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Demographic, residential, and socioeconomic effects on the distribution of nineteenth-century African-American stature

Demographic, residential, and socioeconomic effects on the distribution of nineteenth-century African-American stature

Journal of Population Economics
Volume 24, Issue 4 (October 2011)
pages 1471-1491
DOI: 10.1007/s00148-010-0324-x

Scott Alan Carson, Professor of Economics
The University of Texas of the Permian Basin

Nineteenth-century mulattos were taller than their darker-colored African-American counterparts. However, traditional explanations that attribute the mulatto stature advantage to only socioeconomic factors are yet to tie taller mulatto statures to observable phenomenon. Vitamin D production may also explain part of the nineteenth-century mulatto–black stature differential. Mulattos were taller than darker-pigmented blacks across the stature distribution, and higher melanin concentrations in darker black stratum corneums reduced the amount of vitamin D synthesized. The interaction with sunlight in darker-complexioned blacks was associated with larger stature returns for darker-complexioned blacks than their mulatto counterparts.

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