Anthropometric evidence of Indian welfare and inequality in the 20_1hnt_1hnh century [Elektronische Ressource] / vorgelegt von Aravinda Meera Guntupalli

Amg1d06

Informations

• Publié par: eberhard_karls_universitat_tubingen
• Publié le: 01 janvier 2007
• Nombre de lectures: 14
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

thAnthropometric Evidence of Indian Welfare and Inequality in the 20 Century













Inaugural-Dissertation
zur Erlangung des Doktorgrades
der Wirtschaftswissenschaftlichen Fakultät
der Eberhard-Karls-Universität Tübingen













vorgelegt von

Aravinda Meera Guntupalli
aus Tenali, India

2007






II







































Dekan: Professor Dr. Joachim Grammig
Erstberichterstatter: Professor Dr. Joerg Baten
Zweitberichterstatter: Professor Dr. Heinz G. Preusse
Tag der Disputation: 27. März 2007

III




India has two million gods, and worships them all. In religion all other countries are
paupers; India is the only millionaire.

- Mark Twain






Though “shining” democratic Indians can boast about many religions, castes, languages
and tribes, they cannot ignore stagnating poverty and growing inequality between and
within several groups. The aim of the thesis is to see beyond the typical welfare and
inequality approaches. I dedicate my work to my family and millions of children-
especially girls- whose future is impended by inequality and poverty.





IV
Acknowledgements

First of all, I thank my supervisor Joerg Baten for giving me the opportunity to do this
PhD and to teach at the University of Tuebingen. He also encouraged me to attend
various international conferences to present my work. My serious attempt in
stanthropometric research began when John Komlos and Joerg Baten invited me to the 1
Economics and Human Biology (EHB) conference, and I am grateful for giving me this
opportunity.
When I was a master student, Ralph Shlomowitz gave a talk at the International
Institute for Population Sciences, Mumbai about Indian anthropometric history, which
introduced me to this research area. Since then Ralph was wonderful by sharing ideas,
suggestions and comments especially, for the chapter on Indian welfare and inequality
before 1944. I also thank John Murray, Bishnupriya Gupta, Stephen Broadberry, and the
th ndparticipants of 5 World Cliometrics, Social Science History Association (2004) and 2
Economics and Human Biology conference that provided me with useful comments.
My chapter on gender inequality is motivated by the successful joint work with
Alexander Moradi (Oxford University) and Daniel Schwekendiek. I thank Richard Wall
for his wonderful encouragement, comments and valuable time. I benefited from the
discussions with Bernard Harris, Richard Smith, Sonia Bhalotra, and Jane Humphries.
ndThe comments I received after presenting my gender research at the 2 Economics and
Human Biology conference, Cost action Modena symposium, Southampton seminar, and
Cambridge group seminar were helpful. I also thank Richard Wall, Bernard Harris and
Angus Deaton for providing new database for future gender research.
V
My last chapter on the simultaneous existence of malnutrition and obesity has
improved tremendously over time. I presented this paper first in Bristol and later at
several conferences. Suddenly, I was getting bored with the good old results and came up
with the idea of applying quantile regressions for this chapter. I have benefited a lot from
the comments, criticism and ideas of Stanley Ulijaszek, Wiji Arulampalam, and Barry
rdPopkin. I also benefited from the comments I received from participants of the 3
Economics and Human Biology conference and Population Association of America
meeting (2006).
My family Nirmala, Ramesh, Srinivas, Varun, Gerhard, Gerlinde, Johann,
Michael, Happy, Willi and grand parents were fantastic during my PhD with their lovely
unconditional support. I am really happy to have parents that supported all my
experiments (both sinking and floating ones). I thank Gerhard for all his support as a life
partner, friend, and colleague. My aunt Nirmala, Madhu, Bheem, Deepa-Balbheem-
Kriya, and Saritha-Girish-Abhi were fantastic - as always. I thank Debbie for helping
with editing and ‘lively’ discussions. Mrs.Wutz, Silvia, Belgin, Melanie and other
Tuebingen friends made my stay in Germany very nice and memorable. I thank the
st
wonderful thieves who stole everything from me twice before and after 1 Economics
and Human Biology conference in a span of 10 days. Their ransacking and strange
behavior created structural break in my “experimental behavior” (of course in a positive
way).
I also thank the Tuebingen research group – especially Alexander, Daniel- for
their comments and criticism during our monthly seminars. I also sincerely thank Dr.
T.K.Roy, Dr. Radha Devi, Dr. Ravi Verma, Prof. Shiva Prasad and Prof. Mishra for their
VI
inspiration and support during my masters in demography and anthropology. Once again
I thank you all for your wonderful support especially during my “research blue” days.
Fortunately, I still believe that everything related to research is constant except change.
VII

