Population Association of America 2012

The annual PAA conference took place recently in San Francisco. This is comparable in size and scope to the AEA and is mainly focused on demography but also covers research in economics, ageing, and development (amongst others). Over 200 sessions were organised, the topics being:

Fertility, Family Planning, Sexual Behaviour, and Reproductive Health
Marriage, Family, Households, and Unions
Children and Youth
Health and Mortality
Race, Ethnicity, and Gender
Migration and Urbanization
Economy, Labour Force, Education, and Inequality
Population, Development, and Environment
Population and Aging
Data and Methods
Applied Demography

All papers are available for download on the PAA website.

http://paa2012.princeton.edu/SessionsByTopic.aspx

Some highlights:

The Economics of Fertility
New Evidence on School Reforms and Child Outcomes
Longevity and Life Expectancy

There were two sessions chaired by Richard Easterlin:

Happiness and Economic and Social Well-Being
Happiness in International Perspective

NSF:SBE 2020 - Future Research in the Social, Behavioral & Economic Sciences

NSF: SBE (National Science Foundation: Social, Behavioural and Economic Sciences) invites individuals and groups to contribute white papers outlining grand challenge questions that are both foundational and transformative. More details are available here.

NSF: SBE expect these white papers to advance SBE’s mission to study human characteristics and human behaviors in its Social and Economic Sciences and Behavioral and Cognitive Sciences divisions, as well as to be the nation’s resource for understanding the structure and development of science through its Science Resources Statistics division.

White papers should address the following questions:

1. What is the fundamental question/questions? And why is this important? Explain the challenge question, capability to be created, or scientific strategy; provide context in terms of recent research results and standing questions in the field; and suggest the range of disciplines that may contribute.
2. What are the implications for advancing the domain? For building capacity? And for providing infrastructure? By “advancing the domain,” we mean the fundamental science; by “capacity” we mean education and training of graduate students, faculty, and systems of prestige, promotion, and recognition; and by “infrastructure”, we mean the shared data and systems that enable the research (e.g., large survey data sets, research centers, shared toolkits and so on).
3. Who is doing provocative research?
4. What other questions should SBE ask as responses are analyzed?

Respondents must answer (1) and (2); they are encouraged to answer (3) and (4). A white paper should have no more than 2,000 words, and should be submitted by September 30, 2010.

What is Socionomics?

According to Wikipedia, in 1979, Robert Prechter postulated that social mood drives financial, macroeconomic and political behavior, in contrast to the conventional notion that such events drive social mood. His description of social mood as the driver of cultural trends reached a national audience in a 1985 cover article in Barron's. Prechter coined the term "socionomics" and in 1999 published an exposition of socionomic theory, The Wave Principle of Human Social Behavior.

Since then, the counter-intuitive premise of the socionomic hypothesis -- that in contexts of uncertainty, endogenous processes (not exogenous causes) create patterns of social behavior -- has gained attention in academic journals (see below), and in research funded by the National Science Foundation.

The Socionomics Institute links to studies, papers and articles that illustrate and explore the socionomic perspective.

Prechter, Robert R., Jr. (2001). "Unconscious Herding Behavior as the Psychological Basis of Financial Market Trends and Patterns," Journal of Psychology and Financial Markets (now Journal of Behavioral Finance), vol. 2 no. 3, pp. 120-125.

Olson, Kenneth R. (2006). "A Literature Review of Social Mood," Journal of Behavioral Finance, vol. 7, no. 4, pp. 193-203.

Prechter, Robert R., Jr., and Wayne D. Parker (2007). "The Financial/Economic Dichotomy in Social Behavioral Dynamics: The Socionomic Perspective," Journal of Behavioral Finance, vol. 8 no. 2], pp. 84-108.

The Irish Social Sciences Platform

The Irish Social Sciences Platform (ISSP)is "an all-island platform of integrated social science research and graduate training focusing on the social, cultural and economic transformations shaping Ireland in the 21st century." ISSP will focus its efforts on investigating three broad themes of national importance – creating balanced development, sustaining communities and building the knowledge economy.

"A core undertaking of ISSP is the creation of a national social sciences graduate platform capable of delivering graduate research education. Graduate students will undertake taught courses, training workshops and summer schools, and have supervisory committees that span disciplines and partner institutions. The taught component will include modules on professional development,
methodology and specialist areas."