edoc

Leaders and laggards in life expectancy among European scholars from the sixteenth to the early twentieth century

Stelter, Robert and De la Croix, David and Myrskylä, Mikko. (2021) Leaders and laggards in life expectancy among European scholars from the sixteenth to the early twentieth century. Demography, 58 (1). pp. 111-135.

[img]
Preview
PDF - Published Version
Available under License CC BY-NC-ND (Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives).

2936Kb

Official URL: https://edoc.unibas.ch/86905/

Downloads: Statistics Overview

Abstract

When did mortality first start to decline, and among whom? We build a large, new data set with more than 30,000 scholars covering the sixteenth to the early twentieth century to analyze the timing of the mortality decline and the heterogeneity in life expectancy gains among scholars in the Holy Roman Empire. The large sample size, well-defined entry into the risk group, and heterogeneity in social status are among the key advantages of the new database. After recovering from a severe mortality crisis in the seventeenth century, life expectancy among scholars started to increase as early as in the eighteenth century, well before the Industrial Revolution. Our finding that members of scientific academies-an elite group among scholars-were the first to experience mortality improvements suggests that 300 years ago, individuals with higher social status already enjoyed lower mortality. We also show, however, that the onset of mortality improvements among scholars in medicine was delayed, possibly because these scholars were exposed to pathogens and did not have germ theory knowledge that might have protected them. The disadvantage among medical professionals decreased toward the end of the nineteenth century. Our results provide a new perspective on the historical timing of mortality improvements, and the database accompanying our study facilitates replication and extensions.
Faculties and Departments:06 Faculty of Business and Economics > Departement Wirtschaftswissenschaften > Professuren Wirtschaftswissenschaften > Quantitative Wirtschaftsgeschichte/Cliometrie (Stelter)
UniBasel Contributors:Stelter, Robert
Item Type:Article, refereed
Article Subtype:Research Article
Publisher:Duke University Press
ISSN:0070-3370
e-ISSN:1533-7790
Note:Publication type according to Uni Basel Research Database: Journal article
Language:English
Identification Number:
edoc DOI:
Last Modified:24 Oct 2022 11:44
Deposited On:24 Oct 2022 11:44

Repository Staff Only: item control page