Hans-Peter Kohler, Ph.D.
Frederick J. Warren Professor of Demography
Chair, Graduate Group in Demography
University of Pennsylvania
Hans-Peter Kohler received his B.A. in Business Administration from Fachhochschule Kempten (Kempten University of Applied Sciences) in Bavaria in 1992. He received his Masters in Demography and his Ph.D. in Economics, both from the University of California, Berkeley in 1994 and 1997, respectively.
Kohler is a social and economic demographer whose current research focuses on health and health-related behaviors in developing and developed countries. A key characteristic of his research is the attempt to integrate demographic, economic, sociological and biological approaches in empirical and theoretical models of health and demographic behaviors. Previously he investigated the role of social and sexual networks for HIV risk perceptions and HIV infection risks, the causal effects of education on health, the consequences of learning one’s HIV status on risky behaviors, the interrelations between marriage and sexual relations in developing countries, the role of social interaction processes for fertility and AIDS-related behaviors, and the determinants and consequences of low fertility in developed countries.
His primary research focuses on fertility and health in developing and developed countries. A key characteristic of this research is the attempt to integrate demographic, economic, sociological and biological approaches in empirical and theoretical models of demographic behavior. For example, Kohler has been investigating the bio-social determinants of fertility, the causes of low- and lowest-low fertility in Southern and Eastern Europe, the causal effects of education on health, the interrelations between marriage and sexual relations in developing countries, the role of subjective expectations and risk assessments for understanding demographic outcomes, the importance of social interaction processes for fertility and AIDS-related behaviors, and demographic methods for measuring and forecasting fertility trends.
Kohler is the 2005 recipient of PAA’s Clifford C. Clogg Award for Early Career Achievement and has been a recent fellow at the Norwegian Academy of Science. His research has received extensive funding through the National Institutes of Health (USA) and other institutions. He is author of a book on fertility and social interaction, has co-edited books on the biodemography of human reproduction and fertility and on causal inferences in population studies. Kohler has widely published on topics related to fertility, health, social and sexual networks, HIV/AIDS, biodemography and well-being in leading scientific journals, and his work has had substantial influence on policy and media discussions related to demographic change.