Height inequality in Chile*: An empirical analysis for the nineteenth and twentieth centuries

This chapter provides the first in-depth analysis of height inequality in Chile for the adult male population born during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. We have considered, for the first time, evidence on the coefficient of variation (CV) as a measure of height inequality. We have also provided average height according to several variables: province (and/or region) of birth, socioeconomic group, and educational level. We found that during the 1830s-1860s the CV, although declining, was high. Some of these decades registered the lowest average height in Chile. Thereafter, the CV stabilised at lower levels during the 1870s-1900s and continued falling during the 1910s-1920s. During the 1930s-1960s the CV reached, on average, its lowest level, increasing during the 1970s but decreasing again during the 1980s-1990s. Despite the increase in the 1970s, the CV never again reached the levels registered up to the 1870s. Most decades with low CV rates are coincident with the decades of sustained growth of average height: in the long run, it is clear that in Chile, height increased when net-nutrition inequality either stagnated or declined. Our data also suggests that there was no “rural penalty” during the Early Republic or during the Nitrate Era periods. This situation changed later: there was a mild “rural penalty” in the last two periods (ISI and Neoliberal). Finally, all of our data confirms differences in average height per socioeconomic group, as predicted theoretically: our results show what has been called a socio-anthropometric stratification according to socioeconomic group.