in Spanish, in case that is not the native language. 8. A description of the candidate=92s research experience and its rele= vance for human ecology. 9. A four-year proposal that includes research plans and courses that = the candidate could teach in this program. All the information should be sent to: Dr. Federico H. Dickinson B. Head of Department of Human Ecology CINVESTAV Apartado Postal 73 Cordemex Merida, Yucatan 97310 MEXICO Tel. (999) 981-2942 ext. 540 y 541 Fax (999) 981-4670 Email: dickinso@mda.cinvestav.mx, martha@mda.cinvestav.mx DESCRIPTION OF THE DEPARTMENT The Human Ecology Department is focused on relationships in time and sp= ace between human beings and other components and processes of the ecosystems= in which they participate. The two principle research areas of the department are: =B7 The social use of ecosystems, especially the appearance, modification, functioning and collapse of social forms for appropriating nature, as well as the impact of human behavior on ecosystems. =B7 The biological state of the human populations, especially (1)= the impact of environmental conditions on the characteristics of human growth and development, and (2) the effects of behavior and environment on the health, physiology, and anatomy of individuals and groups. The Master=92s of Science in Human Ecology began in 1998, adding gradua= te teaching responsibilities to the research already being done by this grou= p of scientists that had been formed initially in the mid 1980s. For more information, please consult the web page of the Department: www.mda.cinvestav.mx/Ecologia/Home.html. ------------ FOOTER TO EHB POSTING ------------ For information, send the message "info EHB" to lists@eh.net. From John.Komlos at econhist.vwl.uni-muenchen.de Tue Mar 30 04:01:36 2004 From: John.Komlos at econhist.vwl.uni-muenchen.de (John Komlos) Date: Wed Nov 16 18:04:32 2005 Subject: EHB: THE NEW YORKER Message-ID: ----------------- EHB POSTING ----------------- Sorry, for clarification: the current issue is dated April 5 and came out yesterday. >----------------- EHB POSTING ----------------- >The curent issue of the "The New Yorker" magazine, March 29, 2004 has an >interesting article on > The Height Gap: Europeans are getting taller; why aren't we? >by Burkhard Bilger >You might be interested in it as well. >jk ------------ FOOTER TO EHB POSTING ------------ For information, send the message "info EHB" to lists@eh.net. From John.Komlos at econhist.vwl.uni-muenchen.de Tue Mar 30 04:03:32 2004 From: John.Komlos at econhist.vwl.uni-muenchen.de (John Komlos) Date: Wed Nov 16 18:04:32 2005 Subject: EHB: Did Partial Globalization Increase Inequality? Message-ID: ----------------- EHB POSTING ----------------- CESifo Economics Studies, Vol. 50, 1/2004, 45=9684 Did Partial Globalization Increase Inequality? The Case of the Latin American Periphery, 1950=962000 -------------------------------------------------------------------------= --- ---- Abstract Inequality is an important threat to the globalization of the world economy that we experience today. This contribution uses the coefficient = of height variation as a measure of inequality. This indicator covers not on= ly wage recipients, but also the selfemployed, the unemployed, housewives, children, and other groups who may not participate in a market economy, f= or the period 1950-79, for which income inequality data is mostly unavailabl= e or inconsistent. It turns out that within-country inequality is higher in time periods of greater openness. This result is confirmed for the time period 1950-2000, and a much broader model. JEL I12, I32, N33 [Download PDF, 319 KB] Authors: Joerg Baten and Uwe Fraunholz* http://www.cesifo.de/servlet/page?_pageid=3D56&_dad=3Dportal30&_schema=3D= PORTAL30& pa_id=3D129541 ------------ FOOTER TO EHB POSTING ------------ For information, send the message "info EHB" to lists@eh.net. From willmore at un.org Tue Mar 30 10:39:37 2004 From: willmore at un.org (Larry Willmore) Date: Wed Nov 16 18:04:32 2005 Subject: EHB: WG: Are we getting older? Message-ID: ----------------- EHB POSTING ----------------- Russell Murphy provides an interesting and useful table, but it leaves me curious regarding the gender distribution of the mortality distribution. Would the top 10% in terms of longevity be composed entirely of females? Also, alas, it tells us nothing regarding expected years of life from age 60, where gains have been less impressive. The survey of retirement (p. 6) in this week's Economist reports "the extra life-span a British man could look forward to on his 65th birthday increased by only one year between 1840 and 1960, but by more than four years between 1960 and 2000". Larry Willmore "Russell D. Murphy Jr." To: EHB@eh.net cc: Sent by: Subject: Re: EHB: WG: Are we getting older? owner-EHB@eh.net 