Abbreviations


AIAS All India Anthropometric Survey
CGM Child Growth and Malnutrition world data
CV Coefficient of Variation
DHS Demographic Health Survey
GD Gender Dimorphism
GDP Gross Domestic Product
HAZ Height for Age Z-score
NDP Net Domestic Product
NFHS National Family Health Survey
NNMB National Nutrition Monitoring Bureau
OLS Ordinary Least Square regression
QR Quantile Regression
SADHS South Africa Demographic Health Survey
SD Standard Deviation
SLI Standard of Living
WAZ Weight for Age Z-score
WHO World Health Organization
WHZ Wight for Height Z-score




VIII
Contents

1. Introduction
1.1. Welfare and Inequality in India 1
1.2. Measures of welfare and inequality in India 2
1.3. Complexity of welfare 10
1.4. The use of anthropometric data 11
2. The Development and Inequality of Heights in North, West and East
India 1915-44
2.1. Introduction 18
2.1.1. Methods of anthropometric inequality assessments 20
2.2. Views of the literature: Indian inequality and theoretical expectations 22
2.3. Data
2.4. Developments in Indian GDP, real wages, and heights 35
2.5. Did the caste system create abnormally large inequality?
2.6. Height differential by region 55
2.7. CV of height inequality 56
2.8. Height inequalities during the influenza period 59
2.9. Conclusion 66
Appendix B: Caste System and occupational mobility 68
Appendix C: Occupational Classification 70
Appendix D: Shrinking 71
3. What happened to the welfare of Indians after independence? A
study of biological welfare and inequality from 1949-74
IX
3.1. Introduction 76
3.2. Anthropometric welfare and inequality 81
3.3. Data and methodology 83
3.3.1. Anthropometric data 83
3.3.2. Poverty and Growth data 89
3.3.3. Explanatory variables 90
3.3.4. Caveats of the data 93
3.3.5. Methodology 95
3.4. Levels and trends of welfare 97
3.4.1. Welfare by regions 98
3.4.2. Rural-urban disparity in welfare 102
3.4.3. Welfare by standard of living 103
3.4.4. Muslim welfare in India compared to Hindus 104
3.4.5. Welfare by caste 106
3.4.6. Inequality in India 110
3.5. Determinants of welfare 112
3.5.1. Determinants of rural welfare 112
3.5.2. Determinants of urban welfare 116
3.5.3. Determinants of overall welfare 118
3.6. Determinants of inequality 120
3.7. Conclusion 121
4. Anthropometric Evidence of Gender Inequality in India 124
4.1. Introduction 126
X
4.2. Biological research on stature dimorphism 130
4.2.1. Why do men and women have different statures from biological point 130
of view?
4.2.2. Are females robust? 132
4.2.3. How to segregate gender differences from biological differences? 134
4.3.0. Advantages of using gender dimorphism 135
4.4. Hypotheses 138
4.5. Data and Methodology 139
4.5.1. Data 139
4.5.2. Methodology 144
4.5.3. Caveats of using gender dimorphism 146
4.6. Results 147
4.6.1. Is sexual dimorphism high among taller people? 147
4.6.2. Gender differences in world child malnutrition 150
4.6.3. Gender dimorphism in India from 1950-75 155
4.6.3.1. Determinants of gender dimorphism in India from 1950-75 157
4.6.3.2. Results 159
4.6.4. What happened to gender dimorphism in India during disaster period? 161
4.6.5. Gender dimorphism among Indians in South Africa? 165
4.7. Conclusion 167
Appendix E 168
Appendix F
5. Inquiry into the Simultaneous Existence of Malnutrition and 174