Edward Berchick - Change and stability in the association between mother’s education and subjective child health across 1965-2014 birth cohorts
Research on the maternal education gradient in child health generally views the strength of the gradient as fixed across the twentieth century. However, secular trends in health and education might have narrowed the education gradient across birth cohorts, whereas advantaged families’ engagement in a “reproduction project” marked by increased child-focused resource allocation might have offset these gains.
Jay Pearson - Race/Ethnicity, Poverty, Urban Stressors and Telomere Length in a Detroit Community-Based Sample
Residents of distressed urban areas suffer early aging-related disease and excess mortality. Using a community-based participatory research approach in a collaboration between social science researchers and cellular biologists, we collected a unique data set of 239 black, white, or Mexican adults from a stratified, multi-stage probability sample of three Detroit neighborhoods. We drew venous blood and measured Telomere Length (TL), an indicator of stress-mediated biological aging, linking respondents’ TL to their community survey responses.
"Population Policy, Fertility Decline, and Sex Selection: New Evidence from China under Mao"
Location: Social Sciences 111
Lawrence Berger "Household Debt and Children's Developmental Trajectories"
The economic crisis of 2008 called attention to the risks associated with rising household and consumer debt. Over the last forty years, inflation adjusted household debt has increased dramatically, and debt has become more difficult for American families to repay. The ability to borrow is a significant resource through which to invest in human capital, purchase goods and services, and smooth consumption.
Paul Shultz - Distributional Consequences of the Ghana National Health Insurance Scheme: Income and Price Elasticities of Demand for Health Insurance
National health insurance is one means to provide health care. This paper describes the financing and receipt of the Ghana National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) implemented in 2005. To distinguish those who register and are expected to benefit from the NHIS, and what reforms might broaden health care coverage, a 2009 representative Ghana Socio-Economic Panel Survey (GSEPS) is studied to determine program registration and current coverage.
Dr. Joan Silk "The Evolution of Prosocial Preferences" (Evolutionary Anthropology Talks Series)
Friday, March 4th 11:45 am Gross Hall Room 103 Dr. Silk, of the Arizona State University School of Human Evolution and Social Change, is an expert in the social evolution of primates and humans and has recently been investigating the origins of prosocial behavior in humans through studies of non-human primates. Her work explores the connection between sociality and health/ fitness in non-human primates, and is informed by similar work in humans.
Work, Family, Housing and Displacement: Migrants' Reasons for Moving, Socio-Demographic Selection and Residential Outcomes - Elizabeth Fussell, Brown University
Migration theories posit that processes selecting people into voluntary and involuntary migration differ, but without data sets that include measures of the causes of mobility there is little evidence demonstrating these selection effects. Brown's Elizabeth Fussell discusses how using The American Housing Survey, 1997-2013 provides a unique opportunity to examine selection effects associated with a variety of reported reasons for changing residences, and in doing so, to unify disparate fields of migration research. She reviews five mover types (employment related, housing-related, family-related, disaster-related, and other forced moves) and the residential outcomes for each of these mover types.
What Explains the Rise of Drug Overdose Deaths? Differential Vulnerability Across U.S. Counties - Jessica Ho, Duke University
Duke's Jessica Ho discusses whether demographic, socioeconomic, labor force/industrial conditions, public assistance and income inequality are related to county-level drug overdose death rates in 1999-2010.
Internet and Fertility - Francesco Billari, University of Oxford
The impact of technological change on family and fertility has focused on contraceptives (the pill), household appliances, medical progress. It is important to understand whether digitalization, and the spread of the Internet in particular, has an effect. Earlier evidence points to a potential effect on teenage fertility (and younger age fertility). Oxford University's Francesco Billari discusses how access to high-speed Internet has affected fertility at all ages.