The DOI matches its Crossref record; 47 of the 47 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Biological Measures of the Standard of Living
Abstract
When economists investigate long-term trends and socioeconomic differences in the standard of living or quality of life, they have traditionally focused on monetary measures such as gross domestic product—which has occupied center stage for over 50 years. In recent decades, however, scholars have increasingly recognized the limitations of monetary measures while seeking useful alternatives. This essay examines the unique and valuable contributions of four biological measures—life expectancy, morbidity, stature, and certain features of skeletal remains—to understand levels and changes in human well-being. People desire far more than material goods and in fact they are quite willing to trade or give up material things in return for better physical or psychological health. For most people, health is so important to their quality of life that it is useful to refer to the “biological standard of living.” Biological measures may be especially valuable for historical studies and for other research circumstances where monetary measures are thin or lacking. A concluding section ruminates on the future evolution of biological approaches in measuring happiness.
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Cites
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Cited by
Adult Height and Childhood Disease
Bozzoli, C., Deaton, A., & Quintana-Domeque, C. (2009) · Demography · doi:10.1353/dem.0.0079 · Cited by 458
Heights and human welfare: Recent developments and new directions
Steckel, R. H. (2009) · Explorations in Economic History · doi:10.1016/j.eeh.2008.12.001 · Cited by 451
Self-citationHuman capital and industrialization: Evidence from the age of enlightenment
Squicciarini, M. P., & Voigtländer, N. (2015) · The Quarterly Journal of Economics · doi:10.1093/qje/qjv025 · Cited by 384
Metadata
- Authors
- Steckel, R. H.
- Venue
- Journal of Economic Perspectives
- Publisher
- American Economic Association
- Published
- 2008-02-01
- Volume
- 22
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 129-152
- ISSN
- 0895-3309 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W1971102482
- Cited by
- 270
- References
- 47
- FWCI
- 53.43
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
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Contains information from the Semantic Scholar Academic Graph Datasets, made available under the ODC Attribution License (ODC-BY 1.0).
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