For the past seventy-five years, the Dutch have claimed the title of tallest nation in the world. How have they reached such heights? Much of this relationship can likely be explained by increasingly beneficial environmental conditions in early-life. As conditions - such as the nutrition and disease environment - improved over the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, average Dutch heights increased at a rapid pace. But it is also possible that other factors contributed to the Dutch secular growth trend. Existing research has indicated that height and later-life outcomes may be related, with taller men experiencing greater economic, marital and health benefits in adulthood. Perhaps height and later-life outcomes formed a ‘virtuous circle’, with taller men having taller, healthier children. This virtuous circle may have contributed to the Dutch growing at an even faster rate. To understand whether a virtuous circle was present, we would first need to know if height and later-life outcomes were related during the Dutch secular growth trend. This doctoral dissertation aimed to shed light on whether this was the case. Over six empirical chapters, I examined height’s relationships to four main outcomes: labor market outcomes, including wages (Chapter 2) and occupational status (Chapter 3); marriage (Chapter 4); fertility (Chapter 5); and mortality (Chapters 6 and 7). Chapter 8 explored the relationship between education level and the odds of being overweight/obese. In this dissertation, I exploited several datasets and used quantitative methods. In particular, the Historical Sample of the Netherlands, in combination with conscription records, gave rich life-course information on men and their heights at ages 19 or 20. In some instances, information on research persons’ male kin, including heights and later-life outcomes, complemented these data. Other sources included findings from a systematic literature review, and penal colony registers containing women’s heights and demographic information. Results showed ...