This article measures the impact of early-life household composition on adult height and chest size in men born in Catalonia in the late nineteenth century. It combines data from military drafts with census records, observing the same individual twice over his lifetime. For family composition characteristics I control for the number of siblings, intergenesic interval, parental occupation and educational level, fatherless or motherless families, and other relatives living in the household. I show that taller individuals were more likely to come from well-off families and that men who grew up in orphanages or in motherless households were shorter than their counterparts. Results also uncover that there was a negative association between height and the number of siblings and the age gap between them. However, this negative association is driven by having more brothers (instead of sisters). If we are to gain a fuller understanding of the factors that have influenced height, we need to consider the composition of the household as an explanatory variable.

中文翻译：

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19 世纪晚期加泰罗尼亚的身高、胸围和家庭构成

本文测量了 19 世纪后期出生在加泰罗尼亚的男性早期家庭组成对成年身高和胸围的影响。它将来自军事征兵的数据与人口普查记录相结合，在同一个人的一生中观察了两次。对于家庭组成特征，我控制了兄弟姐妹的数量、基因间的间隔、父母的职业和教育水平、无父或无母的家庭以及居住在家庭中的其他亲属。我表明，高个子的人更有可能来自富裕的家庭，而在孤儿院或没有母亲的家庭中长大的人比他们的同龄人矮。结果还发现，身高与兄弟姐妹的数量以及他们之间的年龄差距之间存在负相关。然而，这种负面关联是由更多的兄弟（而不是姐妹）驱动的。如果我们要更全面地了解影响身高的因素，我们需要将家庭的构成作为解释变量。