Scarring and selection in the Great Irish Famine

Arbeitspapier

What impact do famines have on survivors? We use individual-level data on a population exposed to severe famine conditions during infancy to document two opposing effects. The first: exposure to insufficient food and a worsened disease environment is associated with poor health into adulthood - a scarring effect. The second: famine survivors do not themselves suffer any health impact - a selection effect. Anthropometric evidence from records pertaining to over 21,000 subjects born before, during and after the Great Irish Famine (1845-52), one of modern history's most severe famine episodes, suggests that selection is strongest where famine mortality is highest. Individuals born in heavily-affected areas experienced no measurable stunted growth, while significant scarring was found only among those born in regions where the same famine did not result in any excess mortality.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: QUCEH Working Paper Series ; No. 2017-08

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Health and Economic Development ; Measurement and Analysis of Poverty ; Economic History: Labor and Consumers, Demography, Education, Health, Welfare, Income, Wealth, Religion, and Philanthropy: Europe: Pre-1913 ; Climate; Natural Disasters and Their Management; Global Warming
• Subject: famine ; fetal origins hypothesis ; anthropometrics ; economic history ; Ireland

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Blum, Matthias ; Colvin, Christopher L. ; McLaughlin, Eoin
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): Queen's University Centre for Economic History (QUCEH)
• (where): Belfast
• (when): 2017

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/169141
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:44 AM CET