Data source: NCDRISC dataset

Countries with taller people have larger sex differences in height.

This is true even when expressed as a percentage.

Plotted by country:

A little difficult to make out, so I formally tested for regional differences using a regression model. Basically every region has larger sex differences in height than Africa (the intercept) except for Oceania, by about 0.8-0.9% across the board, even after controlling for the average height of the country.

But not after socioeconomic development.

After controlling for development, it appears that the sex difference in height is highest within Central Americans and Arabs.

Not even the original finding survives a control for socioeconomic development, which implies that the association between average height and male advantages is due to confounding with development, where malnutrition suppresses male height more than female height.

Represented graphically:

Which makes sense. The sex difference in height does not differ within Whites and Blacks within the United States, for instance, favouring the environmental explanation.

Technotheoria

Sex differences in height: deep dive