Child Care and Human Development: Insights from Jewish History in Central and Eastern Europe, 1500–1930*

Abstract

Economists increasingly highlight the role that human capital formation, institutions and cultural transmission may play in shaping health, knowledge and wealth. We study one of the most remarkable instances in which religious norms and childcare practices had a major impact: the history of the Jews in central and eastern Europe from 1500 to 1930. We show that while birth rates were about the same, infant and child mortality among Jews was much lower and accounted for the main difference in Jewish versus non-Jewish natural population growth. Jewish families routinely adopted childcare practices that recent medical research has shown as enhancing children's well-being.

Middleman Minorities and Ethnic Violence: Anti-Jewish Pogroms in the Russian Empire

“…Finally, our work is related to the literature on the economic role played by Jews historically (e.g. Botticini and Eckstein, 2012;Spitzer, 2015a;Botticini et al, 2017;Becker and Pascali, 2019) and in the long run through the persistence of cultural values (e.g. Voigtländer and Voth, 2012;Pascali, 2016;Grosfeld et al, 2013).…”

Prussia disaggregated: the demography of its universe of localities in 1871

“…These results are consistent with the notion that fertility of Jewish minorities living in urban centers might have also had a cultural explanation. Botticini et al (2019), who analyze fertility patterns of Jews in central and eastern Europe from 1500 to 1930, argue that childcare practices such as breastfeeding led to a higher survival rate of newborns and that can explain the lower number of children born in the first place.…”

Ethnic‐specific infant care practices and infant mortality in late Imperial Russia

“…Brown and Guinnane suggest that changes in attitudes towards infant care mattered for the decline in infant mortality in late nineteenth‐century Bavaria. Botticini, Eckstein, and Vaturi show that superior childcare practices of Jewish families, including extended breastfeeding, contributed to lower infant mortality and higher growth rates of the Jewish population in Eastern Europe from 1500 to 1930.…”