{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,28]],"date-time":"2025-10-28T00:31:33Z","timestamp":1761611493096,"version":"build-2065373602"},"reference-count":34,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"24","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2019,12,11]],"date-time":"2019-12-11T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1576022400000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["IJERPH"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Changes in a population\u2019s average stature are virtuous pointers of wellbeing which are sensitive to improvements in psychosocial environments during childhood. A major structural change that could have altered an environment during childhood is the transition from communist to a liberal democracy, and, more specifically, the meltdown of the Soviet bloc provides for a quasi-natural experiment. This paper examines the trends in heights in the Czech Republic and Slovakia before and after the transition and the subsequent break-up of the Czechoslovakian federation. We find that one additional year of exposure to a liberal democracy while growing up is associated with an increasing population stature of 0.28 cm among Slovaks and 0.15 cm among Czechs. We only find changes in stature among men who are more sensitive to environmental stress, especially at the lower end of the current socio-economic status. Results are robust to alternative datasets and measures of democracy.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/ijerph16245050","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2019,12,12]],"date-time":"2019-12-12T03:20:16Z","timestamp":1576120816000},"page":"5050","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":2,"title":["Transitions that Matter? Czechoslovakia\u2019s Break up and Human Stature"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"16","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-7174-7919","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Joan","family":"Costa-Font","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Health Policy, London School of Economics and Political Science, London WC2A 2AE, UK"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Lucia","family":"Kossarova","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Health Policy, London School of Economics and Political, London WC2A 2AE, UK"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2019,12,11]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Eveleth, P.B., and Tanner, J.M. (1990). World-Wide Variation in Human Growth, Cambridge University Press. 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