‘The Decline of Child Stunting in 122 Countries: A Systematic Review of Child Growth Studies since the Nineteenth Century’, with Juliana Jaramillo-Echeverri and 41 other co-authors, BMJ Global Health, forthcoming.
'The Determinants of Child Stunting and Shifts in the Growth Pattern of Children: A Long-Run, Global Review', Journal of Economic Surveys, 39, no. 2 (2025), pp. 405-452 (open access).
‘The Effect of Nutritional Status on Historical Infectious Disease Morbidity: Evidence from the London Foundling Hospital, 1892-1919’, History of the Family, 28, no. 2 (2023), pp. 198-228 (open access).
'Health Shocks, Recovery and the First Thousand Days: The Effect of the Second World War on Height Growth in Japanese Children', with Kota Ogasawara and Tim J. Cole, Population and Development Review, 27, no. 4 (2021), pp. 1075-1105 (open access read-only).
‘Infant Feeding and Post-Weaning Health: Evidence from Turn-of-the-Century London’, with Vellore Arthi, Economics and Human Biology, 43 (2021), article number 101065 (open access accepted version).
'The Growth Pattern of British Children, 1850-1975', with Pei Gao, Economic History Review, 74, no. 2 (2021), pp. 341-371 (open access).
'Sample-Selection Biases and the Historical Growth Pattern of Children', Social Science History, 44, no. 3 (2020), pp. 417-444 (open access read-only).
'Disease and Child Growth in Industrialising Japan: Critical Windows and the Growth Pattern, 1917-1939', with Kota Ogasawara, Explorations in Economic History, 69, no. 1 (2018), pp. 64-80 (open access).
'Getting Under the Skin: Children's Health Disparities as Embodiment of Social Class', with Michael R. Kramer, Jennifer B. Kane, Claire Margerison-Zilko, Jessica Jones-Smith, Katherine King, Pamela Davis-Kean and Joseph G. Grzywacz, Population Research and Policy Review, 36, no. 5 (2017), pp. 671–697 (open access accepted version).
'Children's Growth in an Adaptive Framework: Explaining the Growth Patterns of American Slaves and Other Historical Populations', Economic History Review, 70, no. 1 (2017), pp. 3-29 (open access accepted version).
'Health, Gender and the Household: Children's Growth in the Marcella Street Home, Boston, MA and the Ashford School, London, UK', Research in Economic History, 30 (2016), pp. 277-361 (open access accepted version).
Technical note on applying the WHO growth standard/reference to historical data available here.
‘What is the Case Fatality Rate of Smallpox?’, with Romola Davenport, Population Studies, forthcoming.
'Maternal Influenza-Like Illness and Neonatal Health During the 1918 Influenza Pandemic in a Swiss City', with Mathilde le Vu (lead author), Katharina L Matthes, Aline Moerlen, Irene Hoesli, David Baud and Kaspar Staub, Annals of Internal Medicine, 178, no. 11 (2025), pp. 1632-1641.
'Did Smallpox Cause Stillbirths? Maternal Smallpox Infection, Vaccination and Stillbirths in Sweden, 1780-1839', with Sören Edvinsson and Kota Ogasawara, Population Studies, 78, no. 3 (2024), pp. 467-482 (open access).
‘The Effect of Nutritional Status on Historical Infectious Disease Morbidity: Evidence from the London Foundling Hospital, 1892-1919’, History of the Family, 28, no. 2 (2023), pp. 198-228 (open access).
'Disease and Child Growth in Industrialising Japan: Critical Windows and the Growth Pattern, 1917-1939', with Kota Ogasawara, Explorations in Economic History, 69, no. 1 (2018), pp. 64-80 (open access).
'Maternal Influenza-Like Illness and Neonatal Health During the 1918 Influenza Pandemic in a Swiss City', with Mathilde le Vu (lead author), Katharina L Matthes, Aline Moerlen, Irene Hoesli, David Baud and Kaspar Staub, Annals of Internal Medicine, 178, no. 11 (2025), pp. 1632-1641.
'Did Smallpox Cause Stillbirths? Maternal Smallpox Infection, Vaccination and Stillbirths in Sweden, 1780-1839', with Sören Edvinsson and Kota Ogasawara, Population Studies, 78, no. 3 (2024), pp. 467-482 (open access).
'Fetal Health Stagnation: Have Health Conditions in Utero Improved in the United States and Western and Northern Europe over the past 150 years?', Social Science & Medicine, 179 (2017), pp. 18-26 (open access accepted version).
'Children's Growth in an Adaptive Framework: Explaining the Growth Patterns of American Slaves and Other Historical Populations', Economic History Review, 70, no. 1 (2017), pp. 3-29 (open access accepted version).
'Optimal fetal growth - a misconception?', with Mark Hanson, Torvid Kiserud, Gerard H.A. Visser and Peter Brocklehurst, American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, 213, no. 3 (2015), pp. 332-34.
Watch a video of Mark Hanson and I discussing this paper and its implications here.
'Collider Bias in Economic History Research', Explorations in Economic History, 78 (2020), article number 101356 (open access accepted version).
'Sample-Selection Biases and the Historical Growth Pattern of Children', Social Science History, 44, no. 3 (2020), pp. 417-444 (open access read-only).
‘The Effect of Nutritional Status on Historical Infectious Disease Morbidity: Evidence from the London Foundling Hospital, 1892-1919’, History of the Family, 28, no. 2 (2023), pp. 198-228 (open access).
'Nutrition, Crowding and Disease among Low-income Households in Tokyo in 1930’, with Kota Ogasawara and Ian Gazeley, Australian Economic History Review, 60, no. 1 (2020), pp. 73-104.
Sir Timothy Coghlan Prize winning article
'Inescapable Hunger?: Energy Cost Accounting and the Costs of Digestion, Pregnancy and Lactation', The European Review of Economic History, 17, no. 3 (2013), pp. 340-363.
'Childlessness, Celibacy and Net Fertility in Pre-Industrial England: The Middle-class Evolutionary Advantage', with David de la Croix and Jacob Weisdorf, Journal of Economic Growth, 24, no. 3 (2019), pp. 223-256 (open access read-only).
Previously circulated as '“Decessit sine prole”: Childlessness, Celibacy, and Survival of the Richest’
Una de Cal y Otra de Arena: Building Comparable Real Wages in a Global Perspective', with Robert C. Allen and Tommy E. Murphy, Revista de Historia Económica, 33, no. 1 (2015), pp. 61-75.
'Real Wages and the Family: Adjusting Real Wages to Changing Demography in Pre-Modern England', Explorations in Economic History, 50, no. 1 (2013), pp. 99-115.
'The Colonial Origins of Divergence in the Americas: A Labour Market Approach', with Robert C. Allen and Tommy E. Murphy, The Journal of Economic History, 72, no. 4 (2012), pp. 863-894.
'Prices and Production: Agricultural Supply Response in Fourteenth Century England', The Economic History Review, 67, no. 1 (2014), pp. 66-91 (open access accepted version).
T. S. Ashton Prize winning article