Evan Roberts

The North Atlantic Population Project: Progress and Prospects

Abstract The North Atlantic Population Project (NAPP) is a massive database of historical census microdata from European and North American countries. The backbone of the project is the unique collection of completely digitized censuses providing information on the entire enumerated populations of each country. In addition, for some countries, the NAPP includes sample data from surrounding census years. In this article, the authors provide a brief history of the project, describe their progress to data and plans for the future, and discuss some potential implications of this unique data resource for social and economic research.

A review of economic evaluations of community mental health care

The authors review the methodology and findings of economic evaluations of 42 community mental health care programs reported in the English-language literature between 1979 and 2003. There were three substantial methodological problems in the literature: costs were often not completely specified, the quality of econometric analysis was often low, and most evaluations failed to integrate cost and health outcome information. Well-conducted research shows that care in the community dominates hospital in-patient care, achieving better outcomes at lower or equal cost. It is less clear what types of community programs are most cost-effective. Future research should focus on identifying which types of community care are most cost effective and at what level of intensity they are most effective.

The North Atlantic Population Project An Overview

Abstract The North Atlantic Population Project (NAPP) brings together complete-count census data from late-nineteenth-century Canada, Great Britain, Iceland, Norway, and the United States into a single harmonized database. When released in 2005, the final version of the database will include the records of nearly 90 million people. The project will consistently code all variables across the different countries, while still retaining important national variation in census questions and responses. The authors provide a brief history of the project, discuss the main issues involved in creating a harmonized international census database, and outline the methodological and research opportunities the completed database will provide for scholars.

Longitudinal Studies of Human Growth and Health: A Review of Recent Historical Research

This paper reviews recent literature using stature and weight as measures of human welfare with a particular interest in cliometric or historical research. We begin with an overview of anthropometric evidence of living standards and the new but fast-growing field of anthropometric history. This literature is always implicitly and often explicitly longitudinal in nature. We then discuss (i) systematic empirical research into the relationship between conditions in early life and later life health and mortality and (ii) historical evidence on the relationship between body mass, morbidity and mortality. We conclude with a discussion of the importance of historical sources and understandings to health economics and population health.

Occupational classification in the North Atlantic Population Project

Abstract The North Atlantic Population Project (NAPP) is a complete-count data set of late-nineteenth-century censuses from Canada, Great Britain, Iceland, Norway, and the United States. One of the projects most challenging tasks is the coding and classification of 2 million distinct responses to occupational questions. Using the Historical International Standard Classification of Occupations (HISCO) as the basis for their classification scheme, the authors have adapted it to address particular problems applicable to the NAPP occupational data—the inconsistent specification of tasks, industry, and employment status by census respondents; variation among the NAPP countries in the level of occupational detail provided; and spatial and temporal variation in the language used to describe occupations. Compared with HISCOs classification scheme, the NAPP system reduces the overall number of codes, introduces new codes, and retains more detail from vaguely specified occupations.

“Don't Sell Things, Sell Effects”: Overseas Influences in New Zealand Department Stores, 1909–1956

In the years before World War II, New Zealand department stores became increasingly influenced by American ideas about salesmanship. This involved a shift away from British precepts about retailing, which discouraged initiative by sales-people and emphasized service. Stores that adopted American ideas were trying to become more competitive and began to appeal to working- and middle-class consumers. They imported the concept of “suggestion selling” and the idea of pushing complementary goods. New Zealand merchants modified American methods by relying on the use of manuals and bulletins to train salespeople and, unlike American stores, did not introduce commission payment schemes.

Physical growth and ethnic inequality in New Zealand prisons, 1840–1975

The British colonization of New Zealand after 1840 was marked by an unusual concern compared to other settler colonies to incorporate the indigenous Māori population into the new society. But despite a continuing political rhetoric of protection and sovereignty, Māori have historically had lower living standards and, since the 1920s, higher rates of incarceration than European-descended New Zealanders (Pākehā). In this article, the authors examine differences between Māori and Pākehā over 130 years using prison records. Aggregate data from the Ministry of Justice shows long-term change and differences in incarceration rates. Using a data set of all extant registers of men entering New Zealand prisons, the authors show change over time in convictions and in height. The adult statures of Māori and Pākehā were similar for men born before 1900, but marked differences emerged among cohorts born during the twentieth century. By the Second World War, the gap in adult stature widened to around 3 cm, before narrowing for men born after the Second World War. Periods of divergence in stature are paralleled by divergence in fertility and indicators of family size, suggesting the possibility that increasing fertility stressed the economic situation of Māori families. The prison evidence suggests that inequalities in ‘net nutrition’ between Māori and Pākehā are long-standing but not unchanging – indeed, they increased for cohorts born in the early twentieth century. A subset of the data describing adolescents confirms that, among those born after 1945, the ethnic differential was already visible by the age of 16.

Family structure and childhood anthropometry in Saint Paul, Minnesota in 1918

Abstract Concern with childhood nutrition prompted numerous surveys of children’s growth in the United States after 1870. The Children’s Bureau’s 1918 ‘Weighing and Measuring Test’ measured two million children to produce the first official American growth norms. Individual data for 14,000 children survives from the Saint Paul, Minnesota survey whose stature closely approximated national norms. As well as anthropometric details the survey recorded exact age, street address and full name. These variables allow linkage to the 1920 census to obtain demographic and socio-economic information. We matched 72% of children to census families creating a sample of nearly 10,000 children. Children in the entire survey (linked set) averaged 0.74 (0.72) standard deviations below modern World Health Organization height-for-age standards, and 0.48 (0.46) standard deviations below modern weight-for-age norms. Sibship size strongly influenced height-for-age, and had weaker influence on weight-for-age. Each additional child aged six or under reduced height-for-age scores by 0.07 standard deviations (95% confidence interval: –0.03, 0.11). Teenage siblings had little effect on height-for-age. Social class effects were substantial. Children of laborers averaged half a standard deviation shorter than children of professionals. Family structure and socio-economic status had compounding impacts on children’s stature.

Mining microdata: Economic opportunity and spatial mobility in Britain and the United States, 1850–1881

For almost two centuries social theorists have argued that the fundamental difference in social structure between Europe and North America arises from greater economic and geographic mobility in North America. We study social mobility in three countries across two generations using machine learning techniques to create panels of individuals linked between censuses thirty years apart (1850-1880, 1880-1910). This paper reports on a preliminary analysis of social mobility between 1850 and 1880, finding that mobility was markedly higher in the United States and Canada, compared to Great Britain.

Historical Census Record Linkage

For the past 80 years, social scientists have been linking historical censuses across time to study economic and geographic mobility. In recent decades, the quantity of historical census record linkage has exploded, owing largely to the advent of new machine-readable data created by genealogical organizations. Investigators are examining economic and geographic mobility across multiple generations, but also engaging many new topics. Several analysts are exploring the effects of early-life socioeconomic conditions, environmental exposures, or natural disasters on family, health and economic outcomes in later life. Other studies exploit natural experiments to gauge the impact of policy interventions such as social welfare programs and educational reforms. The new data sources have led to a proliferation of record linkage methodology, and some widespread approaches inadvertently introduce errors that can lead to false inferences. A new generation of large-scale shared data infrastructure now in preparation will ameliorate weaknesses of current linkage methods.