30/03/2004 03:31 AM Please respond to EHB ----------------- EHB POSTING ----------------- John Komlos writes: | ----------------- EHB POSTING ----------------- | Does anyone have a good answer for this question? | -----Ursprüngliche Nachricht----- | Von: Molinari, Luciano [mailto:Luciano.Molinari@kispi.unizh.ch] | Gesendet: Montag, 29. März 2004 14:49 | | Is my life expectation after 60 (that is assuming that I am alive at 60, | which is exactly my case) higher than it was a hundred years ago? or for my | parents? And what about the life expectation after 80 or 90? I have a paper which uses the distribution of lifetime as a measure of the distribution of welfare. I present some calculations of the expected years of life conditional, not on age, but on position in the mortality distribution. So, for Americans (by birth cohort): Expected years of life conditional on distribution position (position (x,y): from percentile x to percentile y) ( ., 10) (10, 25) (25, 75) (75, 90) (90, .) -------- -------- -------- -------- ------- 1900 0 9 63 85 94 1920 0 38 74 89 96 1940 12 58 79 91 98 1960 26 63 81 92 99 1980 37 67 83 94 101 2000 43 68 84 95 102 Change, 1900-2000 43 59 21 10 8 The first column shows, for six birth cohorts, the life expectancy of those in the bottom 10 percent of the mortality distribution. Infant mortality was high enough early in the century that life expectancy was less than a year. The third column shows the middle 50%, the last column shows the top 10%, and the other two round out the top and bottom quartiles. There have been very big changes at the bottom end of the mortality distribution, but sizeable changes at the top end as well. And, the 21 year increase in the middle of the distribution is pretty remarkable. The US changes are consistent with similar calculations for Western European countries. The data used to calculate these figures are cohort life tables from the US Social Security administration, so the figures for all of the cohorts include projections about future mortality experiences. The above is Table 3 from: Your money or your life? Inequality of lifetimes and welfare: 20,000 BC to 2,000 AD VPI Working Paper E2003-2, September, 2003 http://www.econ.vt.edu/~rdmurphy/papers/life.pdf Hope this helps- Russ Murphy -- Russell D. Murphy Department of Economics Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University Blacksburg, Virginia 24061 (540) 231-4537 ------------ FOOTER TO EHB POSTING ------------ For information, send the message "info EHB" to lists@eh.net. ------------ FOOTER TO EHB POSTING ------------ For information, send the message "info EHB" to lists@eh.net. From rdmurphy at vt.edu Wed Mar 31 03:36:05 2004 From: rdmurphy at vt.edu (Russell D. Murphy Jr.) Date: Wed Nov 16 18:04:32 2005 Subject: EHB: WG: Are we getting older? Message-ID: ----------------- EHB POSTING ----------------- Larry Willmore writes: | ----------------- EHB POSTING ----------------- | Russell Murphy provides an interesting and useful table, but it leaves me | curious regarding the gender distribution of the mortality distribution. | Would the top 10% in terms of longevity be composed entirely of females? I'm not entirely sure what leads to the dissatisfaction. Longevity gains have been impressive almost no matter how you choose to look at them. | Also, alas, it tells us nothing regarding expected years of life from age | 60, where gains have been less impressive. It's possible that gains after age 60 "have been less impressive", but even if this were so (and see below for an alternative view), so many more people reach age 60 now that it's hard to see what the complaint would be. There *have* been gains after age 60, and apparently impressive ones. The following are expected years of life conditional on reaching age 60 and age 80, for males and for females (Social Security Administration Actuarial Study 116; August 2002). Birth Age 60 Age 80 cohort M F M F ------ -- -- -- -- 1900 16 22 7 9 1920 18 23 7 9 1940 20 24 8 10 1960 22 25 9 11 1980 23 27 10 12 2000 24 28 10 12 ------ -- -- -- -- Increase 50% 27% 43% 33% There are plenty of caveats (e.g. rounded to the nearest year, estimation of future mortality experience, for population of US Social Security coverage area). But the basic conclusion seems pretty clear. And given that mortality at younger ages is already quite low, future improvement in life expectancy (if any) will come at older ages. Although motherhood was dangerous early in the century, men still had relatively poorer prospects then; we have less to complain about today. Russ Murphy -- Russell D. Murphy Department of Economics Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University Blacksburg, Virginia 24061 (540) 231-4537 ------------ FOOTER TO EHB POSTING ------------ For information, send the message "info EHB" to lists@eh.net. From