Brian A'Hearn
-
-
Education
October 2017|Chapter|Measuring Wellbeing: A History of Italian Living Standards -
Height
October 2017|Chapter|Measuring Wellbeing: A History of Italian Living Standards -
Hidden negative aspects of industrialization at the onset of modern economic growth in the U.S.
June 2017|Journal article|Structural Change and Economic Dynamics© 2017 The decrease in nutritional status of the American population during the structural change brought about by the onset of modern economic growth is inferred from the decline in average physical stature for more than a generation beginning with the birth cohorts of the early 1830s. The decline occurred in a dynamic economy characterized by rapid population growth, urbanization, and industrialization. The decline in nutritional status was associated with a rise in both mortality and morbidity. These hitherto hidden negative aspects of rapid industrialization were brought about by rising inequality and a marked increase in real food prices, which induced dietary changes through the substitution away from edibles toward non-edibles. The implication is that the human biological system did not thrive as well as one would theoretically expect in a growing economy. -
Oxford Economic and Social History Working Papers
Rethinking Age-heaping, a Cautionary Tale From Nineteenth Century Italy
October 2016|Working paper|Oxford Economic and Social History Working PapersA swelling stream of literature employs age-heaping as an indicator of human capital, more specifically of numeracy. We re-examine this connection in light of evidence drawn from nineteenth century Italy: census data, death records, and direct, qualitative evidence on age-awareness and numeracy. Though it can stand in as an acceptable proxy for literacy, our findings suggest that age-heaping is most plausibly interpreted as a broad indicator of cultural and institutional modernisation rather than a measure of cognitive skills.Age-Heaping, Numeracy, Human capital, Italy
-
Oxford Economic and Social History Working Papers
Rethinking Age-heaping, a Cautionary Tale From Nineteenth Century Italy
October 2016|Working paper|Oxford Economic and Social History Working PapersA swelling stream of literature employs age-heaping as an indicator of human capital, more specifically of numeracy. We re-examine this connection in light of evidence drawn from nineteenth century Italy: census data, death records, and direct, qualitative evidence on age-awareness and numeracy. Though it can stand in as an acceptable proxy for literacy, our findings suggest that age-heaping is most plausibly interpreted as a broad indicator of cultural and institutional modernisation rather than a measure of cognitive skills.Age-Heaping, Numeracy, Human capital, Italy -
Oxford Economic and Social History Working Papers
On Historical Household Budgets
June 2016|Working paper|Oxford Economic and Social History Working PapersAbstract: The paper argues that household budgets are the best starting point for investigating a number of big questions related to the evolution of the living standards during the last two-three centuries. If one knows where to look, historical family budgets are more abundant than might be suspected. And statistical techniques have been developed to handle the associated problems of small, incomplete, and unrepresentative samples. We introduce the Historical Household Budgets (HHB) Project, aimed at gathering data and sources, but also at creating an informational infrastructure that provides i) reliable storage and easy access to historical family budget data, along with ii) tools to configure the data as it is entered so as to harmonise it with present-day surveys.household budgets, household budget surveys, living standards, inequality, poverty, survey, globalization, purchasing power parities, grouped data, poststratification. -
Department of Economics Discussion Paper Series
Internal Geography and External Trade: regional disparities in Italy, 1861-2011
November 2011|Working paperThis paper explores the interactions between external trade and regional disparities in the Italian economy since unification. It argues that the advantage of the North was initially based on natural advantage (in particular the endowment of water, intensive in silk production). From 1880 onwards the share of exports in GDP stagnated and then declined; domestic market access therefore became a key determinant of industrial location, inducing fast growing new sectors (especially engineering) to locate in regions with a large domestic market, i.e. in the North. From 1945 onwards trade growth and European integration meant that foreign market access was the decisive factor; the North had the advantage of proximity to these markets.F14, F15, N63, N64, N93, N94, R11, R12, industrialisation, market integration, new economic geography, geographic concentration, Italian regions -
Clarifications of a Puzzle: The Decline in Nutritional Status at the Onset of Modern Economic Growth in the U.S.A.
Working paper
