Seasonal anthropometric cycles in a command economy: The case of Czechoslovakia, 1946–1966

Anthropometric evidence is used to shed light on the living standards in early communist Czechoslovakia (1946-1966). Height and weight variation of adolescent boys exhibit a pattern that is inconsistent with that for a normal healthy population. The hypothesis is proposed that this pattern arose from periodic food supply shortages, most marked in the spring of each year. The boys in the sample display a remarkably slow growth during the spring but catch up over the summer.