PSC News

New Population Center Working Paper (PSC/PARC): Fang, Hanming and Xincheng Qiu. 2021. "'Golden Ages': A Tale of the Labor Markets in China and the United States." University of Pennsylvania Population Center Working Paper (PSC/PARC), 2021-79.

New Population Center Working Paper (PSC/PARC): Purcell, Helene 2021. "The Heterogeneous Impacts of Natural Disasters on Risk Preferences in Indonesia." University of Pennsylvania Population Center Working Paper (PSC/PARC), 2021-78. 

2021-12-16 Population Aging Research Center Year in Review 

2021-12-16 Population Studies Center Year in Review

Linda H. Aiken (PSC/PARC Research Associate), Angela Lee Duckworth (PSC Research Associate), and John Q. More »

2021-12-08 Newsletter 

2021-12-01 Bulletin

2021-11-23 Newsletter 

Olivia S. Mitchell (PSC/PARC Research Associate) was featured in the Wall Street Journal about the future of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) investing and socially responsible investing trends in the next 10 years.

2021-11-18 Newsletter

Damon Centola (PSC Research Associate) was featured in Penn Today for recently published research in Nature Communications,  "The Reduction of Race and Gender Bias in Clinical Treatment Recommendations Using Clinician Peer Networks in an Experimental Setting." In a More »

Sharon Wolf (PSC Research Associate) was featured in Penn Today about new research in Ghana that examines implications of COVID-19 on returning to school.

2021-11-10 Newsletter 

Emily Hannum (PSC Research Associate) has been appointed Stanley I. Sheerr Term Professor in the Social Sciences. Hannum is a sociologist and demographer whose research focuses on poverty and child welfare, social stratification, and sociology of education, particularly in China. Read more about this announcement on the Penn Arts & Sciences News webpage.

Pilar Gonalons-Pons (PSC/PARC Research Associate) has been named Alber-Klingelhofer Presidential Assistant Professor of Sociology. Gonalons-Pons studies how gender, work, and public policies structure economic inequalities, with a focus on how inequalities change over time and the life course. More »

Harsha Thirumurthy (PSC/PARC Research Associate) wrote an Op-ed for The Philadelphia Inquirer about the pros and cons of waiving the COVID-19 vaccine patents for low-income countries.

2021-11-04 Bulletin

Research co-authored by Irma T. More »

Forthcoming research co-authored by Tiffany Huang (PSC Postdoctoral Fellow) about anti-immigrant sentiments was featured in The New York Times.

David Mandell (PSC Research Associate) co-authored an Op-ed in The Hill about the need to bolster support for the mental health care system in the US.

2021-10-28 Newsletter 

PSC/PARC Researchers Hans-Peter Kohler, Frank F. More »

2021-10-21 Newsletter 

2021-10-14 Newsletter

PSC/PARC Researchers Atheendar Venkataramani, Courtney Boen, and John MacDonald are investigators in a new NIH funded project, which includes an unprecedented $10 million over the course of 5 years, to study the impact of environmental and economic interventions on reducing health disparities in Black Ph More »

2021-10-07 Newsletter

Luca Maria Pesando, GGD Alumni and PSC Research Affiliate, was awarded a 2022-2024 Jacobs Foundation Research Fellowship, a globally competitive Fellowship dedicated to improving the development, learning, and living conditions of children and youth worldwide.

New Population Center Working Paper (PSC/PARC): Jacobs, Jerry and Elinore Avni. 2021. "A Global Turn in Sociology: Approaching Social Problems from an International Vantage Point." University of Pennsylvania Population Center Working Paper (PSC/PARC), 2021-77.

2021-09-29 Bulletin

New Population Center Working Paper (PSC/PARC): Hoang, Cung, Vikesh Amin, Jere Behrman, Hans-Peter Kohler, and Iliana Kohler. 2021. "Heterogenous Trajectories in Physical, Mental and Cognitive Health among Older Americans: Roles of Genetics and Earlier SES." University of Pennsylvania Population Center Working Paper (PSC/PARC), 2021-76.

