Laboratory

Population Dynamics and Sustainable Well-Being

At a Glance Projects Publications Team

Research Area

Health and Mortality

Virtually every country is experiencing population aging resulting from continuous mortality and fertility declines. The remarkable and consistent increase in life expectancy at birth across the globe has spurred questions about the sustainability of social security systems and the informal care provision within kin networks. Against this backdrop, we develop statistical methods to understand and predict the trends underlying lifespan dynamics, to measure inequalities in mortality and health by socioeconomic status, and to evaluate the factors that affect health-related behaviors.

A core group of projects in this research area expands our understanding of past, present, and future trajectories of health and mortality profiles across countries. Our current research focuses on examining the predictability of mortality from both individual- and aggregate-level perspectives. Further, we explore disparities in longevity across different populations and socioeconomic groups, aiming to understand and address the sources of these inequalities. As we address the fundamental questions of how long people and subpopulations will live, we develop new statistical and formal demographic methods, and we leverage recent advances in machine-learning techniques. An important goal is to shed new light on mortality inequalities and improve forecasting accuracy.

We also expand the scope of mortality research to assess the lived experience of kin loss. Using advanced demographic methods, simulations, and complementary data sources, we quantify how individuals acquire and lose family members across their lifespan. By doing so, we gain insights into the implications that these processes have on the availability of family resources throughout the course of one's life. A key question is not only whether gains in life expectancy also mean longer lives in good health but also whether increased longevity means that we can enjoy longer portions of our lives with members of our extended families in good health.

As we seek to understand how social and economic factors affect health and well-being, we examine, among other factors, the role of self-regulation in facilitating healthier decision-making and explore the underlying motivations that drive individuals to modify their own behaviors. In response to the crisis generated by the COVID-19 pandemic, we designed and implemented a large cross-national online survey to assess health behaviors, social contacts, and attitudes. In related projects, we studied the extent to which the COVID-19 pandemic has affected the time use and well-being of US residents, as well as the effects of COVID-19 on (excess) mortality at different geographic levels.

Projects of this Research Area