2 - Economic and technological development and their relationships to body size and productivity

Abstract

The growth in material wealth has been matched by changes in body size over the past 300 years, especially during the twentieth century. Perhaps the most remarkable secular trend has been the reduction in mortality. This chapter elucidates the long-run relationship between labor productivity and body size. Improvements in the nutritional status of a number of societies in Western Europe since the early eighteenth century have initiated a virtuous circle of technophysio evolution. The theory of technophysio evolution posits the existence of a synergism between technological and physiological improvements, which has produced a form of human evolution that is biological but not genetic, rapid, culturally transmitted, and not necessarily stable over time. An increase in agricultural efficiency and labor productivity improved human physiology, in turn leading to further gains in labor productivity. The chapter concludes with a summary of the findings that outline possible scenarios for further nutrition-induced changes in body size and labor productivity.