2021-09-23 Newsletter

PSC and PARC Research Associates, Courtney Boen and Atheendar Venkataramani, were recently awarded funding through the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Policies for Action: Public Policy Research to Advance Racial Equity and Racial Justice program. More »

Study Highlights

Andrew Stokes (GGD alumni) and PSC/PARC Research Associates, Irma T. Elo and Samuel H. Preston co-authored new research about accounting for excess COVID-19 deaths was featured in MedicalXpress.

Linda Aiken (PSC/PARC Research Associate) was featured in Penn Today and Penn Nursing News about a new article published in Medical Care that finds  More »

2021-09-16 Newsletter

Courtney Boen (PSC/PARC Researcher Associate) was featured in Vox about sleep deprivation and insomnia as an increasing symptom of the COVID-19 pandemic.

2021-09-10 Newsletter

Congratulations to Anneliese Luck, Eugenio Paglino, Michael Lachanski, and Yasmin Mertehikian for being admitted into the International Max Planck Research School for Population, Health and Data Science< More »

Congratulations to Ewa Batyra, former PSC Postdoc, for joining the Centre for Demographic Studies (CED) in Barcelona, Spain. Batyra will be working with Diederik Boertien on the Sexual Minorities and Inequality of Opportunity (MINEQ) project.

New Population Center Working Paper (PSC/PARC): Abufhele, Alejandra, Andrés Castro Torres, and Luca Maria Pesando. 2021. "Parental Educational Similarity and Infant Health in Chile: Evidence from Administrative Records, 1990-2015." University of Pennsylvania Population Center Working Paper (PSC/PARC), 2021-75.

2021-09-01 Bulletin

Kevin G. More »

New Population Center Working Paper (PSC/PARC): Pesando, Luca Maria 2021. "Safer if Connected? Mobile Technology and Intimate Partner Violence." University of Pennsylvania Population Center Working Paper (PSC/PARC), 2021-74. 

Linda Aiken (PSC/PARC Research Associate) was quoted in CBS News about nursing burnout. “The problem is that we don’t have enough funded, permanent, full-time positions for nurses in the settings where they’re needed, namely hospitals, nursing homes and schools,” Aiken said.

Wendy Roth (PSC Research Associate) was interviewed for an NPR segment about the potential role of genetic ancestry testing in the growth of the multiracial population in the 2020 Census.

Olivia Mitchell (PSC/PARC Research Associate) was featured in a MarketWatch article about the ticking clock of solvency for Social Security.

Congratulations to the recipients of the Penn Arts & Sciences Making a Difference in Global Communities and Klein Family Social Justice Grants. More »

Emilio A. Parrado (PSC/PARC) was elected to the Board of Directors for the Population Association of America.

Courtney Boen (PSC/PARC Research Associate) and co-author, Julia Raifman, wrote an Op-ed for The Hill calling for policy makers and leaders to take action in protective measures and preventive policies to avoid child hospitalizations. More »

Iliana Kohler (PSC/PARC Research Associate) is the newly-elected representative for Research Faculty on University Council for the 2021-2023 term.
Congratulations Iliana!

Kevin Volpp (PSC/PARC Research Associate) was quoted in Politifact article about the success of lotteries to incentivize vaccination uptake. Academic studies of early vaccine lotteries do provide reason for skepticism about how successful such programs have been. However, the studies so far have produced mixed findings, rather than unanimously negative ones. Two studies of Ohio’s lottery found a positive impact while two found no impact or a negative impact. More »

Joseph Kable (PSC/PARC Research Associate) presented on "How the Imagination Works" as part of the Penn SAS Big Ideas for Strange Times series.

Olivia S. Mitchell (PSC/PARC Research Associate) was interviewed for the Knowledge@Wharton podcast about the potential for the federal government to "green" its pension plan.

