Height and income: A new method for the estimation of historical national income series

The median height of conscripts in The Netherlands between 1900 and 1940 can be estimated with remarkable precision from a linear combination of lagged scores of real national income per capita, by applying a polynomial distributed lag equation. The structure of the equation—although entirely based on macro data—is corroborated by patterns that were discovered earlier by scholars working from individual scores. Finally, the equation is rewritten in such a way that it can be used to estimate yearly figures of real per capita income for those years where data on income are lacking, but statistical information on the height of conscripts is not. These estimates of Dutch per capita income for the period 1845 up to 1900 display a pattern of growth and stagnation that is not immediately contradicted by historical evidence of a more traditional character