getzen at temple.edu Wed Mar 31 03:37:30 2004 From: getzen at temple.edu (Thomas E. Getzen) Date: Wed Nov 16 18:04:32 2005 Subject: EHB: WG: Are we getting older? Message-ID: ----------------- EHB POSTING ----------------- The US life tables do seem to indicate a substantial gain--wouldn't the Union Soldier's retirement studies by Costa and Fogel provide fairly definitive answers to this. Also, there is a time series paper by Deaton and ?Paxon on mortality rates for UK and US (I believe it is on Deaton's website at Princeton) which --if my memory is correct, Ah: here is some data: Years of remaining life expectancy at age 80 = 7.1 in 1990 v. 5.10 in 1902, at age 60 18.7 v. 14.3 (U.S. Life tables). tom getzen -----Original Message----- From: owner-EHB@eh.net [mailto:owner-EHB@eh.net]On Behalf Of John Komlos Sent: Monday, March 29, 2004 8:21 AM To: Ehb Subject: EHB: WG: Are we getting older? ----------------- EHB POSTING ----------------- Does anyone have a good answer for this question? -----Urspr|ngliche Nachricht----- Von: Molinari, Luciano [mailto:Luciano.Molinari@kispi.unizh.ch] Gesendet: Montag, 29. Mdrz 2004 14:49 An: 'John Komlos' Betreff: Are we getting older? Dear John, Has the proportion of older people been increasing in recent years. Well, of course it has, I guess. But can we go a little farther? Is my life expectation after 60 (that is assuming that I am alive at 60, which is exactly my case) higher than it was a hundred years ago? or for my parents? And what about the life expectation after 80 or 90? Or perhaps even more subtle: has the life expectation of very old HEALTHY people, been increasing in the recent past? Of course many, most, people die for some specific medical reason, but what about the others? Does the question make sense? What is your opinion? Are you aware of some recent paper on this topic? And where could one find suitable data to study the problem? Best regards, Luciano ------------ FOOTER TO EHB POSTING ------------ For information, send the message "info EHB" to lists@eh.net. ------------ FOOTER TO EHB POSTING ------------ For information, send the message "info EHB" to lists@eh.net. From marco.sunder at econhist.vwl.uni-muenchen.de Wed Mar 31 04:12:22 2004 From: marco.sunder at econhist.vwl.uni-muenchen.de (Marco Sunder) Date: Wed Nov 16 18:04:32 2005 Subject: EHB: WG: Are we getting older? Message-ID: ----------------- EHB POSTING ----------------- Annual life tables for several countries are available at the Human Mortality Database: http://www.mortality.org/ The English ones start in 1841. Best regards, marco --- Marco Sunder University of Munich email: marco@econhist.de Thomas E. Getzen wrote: >----------------- EHB POSTING ----------------- >The US life tables do seem to indicate a substantial gain--wouldn't the >Union Soldier's retirement studies by Costa and Fogel provide fairly >definitive answers to this. Also, there is a time series paper by Deaton >and ?Paxon on mortality rates for UK and US (I believe it is on Deaton's >website at Princeton) which --if my memory is correct, > >Ah: here is some data: Years of remaining life expectancy at age 80 = 7.1 >in 1990 v. 5.10 in 1902, >at age 60 18.7 v. 14.3 (U.S. Life tables). >tom getzen > >-----Original Message----- >From: owner-EHB@eh.net [mailto:owner-EHB@eh.net]On Behalf Of John Komlos >Sent: Monday, March 29, 2004 8:21 AM >To: Ehb >Subject: EHB: WG: Are we getting older? > > >----------------- EHB POSTING ----------------- >Does anyone have a good answer for this question? > > >-----Urspr|ngliche Nachricht----- >Von: Molinari, Luciano [mailto:Luciano.Molinari@kispi.unizh.ch] >Gesendet: Montag, 29. Mdrz 2004 14:49 >An: 'John Komlos' >Betreff: Are we getting older? > > >Dear John, > >Has the proportion of older people been increasing in recent years. Well, of >course it has, I guess. But can we go a little farther? >Is my life expectation after 60 (that is assuming that I am alive at 60, >which is exactly my case) higher than it was a hundred years ago? or for my >parents? And what about the life expectation after 80 or 90? > >Or perhaps even more subtle: has the life expectation of very old HEALTHY >people, been increasing in the recent past? Of course many, most, people die >for some specific medical reason, but what about the others? >Does the question make sense? What is your opinion? Are you aware of some >recent paper on this topic? >And where could one find suitable data to study the problem? > >Best regards, >Luciano > >------------ FOOTER TO EHB POSTING ------------ >For information, send the message "info EHB" to lists@eh.net. > >------------ FOOTER TO EHB POSTING ------------ >For information, send the message "info EHB" to lists@eh.net. > > > > ------------ FOOTER TO EHB POSTING ------------ For information, send the message "info EHB" to lists@eh.net.