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2022 PAA Officers Election Slate of Nominees

By PAA Web posted 14 days ago
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The Nominations Committee is pleased to put forward the following slate for the 2022 PAA Election. The Nominations Committee includes Marcy Carlson (University of Wisconsin-Madison), Sara Curran (University of Washington), and Steven Ruggles (University of Minnesota). PAA members will receive a ballot in their e-mail inbox this summer. President Jennifer Glass, University of Texas at Austin Yu Xie, Princeton University Vice President Susan Brown, Bowling Green State University Jenna Johnson-Hanks, University of California, Berkeley Board Jennie Brand, University of California, Los Angeles Juanita Chinn, NICHD Lina Guzman, Child Trends Karen Guzzo, ...

Biodemography: An Introduction to Concepts and Methods

By PAA Web posted 03-29-2022
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CEDA affiliate Professor James Carey at the University of California, Davis, and his co-author Professor Deborah Roach at the University of Virginia, have released the book Biodemography: An Introduction to Concepts and Methods (2020, Princeton University Press) with a Foreword by James Vaupel. Carey has developed over 170 scripted, closed-captioned videos of complementary lectures to the book, available on this CEDA webpage . The 11-chapter book covers all of the major areas of demography from Lexis diagrams, life tables, and mortality models to stable population theory, age-stage models and applied demography (in both humans and non-human species). The ...

America’s Post-Pandemic Future: A Demographic Perspective

By David Swanson posted 01-04-2022
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David A. Swanson, Peter Morrison, Dudley Poston , Steven Krantz , Arni Rao * During the 365-day period ending December 1, 2021, official data registered 265,377 COVID-19 deaths nationwide to persons 15 and older living in the 50 U.S. states , bringing the total COVID-19 deaths to more than 800,000 . This death toll is approaching the nearly 850,000 deaths that occurred during the Civil War . If this year’s pace continues over the coming year, we will see over 1 million total deaths due to COVID-19 and its variants, which will exceed not only the death toll from the Civil War but all of the wars and military actions in which the US has engaged since ...

Sara McLanahan (1940-2021)

By PAA Web posted 01-04-2022
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by Kathryn Edin Sara McLanahan, the William S. Tod Professor of Sociology and Public Affairs, passed away on December 31 at 3:15 p.m. Sara Frances Smith was born in Tyler, Texas, on December 27, 1940, where she lived with her parents and sister until moving to Millbrook, New York, to attend Bennett College in 1959. Graduating with highest honors, she moved to Northampton, Massachusetts, to attend Smith College in 1961, but dropped out to marry Ellery McLanahan in 1962. By the early 1970s, Sara, her husband, and the couple’s three children had settled in Houston, where, in 1972, the couple divorced. Shortly thereafter, Sara completed her undergraduate degree ...

Harley L. Browning (1927-2021)

By PAA Web posted 12-22-2021
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Harley L. Browning passed away at his home in Boulder, Colorado on June 21, 2021, at the age of 94. Surviving him are his wife Waltraut Feindt Browning (Waldi), two sons Erik and Tulio, five grandchildren, and his twin brother Clyde. Harley was born in Akron, Ohio on April 28, 1927. After receiving his BA degree from Kent State in 1949, he began his graduate training at the University of California, Berkeley in the early 1950s, earning his Ph.D. degree under Kingsley Davis in 1962. His dissertation, “Urbanization in Mexico,” laid the foundation for a long-­term research agenda about migration and urban development in Latin America. At Berkeley, Harley met his ...

G. Edward Ebanks (1938-2021)

By PAA Web posted 12-14-2021
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Dr G. Edward Ebanks (1938-2021) passed away on Monday, November 8, 2021 at the Elisabeth Bruyere Health Centre Hospice after a brief battle with cancer. Eddie grew up in a small rural community on the south coast of Jamaica, where he excelled in school, winning scholarships throughout this period. He studied mathematics at the University of the West Indies. He then went to Cornell University for post graduate studies with a full scholarship from the Population Council in 1964. He got the prestigious Population Council scholarship for three years, 1964-1966 and again in 1967-68. By 1968 he had completed his M.A and Ph.D. in sociology, specializing in demography. ...

William F. Stinner (1938-2021)

By PAA Web posted 12-07-2021
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William F. Stinner was born in Allentown, PA, to German immigrants. Much of his research and life reflected that Allentown beginning. Known as Bill throughout his life, Stinner served in the United States Navy in the late 1950s and later moved on to a successful career as a researcher, mentor, and teacher. After completing his undergraduate coursework, Bill married Carol McKewen in 1961; they shared life together for 56 years, until her passing in 2017. Bill’s academic career began with an AB at Columbia University, followed by MA and PhD degrees at Pennsylvania State University. He came to Utah State University (USU) in 1973 following several terms ...

Broadband Access During a Pandemic: 2020 Census Results for the Hopi and Lummi Reservations

By David Swanson posted 11-29-2021
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David A. Swanson, Ph.D. Edward A. Dickson Emeritus Professor, 2020-21, Department of Sociology, University of California Riverside, Riverside, CA USA 92521 Affiliated Faculty, Center for Studies in Demography & Ecology, University of Washington, Seattle, WA USA 98195 Research Fellow, Social Science Research Center, Mississippi State University, Starkville, MS 39759-7810 The accurate count of the populations of American Indian reservations is known to be difficult and subject to net undercount error. When a census is conducted using a new response tool (the Internet) while subject to the turmoil of a pandemic and political interference, one ...

Newly Elected PAA Officers, Board and Committee Members

By PAA Web posted 08-24-2021
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Congratulations to the new PAA officers and board and committee members. It was a very close race! Thank you to the members who voted in this election, to all candidates who were willing to participate. All terms begin January 1, 2022, except for the Nominations Committee (terms begin immediately). President-elect Lisa Berkman, Harvard University Vice President-elect James Raymo, Princeton University Board of Directors Emilio Parrado, University of Pennsylvania Rogelio Saenz, University of Texas at San Antonio Christine Schwartz, University of Wisconsin-Madison Florencia Torche, Stanford University Nominations Committee ...

The Fundamental Flaw Underlying Synthetic Microdata: A Simple Example

By PAA Web posted 06-07-2021
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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 ...

New Data Source: Demographic Consequences of the Zika and Covid Epidemics (DeCodE)

By PAA Web posted 05-25-2021
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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 ...

PAA 2021 Recap and Reflections

By PAA Web posted 05-24-2021
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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 ...

The Effect of the Differential Privacy Disclosure Avoidance System Proposed by the Census Bureau on 2020 Census Products: Four Case Studies of Census Blocks in Alaska

By PAA Web posted 03-30-2021
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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 ...

First Open-Access Issue of Demography Now Available

By PAA Web posted 03-10-2021
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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 was ...

Search for New Editor(s) of Demography Now Open

By PAA Web posted 03-09-2021
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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 ...

PAA Secretary-Treasurer Search is Open

By PAA Web posted 03-09-2021
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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, ...

Life Expectancy in the U.S. for the Population with Sickle Cell Disease

By Emily Merchant posted 01-31-2021
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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 ...

Is NRR Time-Sensitive in Measuring Population Replacement Level by Arni S.R. Srinivasa Rao

By Emily Merchant posted 01-26-2021
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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 ...