%0 Journal Article
%T Changing Institutions, Changing Net Nutrition: A Difference
%A Scott Alan Carson
%J The Review of Black Political Economy
%@ 1936-4814
%D 2019
%R 10.1177/0034644618820928
%X The body mass index (BMI) reflects current net nutrition and health during economic development. This study introduces a difference-in-decompositions approach to show that although 19th century African American current net nutrition was comparable to working-class Whites, it was made worse-off with the transition to free-labor. BMI reflects net nutrition over the life-course, and like stature, slave children¡¯s BMIs increased more than Whites as they approached entry into the adult slave labor force. Agricultural worker¡¯s net nutrition was better than workers in other occupations but was worse-off under free-labor and industrialization. Within-group BMI variation was greater than across-group variation, and White within-group variation associated with socioeconomic status was greater than African Americans
%K BMI variation
%K current net nutrition
%K Oaxaca decomposition
%U https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0034644618820928