Linda H. Aiken (PSC/PARC Research Associate) wrote an Op-ed for The New York Times about the need for better nursing support including improved working conditions and nurse staffing policies. More »

Xi Song (PSC Research Associate) received the William Julius Wilson Early Career Award from the ASA Section on Inequality, Poverty, and Mobility, awarded annually to recognize a scholar who has made major contributions early in their career.

Hyunjoon Park's (PSC/PARC Research Associate) Demographic Research paper, "Diverging Gaps in Childcare Time by Parental Education in South Korea," was selected by the editorial board as one of the best papers in Volume 44 and will be included in the More »

Courtney Boen (PSC/PARC Research Associate) was awarded the American Sociological Association (ASA) Section on Aging and the Life Course Outstanding Publication Award for “Criminal Justice Contacts and Psychophysiological Functioning in Early Adulthood: Health Inequality in the Carceral State,” published in the Journal of Health and Social Behavior.

Raghav Gaiha (PSC/PARC Research Affiliate) co-authored an Op-ed in Economic Times about the association between economic deprivation and fertility among Muslim women in India.

New research in JAMA Network Open co-authored by John MacDonald (PSC Research Associate) found that increasing the number of houses that received the Philadelphia Basic Systems Repair Program intervention on a block was associated with a dose-dependent decrease in crime. These findings suggest that intentional and targeted financial investment in structural, scalable, and sust More »

PSC and PARC Researchers Linda H. Aiken, Herb L. Smith, Jere R. Behrman, David Bravo and Matthew D. More »

Pilar Gonalons-Pons (PSC/PARC Research Associate) was quoted in The Philadelphia Inquirer about the child tax credit under the American Rescue Plan and accessibility issues for low-income families.

Irma Elo (PSC/PARC Research Associate) was quoted in an NBC News article discussing causes in the decline in life expectancy in the US. The particular impact the pandemic had on Hispanic and Black Americans "reflects the inequalities that were present before the pandemic that have to do with unequal access to health care and racial and ethnic disparities More »

Samuel Preston (PSC/PARC Research Associate) was quoted in The Philadelphia Inquirer about the drop in life expectancy in the United States and excess deaths due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Hans-Peter Kohler (PSC/PARC Research Associate) was interviewed on the KYW News Radio In Depth podcast about the consequences of declining birth rates in the United States.

PARC Associates, Julia Lynch, Rachel Werner, and PSC Associate, Sharon Wolf, were featured in Penn Today discussing the unequal effects exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, systemic issues which contribute to these inequalities, an More »

New Population Center Working Paper (PSC/PARC): Liu, Xiaoying, Huazhang Miao, Jere Behrman, Emily Hannum, Zhijiang Liang, and Qingguo Zhao. 2021. "The Asian Games, Air Pollution and Birth Outcomes in South China: An Instrumental Variable Approach." University of Pennsylvania Population Center Working Paper (PSC/PARC), 2021-72. 

Pilar Gonalons-Pons (PSC/PARC Research Associate) recently co-authored a paper “Marriage and Masculinity: Male-Breadwinner Culture, Unemployment, and Separation Risk in 29 Countries,” in American Sociological Review was featured in ScienceDaily and Penn Today.

Courtney Boen (PSC/PARC Research Associate) and Morgan Hoke's (PSC Research Associate) recent Social Science & Medicine paper eviction and heath was featured in an LDI Health Policy$ense blog post entitled "More »

Pilar Gonalons-Pons (PSC/PARC Research Associate) was interviewed in Penn Today about the potential effects of the expanded child tax credits as part of the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021.

Irma Elo (PSC/PARC Research Associate), Samuel Preston (PSC/PARC Research Associate), and Neil Mehta (GGD alumni) were featured in a recent issue of Today's Research on Aging published by the Population Reference Bureau.

