PAA Affairs Blog

by David A. Swanson , University of California Riverside, Riverside, CA The Center for Studies in Demography and Ecology, University of Washington, Seattle, WA Social Science Research Center, Mississippi State University, Starkville, MS                                                                   Introduction The US Census Bureau is examining the possibility of creating “synthetic microdata sets” to be used by researchers in place of the “PUMS” (Public Use Microdata Sample) files now being made available . Along with others, I believe that this is a mistake . These synthetic data sets will be created from “real” data by modeling the relationships ...

By Ryan Lloyd, DeCodE Project Coordinator The DeCodE (Demographic Consequences of the Zika and Covid Epidemics) Project is a project funded by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development and based out of the University of Texas-Austin, in collaboration with the Federal University of Minas Gerais and the Federal University of Pernambuco. We are collecting novel panel data on reproductive health and fertility behavior in Brazil in order to understand the geographic and socioeconomic heterogeneity of reproductive responses to public health shocks. The Decode Project has just finished its first round of panel data collection in 2020, and is currently ...

by Robert A. Hummer & Marcy Carlson, Program Co-Chairs  We are very pleased (and relieved) to report that PAA 2021 was a resounding success! Of course, when we were elected to serve as President and Vice-President of PAA, respectively, we never envisioned we would be organizing a virtual annual meeting…! But once the PAA Board of Directors made the smart decision to meet virtually instead of in-person, and did so with enough time available for us to plan ahead, we did our best to work with the PAA staff to put together the most scientifically engaging and well-organized meeting possible. Thanks to the tremendous efforts of the staff and many volunteer members ...

Authors: David A. Swanson, University of California Riverside, Riverside, CA  and The Center for Studies in Demography and Ecology, University of Washington, Seattle, WA (email: dswanson@ucr.edu ) T.M. Bryan, Bryan Demographic Research, Richmond, VA (email: tom@bryangeodemo.com) Richard Sewell, Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities, Anchorage, AK (email: resewell@gmail.com )                                                                                                                         Introduction The Census Bureau plans to introduce a new Disclosure Avoidance System known as Differential Privacy (DP) for its 2020 census ...

We are so pleased to announce that the first open-access issue of Demography has been published by our new partner, Duke University Press (DUP).   As an open-access journal, Demography is now available online for you – and everyone – to read. We encourage you to sign up for email alerts to receive information about new issues as they become available. Currently, the 2016-2020 volumes are also available on the same Duke website; the 1964-2015 volumes will be available later this spring. In the meantime, the 1964-2015 issues are available on JSTOR and our past publisher’s website .   Previously, Demography ...

The PAA Committee on Publications invites applications for the position of Editor of Demography . The new Editor, or team of co Editors, will begin work in May 2022 and will edit the 2023-2025 volumes of the journal. Applicants are asked to submit a CV and a proposal for editing Demography by June 30, 2021. Proposals should specify plans for constituting a team of deputy editors, possible or confirmed support (course reduction, staff, space, equipment, etc.) from the applicant’s home institution, and a brief statement (1-2 pages) of editorial goals and philosophy. In addition, the proposal must address how the applicant(s) will take advantage of the new ...

Bridget Gorman, our current Secretary-Treasurer, will end her term on June 30, 2021. PAA is seeking candidates to assume the office for a three-year term beginning July 1, 2021. A Secretary-Treasurer needs a good head for numbers, good organizational skills, and, most important, a willingness to serve as an officer of the PAA. The Secretary-Treasurer plays an essential role in the PAA. The PAA Constitution places custody of the funds of the Association in the hands of this officer and s/he approves all expenditures for the Association. While the Executive Office tracks and manages funds, the Secretary-Treasurer monitors the budget, the disbursement of funds, ...

David A. Swanson ( dswanson@ucr.edu )                                                                                                                Dickson Emeritus Professor, Department of Sociology, University of California Riverside and Regional Affiliate, Center for Studies in Demography and Ecology, University of Washington Sickle cell disease is a genetically-inherited, painful, crippling, life-threatening condition affecting at many as 100,000 people in the United States. Despite the prevalence of sickle cell disease, little is known about the life expectancy of people who suffer from it. Using mortality data generated in a population-based surveillance ...

By Arni S.R. Srinivasa Rao, Professor and Director, Laboratory for Theory and Mathematical Modeling, Division of Infectious Diseases, Medical College of Georgia. This is a non-technical summary - download the full article here . The NRR is a frequently computed reproductive measure in demography that is often used for evaluating replacement-level fertility in a population. Alfred Lotka and Robert Kuczynski popularized it in the United States while understanding population growths and replacement levels [1,2]. This technical piece introduces a concise debate on the implications of NRR (net reproduction rate), given that NRR only represents what we ...