Workshop on Formal Demography and COVID‐19

The Berkeley Population Center at the University of California Berkeley
And the Center on the Economics and Demography of Aging Present

Workshop on Formal Demography and COVID‐19
May 24‐28, 2021
To be held virtually.

Instructors and Speakers
  • Joshua Goldstein, Professor, Department of Demography, UC Berkeley
  • Dennis Feehan, Assistant Professor, Department of Demography UC Berkeley
  • Ayesha Mahmud, Assistant Professor, Department of Demography UC Berkeley
  • And more to be announced.
Join us for an educational program designed to train the next generation of population researchers in applying formal demographic methodologies to COVID-19. This week-long program, with funding by NICHD R25HD083136, provides a hands-on introduction to formal demography and issues around infectious disease modeling.

Curriculum: We will be using the fundamental tools of formal demography such as stable population theory and the mathematics of mortality to understand the implications of the Covid-19 pandemic.
  • Day 1 of the workshop will cover matrix population models and stable population theory.
  • Day 2 of the workshop will cover mortality modeling, focusing on the continuous representation of the liftable with hazards.
  • Day 3 of the workshop will feature applications and extensions of the formal models in Days 1 and 2, applying them to Covid-19 topics such as (1) the impact of age structure on Covid-19 outcomes, (2) measures of mortality impact beyond life expectancy, (2) optimal vaccination policy, (3) estimating R0 from contact matrices, and (4) the recovery of fertility and marriage after a temporary shock.
  • Days 4 and 5 will feature guest speakers presenting new research on Covid-19 using formal demographic methods.
The workshop is designed for advanced graduate students, post-doctoral fellows, junior faculty, and others wanting to learn about new approaches to social and behavioral research.

We will assume some experience with R. [The website below provides links to tutorials.] Application materials and more information about the program and formal demography can be found on the Workshop website.

Apply by March 29, 2021.
Please direct questions to Dr. Leora Lawton, llawton@berkeley.edu.
Starts:  May 24, 2021 09:00 (PT)
Ends:  May 28, 2021 17:00 (PT)