Does Democracy Make Taller Men? Cross-Country European Evidence

Does Democracy Make Taller Men? Cross-Country European Evidence. Alberto Batinti, Joan Costa-Font. Economics & Human Biology, February 15 2022, 101117. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ehb.2022.101117

Highlights

• Study whether a democracy improves a measure of individual wellbeing; human heights.

• Drawing on individual-level datasets, we test the hypothesis using a battery of eight different measures of democracy and derived averages

• We document that democracy - or its quality during early childhood - shows a strong and positive conditional correlation with male, but not female, adult stature.

• Preferred estimates suggest that being born in a democracy increases average male stature from a minimum of 1.33 to a maximum of 2.4 cm.

• An additional contribution when democracy increases furtherly during adolescent years, and when we adopt measures of existing democratic capital before birth and at the end of height plasticity in early adulthood.

• We also find that democracy is associated with a reduction in inequality of heights distribution.

• We find period-heterogeneity in our results, with early democratizations being more effective on heights than later ones. Results are robust to the inclusion/exclusion of countries exposed to communism.

Abstract: We study whether a democracy improves a measure of individual wellbeing; human heights. Drawing on individual-level datasets, we test the hypothesis using a battery of eight different measures of democracy and derived averages, and include models accounting for several confounders, regional and cohort fixed effects. We document that democracy - or its quality during early childhood - shows a strong and positive conditional correlation with male, but not female, adult stature. Our preferred estimates suggest that being born in a democracy increases average male stature from a minimum of 1.33 to a maximum of 2.4 cm. We also show a positive association when democracy increases from childhood to adolescence, and when we adopt measures of existing democratic capital before birth, and at the end of height plasticity in early adulthood. We also find that democracy is associated with a reduction in inequality of heights distribution. We finally find evidence of period-heterogeneity, namely, early democratizations are associated with taller people more than later ones. Results are robust to the inclusion of countries exposed to communism.

JEL I18 P2

Keywords: democracywellbeinghuman heightswaves of democratisationcommunismEuropesurvey data