Irma T. Elo (PSC/PARC Research Associate), Samuel H. More »

Joseph Kable (PSC/PARC Research Associate) was featured in Penn Today about his new research that examines the roles of neuro-networks in the brain in moments of imagination.

Matthew McHugh (PSC/PARC Research Associate) was featured in Penn Today about new research on minimum hospital nurse-to-patient ratio policies.

Nazar Khalid, Ph.D. Candidate in the Graduate Group in Demography (GGD), was awarded the Inaugural Presidential PhD Fellowship. Drawing from the most accomplished and diverse Ph.D. trainees, the 2021 Presidential Ph.D. Fellows come from across the nine schools at Penn that offer Ph.D. programs. More »

Aashish Gupta, Ph.D. More »

New Population Center Working Paper (PSC/PARC): Kulkarni, Vani, Veena Kulkarni, Katsushi Imai, and Raghav Gaiha. 2021. "Changes in Subjective versus Objective Well-Being in India." University of Pennsylvania Population Center Working Paper (PSC/PARC), 2021-71.

Daniel Aldana Cohen (PSC Research Associate) was interviewed in the latest episode of OMNIA's In These Times podcast about the fight against environmental racism and moving toward environmental justice.

Harsha Thirumurthy (PSC/PARC Research Associate) was quoted in Penn Today discussing the role of politics and public health in India's COVID-19 crisis.

Samuel Preston (PSC/PARC Research Associate) and Yana Vierboom (GGD alumni) wrote an Op-ed published in The Guardian entitled, "Why Do Americans Die Earlier than Europeans?"

Hans-Peter Kohler (PSC/PARC Research Associate) was interviewed on Smart Talk (WTIF), a regional radio program, about the relationship between population growth, fertility rates, and economic impacts. Tune in at 31:20 to listen to the discussion.

Hyunjoon Park (PSC Research Associate) was featured in the NY Daily News about his research on the limits of test prep and standardized testing in creating more diverse student populations, as New York City elite schools admit fewer Black and Latino students.

Kevin Volpp (PSC/PARC Research Associate) was quoted in a West Virginia Public Broadcasting article on West Virginia's monetary incentives to increase COVID-19 vaccinations. “If it's the proverbial check is in the mail, that's going to be much less effective than if people get the savings bond right when they g More »

Tukufu Zuberi (PSC Research Associate) was interviewed in a recent segment of OMNIA's In These Times podcast. More »

Kevin J. Thomas, GGD alumnus, was recently named a 2021 Carnegie Mellon Fellow. Kevin J. A. Thomas is professor of African and African Diaspora studies at the University of Texas at Austin. His research focuses on international migration, global health, race-ethnicity, and African development.
More »

Early-Life Human Capital Investments in Sub-Saharan Africa

Project on Human Capital Development in Africa

Co-PIs: Jere R. Behrman and Claudia Vazquez

Alison Buttenheim (PSC Research Associate) was quoted in The Washington Post about the behavioral science behind financial incentives for getting the COVID-19 vaccine.

Pilar Gonalons-Pons (PSC Research Associate) and Alison Buttenheim (PSC Research Associate) was featured in a New York Times piece about gendered motivations for getting vaccinated. More »

Wendy Roth (PSC Research Associate) was interviewed in Maisonneuve about people who discover non-paternity events through DNA testing and how it impacts their identities. Roth's research about genetic testing and identity was also featured in a Consumer Reports artic More »

Norma Coe (PARC Research Associate) and Rachel Werner (PSC/PARC Research Associate) co-authored an Op-ed published in Newsweek. More »

Samuel Preston (PSC/PARC Research Associate) and Yana Vierboom (GGD alumnus) were featured in Penn Today for their publication in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. More »

New Penn Education and Inequality Working Paper: Shen, Wensong, and Emily Hannum. 2020. "Effect Pathways of Informal Family Separation on Children’s Outcomes: Paternal Labor Migration and Long-term Educational Attainment of Left-Behind Children in Rural China." Penn Education and Inequality Working Papers, #8.

