July 14, 2009 | News
Call for Papers: Annual Conference of the German Society for Demography in Collaboration with the Italian Association for Population Studies
Growing Disparities?
Socioeconomic Differences in Fertility and Mortality Behaviour
Throughout Europe, birth rates have declined below replacement level, ages at first birth and
levels of lifelong childlessness have increased. At the same time, life expectancy has risen.
While the consequences of this development for social security systems and the planning of
social infrastructure have generated lively discussion, less attention has been given to the
question of what implications these changes might have for the social differences in
demographic behaviour. Research in the field of fertility shows how female education and
employment influences fertility, marriage and divorce risks. However, there are far fewer
studies that investigate how other socioeconomic indicators are associated with fertility and
family dynamics. Furthermore, it is unclear whether socioeconomic differentials in fertility
and family behaviour have changed over time. The same can be said for mortality research.
Despite the fact that socioeconomic mortality differentials have been studied for many
countries, relatively little is known about temporal changes in the impact of socioeconomic
characteristics on mortality risks. Furthermore, very few studies make use of large-scale data
sets. Nor are there many studies that account for medical determinants of mortality risks. It
seems highly desirable to try to gain a better understanding of how socioeconomic mortality
differentials have changed over time, how they differ by country and welfare-state setting,
and how they interact with medical determinants of longevity.
We welcome theoretical and empirical contributions (in German or in English) on the
following topics:
- Determinants of fertility postponement
- Socioeconomic differences in fertility, marriage and divorce
- Fertility behaviour and family dynamics of migrants and foreigners
- Determinants of "highest high" mortality
- Socioeconomic differences in mortality risks
- Mortality risks of migrants and foreigners
We are open to contributions from demography and its adjacent disciplines, such as
sociology, economics, statistics, epidemiology or anthropology.
Date and Venue: The conference will be held March 3-5, 2010, at the Max Planck Institute
for Demographic Research in Rostock, Germany (www.demogr.mpg.de).
Deadline for Abstracts: Abstracts should not exceed two pages, and must contain the
correspondence addresses of the authors. Deadline for submission is October 1, 2009.
Abstracts can be sent to the organisation team. Decisions on the final programme will be
made November 2009. Please contact the organisation team for further information:
Michaela Kreyenfeld
Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research
Phone: +49 381 2081 136
Email: kreyenfeld@demogr.mpg.de
Thomas Salzmann
Rostock University
Phone: +49 381 498 4328
Email: thom.salzmann@uni-rostock.de