Rostock Demographic Seminar Series

Surprising Results in Demography - A Double Feature

Roland Rau
Hybrid Presentation, July 05, 2022

Roland Rau, Professor of Demography at the University of Rostock asked in his talk if positive stress can kill you and talks about the momentum of pseudo-stable populations in contrast to stable populations.

Abstract

Roland Rau will present two projects which are both work in progress:

• Can Positive Stress Kill You?

It is well established that stress has negative health consequences. But can it be deadly, especially when the stressful situation is resolved with a positive outcome? Roland Rau does not want to reveal more but one can expect an informative and hopefully entertaining presentation, especially if one is interested in sports.
 

• The Momentum of Pseudo-Stable Populations in contrast to Stable Populations

Fertility in pseudo-stable populations is not time-invariant but declines at a constant rate over time. Roland Rau will show that the underlying population dynamics, which can not only be expressed by simulation but also by analytic equations/approximations, can be counterintuitive. Examples are the sequence of births, the population trajectory, or the population momentum.

About the Speaker

Roland Rau is Professor of Demography at the University of Rostock and Senior Research Scientist at the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research. His main research interests are at the intersection of demography, epidemiology and statistics. He fell in love with demography about 25 years ago when he attended his first demography course which focused on population dynamics and stable population theory. His love for mathematical demography is still there as you will see in one of his two presentations today. This does not imply that he is not passionate about the topic of the other presentation.