We study the welfare effects of the spread of democratic institutions and the extension of voting rights in 15 European countries since the middle of the nineteenth century. We document robust evidence of an effect of quality of democracy on human stature. We exploit within-country variation in average height by birth cohort in conjunction with a new instrumental variable strategy, alongside an event study. We estimate that the transition to democracy increased average male heights by 0.7 to 1 cm, equivalent to a one-decade average increase in stature across cohorts. Including the extension of the franchise to women, increases the effect on average stature to about 1.7 cm. The effect is driven by the influence of political participation and contestation on equality, alongside access to health services, reduced conflict and improvements in infrastructure. Our results are robust to a range of additional statistical tests.

scoco@ceibs.edu