A comment on “Height and the standard of living in Puerto Rico from the Spanish Enlightenment to annexation by the United States, 1770–1924”

Abstract

Using prisoner height data, Moreno-Lázaro (2023) claims that Puerto Rican living standards declined after US annexation and stagnated for decades. This conclusion is not supported by the prisoner data and is inconsistent with other welfare measures that show dramatic improvement, such as per capita GDP, life expectancy, and literacy.