Population Association of America – Call for Papers

Dear PAA Colleagues,

Reminder – The deadline for submissions for the PAA 2013 Annual Meeting is September 21, 2012. The PAA Annual Meeting will be held April 11-13, in New Orleans, Louisiana. The Call for Papers (PDF) is posted on the 2013 Annual Meeting Program Website. Submissions are made online.

Information is also posted for:

Travel Awards
Member-Initiated Meetings
Advertisements, Book displays and Exhibits

The PAA Board of Directors wishes to encourage broad participation in the Annual Meeting. If you would like to serve as a session Chair or Discussant at the 2013 Annual Meeting, please indicate your interest by sending an email to stephanie@popassoc.org.
In order to appear on the program, presenters must register for the meeting. Registration fees are posted on the PAA website.  Registration will open in January 2013.

Check the PAA website throughout the year for updated meeting information.

Thank you,
PAA 2013 Annual Meeting Services

Session Topics:
Fertility, Family Planning, Sexual Behavior, and Reproductive Health
Marriage, Family, Households, and Unions
Children and Youth
Health and Mortality
Race, Ethnicity, and Gender
Migration and Population Distribution
Economy, Labor Force, Education, and Inequality
Population, Development, and Environment
Population and Aging
Data and Methods
Applied Demography

Details:
http://paa2013.princeton.edu/

Demography and Inequality

 As discussed in this week's Economist:

As a country’s birthrate declines, people of working age make up a larger share of the population, which can fuel economic improvement. But a new study by Harvard School of Public Health researchers finds that lower birthrates raise income inequality within countries in the short-term; the birth rate of the wealthy begins to decline first and, according to the researchers, they are the first to reap the benefits of demographic change.

Microeconomic Foundations of the Demographic Dividend

David E. Bloom, David Canning, Günther Fink, Jocelyn E. Finlay

Abstract

The potential economic returns to the demographic transition are high. As countries move from a steady state with high mortality and high fertility to an equilibrium with low mortality and fewer children, lower dependency ratios, higher investment in human and physical capital as well as increased female labor force participation contribute to economic growth. In this paper, we analyze the demographic transition at the household level, investigating the distributional patterns of the economic and welfare benefits associated with the demographic transition across socioeconomic groups within countries and over time. We find large differences in the effects of the demographic transition across socioeconomic status (SES) groups in the early stages of the demographic transition, but also substantial behavioral change across all groups during phases of rapid fertility decline, so that the long-run effects of the demographic transition on inequality remain ambiguous.

http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/pgda/WorkingPapers/2012/PGDA_WP_93.pdf

http://www.economist.com/node/21560247

http://www.economist.com/blogs/freeexchange/2012/08/demography-and-inequality

The case for having more kids

Social science may suggest that kids drain their parents' happiness, but there's evidence that good parenting is less work and more fun than people think. Economist Bryan Caplan makes the case for having more children.

Some Irish Demographic History

Anyone with an interest in Irish demographic history will like this one:

Sourced from the ESRI Family Figures (2010) report. Well worth a read!

I'm interested in singlehood and couple formation in Ireland, and more specifically, the economic and social factors that mediate it. Ireland has some fairly unique historical rates and patterns in this area - nineteenth century (post-famine) was predominantly characterised by remarkably low marriage rates but with very high fertility rates (observed by Joe Lee: Modernisation of Irish Society; 1848-1918). I'm not familiar with any analysis of this.

Here we see the variability in marriage (inc. common law marriages) rates for the 20th century which shows the increase in family formation through the early and mid twentieth century, up to 1980. Now, it seems marriage rates (people aged 25-35) or singlehood rates are returning to the rates of the Victorian era.

I'd be interested to hear you thoughts on this. I'm working on a theory..