Demography of Inequality
The study of social and economic inequality is a hallmark of Wisconsin's research portfolio, particularly in the fields of Sociology and Rural Sociology, Economics, Public Policy and Social Work. Nowhere more than at Wisconsin have researchers long recognized that the distribution of resources and rewards is closely linked with demographic structures and processes. Fertility, family and household behavior may create and foster inequalities in economic resources, both within and across generations; similarly, inequality in social and economic resources may affect individual and family behavior. Socioeconomic inequality is intrinsically linked with health inequalities, access to schooling, and success in later life. Many CDE researchers are studying aspects of poverty and hardship, as well as inequalities in income and wealth. Several CDE scholars are engaged in research on educational and occupational attainment, key elements of human capital that account for some of the inequality in income and wealth. A number of public policy initiatives attempt to ameliorate the most pernicious aspects of inequality, and CDE researchers have contributed considerably to the evaluation of their effects. Much additional research considers the relationship between family and household behaviors and inequality.
Faculty with research in this area: Berger, Cancian, Carlson, Coxhead, Curtis, DeLeire, Ewig, Fujimura, Gerber, Magnuson, Massoglia, Meyer, Mullahy, Palloni, Raymo, Robert, Schechter, Schmeiser, Scholz, Schwartz, Seshadri, Smeeding, Taber, Voss, Walker
Working Group Organizers (email): Maria Cancian, John Karl Scholz
Families and Households
The last several decades of the 20th century witnessed dramatic changes in fertility and family formation throughout the world. CDE has a long tradition of excellence in research on U.S. fertility, families and households and has a strong research portfolio in this theme. CDE is also strong in international family scholarship and has an extensive agenda of comparative cross-national research, providing insights on the influence of culture and sociopolitical contexts on demographic processes. CDE's research within this theme considers the nature and variation of demographic patterns, as well as the implications of demographic change for other substantive domains such as social and economic inequalities and the allocation of economic rewards, family and kinship roles and responsibilities, and trajectories of individual development and wellbeing.
Faculty with research in this area: Berger, Bumpass, Cancian, Carlson, Coxhead, DeLamater, DeLeire, Elwert, Ewig, Fuguitt, Gerber, Grant, Higgins, Holden, Logan, Loveman, Magnuson, Massoglia, Meyer, Nobles, Palloni, Raymo, Schaeffer, Schmeiser, Scholz, Schwartz, Seshadri, Smeeding, Taber, Thomson, Walker, Wallace, Wilson, Winsborough, Zeng
Working Group Organizers (email): Marcy Carlson, James Raymo
Health and Mortality
The Population Dynamics Branch (formerly DBSB) identified "Causes and Consequences of Population Health" as a critical research area in its Report to the NACHHD Council. PDB identifies three sub-themes of importance: (1) the measurement of demographic trends and differences in population health; (2) exploring the mechanisms through which social, biological, and environmental factors shape individual health, especially among disadvantaged populations; and (3) studies examining the effects of health on individual productivity, family stability, and societal well-being. This is a challenging and exciting research agenda. Research innovation requires collection of new biomedical data integrated with social and behavioral measures, new analytical strategies for describing the complex pathways linking biomedical and social environment and behaviors as well as new methodologies to recover causal relationships among the various biomedical and social processes. These solutions will necessarily connect interdisciplinary collaboration that fuses social science, biological, medical, environmental and statistical expertise. The challenge is to measure and understand health and diseases processes at the individual level over all phases of the life course, but also across generations. New exciting work is being done at CDE that merges the insights of formal demography and with aggregate (societal) institutions and social environment that shape and to be shaped by population level demographic processes.
CDE's researchers contribute to each sub-theme of PDB research agenda on population health. Like the PDB, we view health as developmental, influenced by past as well as current capacities and experiences. It is determined by complex interactions among biological, behavioral, environmental, and social influences.
Faculty with research in this area: Coxhead, Elwert, Fujimura, Gerber, Hauser, Herd, Higgins, Holden, Massoglia, Mullahy, Palloni, Robert, Walker, Winsborough, Witt, Wolfe
Working Group Organizers (email): James Walker
Data and Methodology
A large part of the science of demography deals with two key "factors of production." First, analytical methods and models are of central importance to all demographic work. Indeed, demographic modeling has been a major force in fostering substantive analyses of the life course and inequality. The second factor has to do with construction and/or preservation of demographic data. Initially the concern of government agencies, data production now engages the entire scholarly community. (Although data production is often viewed as service to the research community, we include it here to emphasize its status as research product, informed by theoretical understanding and methodological skills.) In the past two decades, tremendous advances have been made in both factors of production, enabling demographers to solve long-standing puzzles and generate even more puzzling questions. CDE contributed significantly to these advances.
A key methodological advance has been the increase in international research. Cross-national comparative research is essential to understand the theoretical processes underlying, for example, the production of health and health inequality, changes in family and household behavior, or particular forms and degrees of economic inequality. The need to increase comparative research between the U.S. and other countries also requires collaboration to move towards more comparable data and analyses.
Major data projects at CDE and its sister center CDHA include: WLS, NSFH, SABE, and PREHCO.
CDE researchers have access to the expertise of the UW-Madison's Applied Population Laboratory (APL) and University of Wisconsin Survey Center (UWSC).
Faculty with research in this area: Bumpass, Cancian, Curtis, DeLamater, Durlauf, Elwert, Gerber, Hauser, Logan, Loveman, Meyer, Mullahy, Nordheim, Palloni, Schaeffer, Schechter, Smeeding, Taber, Thomson, Voss, Walker, Winsborough
Working Group Organizers (email): Erik Nordheim, James Walker