The seed of abundance and misery. Peruvian living standards from the early republican period to the end of the guano era (1820-80)

This paper scrutinizes the development of heights in Peru from the early republican period to the end of the guano era (1820-1880). Studying heights of prisoners from the Lima penitentiary, we find that those of prisoners from the lower classes stagnated throughout the period. We argue that the pres...

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Detalhes bibliográficos
Autores: Twrdek, Linda, Manzel, Kerstin
Formato: artículo
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2013
País:Perú
Recursos:Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú
Repositorio:Revistas - Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú
Idioma:español
OAI Identifier:oai:ojs.pkp.sfu.ca:article/6380
Acesso em linha:http://revistas.pucp.edu.pe/index.php/economia/article/view/6380
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palavra-chave:anthropometric history
inequality
heights
Peru
ethnicity
regional inequality
historia antropométrica
desigualdad
estaturas
Perú
etnicidad
desigualdad regional
Descrição
Resumo:This paper scrutinizes the development of heights in Peru from the early republican period to the end of the guano era (1820-1880). Studying heights of prisoners from the Lima penitentiary, we find that those of prisoners from the lower classes stagnated throughout the period. We argue that the presence of such a valuable export as guano had no positive effects on the standard of living of the middle and lower classes, not even in Lima, where most of the benefits from guano exports were concentrated. After controlling for ethnic and occupational differences throughout the period under consideration, we find no statistically significant regional disparities in living standards. Moreover, we find that ethnic differences were as pronounced during that time as they would have been if no political change had happened, and that they remained unchanged throughout the entire century. In addition, this study is the first to present data on 19th-century Peruvian women.