Frank Furstenberg (PSC/PARC Research Associate) was quoted in The Atlantic about financial and emotional stressors on modern parents. The article entitled, "Parents Are Sacrificing Their Social Lives on the Altar of Intensive Parenting," discusses the anxiety parents can experience when balancing careers, social lives, and parenting.

New Population Center Working Paper (PSC/PARC): Kulkarni, Vani S, and Raghav Gaiha. 2021. "The Role of Public Trust in People's Subjective Well-Being." University of Pennsylvania Population Center Working Paper (PSC/PARC), 2021-70.

New Population Center Working Paper (PSC/PARC): Fang, Hanming, Ziteng Lei, Liguo Lin, and Peng Zhang. 2021. "Family Companionship and Elderly Suicide: Evidence from the Chinese Lunar New Year." University of Pennsylvania Population Center Working Paper (PSC/PARC), 2021-69.

Olivia Mitchell (PSC/PARC Research Associate) was quoted in Penn Today and Knowledge@Wharton about the growing number of older Americans in debt. “This is a very different world in terms of debt than our parents and grandparents lived in,” says Ol More »

New research by Olivia Mitchell (PSC/PARC Research Associate), in Penn Today, examines the financial well-being among Black and Hispanic women.

New Population Center Working Paper (PSC/PARC): Musick, Kelly, Pilar Gonalons-Pons, and Christine Schwartz. 2021. "Change and Variation in Couples' Earnings Equality Following Parenthood." University of Pennsylvania Population Center Working Paper (PSC/PARC), 2021-68.

Pilar Gonalons-Pons (PSC Research Associate) was quoted in The Philadelphia Inquirer about the history of childcare in the US and how the pandemic has shed a light on social and economic problems in childcare.

Rebecca Schut, a joint PhD student in the Graduate Group in Demography and Sociology, was named a 2021-2022 Dean's Scholar for her academic performance and intellectual promise. Register to attend the virtual celebration on April 21, 2021 at 4:30 PM. Congratulations Rebecca!

Chenoa Flippen (PSC Research Associate) has been selected for the Provost's Award for Distinguished PhD Teaching and Mentoring. This award is in recognition of her commitment to teaching at Penn. The selection committee chose her from a competitive nomination pool based on the letters written on her behalf by our colleagues and students.

New Population Center Working Paper (PSC/PARC): Kämpfen, Fabrice, Fatima Zahra, Hans-Peter Kohler, and Rachel Kidman. 2021. "The Effects of Negative Economic Shocks at Birth on Adolescents’ Cognitive Health and Educational Attainment in Malawi." University of Pennsylvania Population Center Working Paper (PSC/PARC), 2021-67.

New Population Center Working Paper (PSC/PARC): Kohler, Iliana, Fabrice Kämpfen, Alberto Ciancio, James Mwera, Victor Mwapasa, and Hans-Peter Kohler. 2021. "Curtailing COVID-19 on a Dollar-a-Day in Malawi: Implications for the Ongoing Pandemic." University of Pennsylvania Population Center Working Paper (PSC/PARC), 2021-66.

Irma Elo (PSC/PARC Research Associate) and Regina Baker (PSC Research Associate) are credited with research support in a recent episode of the TradeOffs podcast. More »

The climate + community project, a new climate policy research network co-directed by Daniel Aldana Cohen (PSC Research Associate), launched on March 13 with a report advocating a Green Stimulus for K-12 Schools, in partnership with Rep. Jamaal Bowman. More »

Irma Elo (PSC/PARC Research Associate) and Samuel Preston (PSC/PARC Research Associate) were featured in Penn Today about the new National Academies of Science Engineering and Medicine report on More »

Jere Behrman (PSC/PARC Research Associate) and Linda Aiken (PSC/PARC Research Associate) were featured in a list of the top 100 Researchers with h-indexes that exceed 100, according to their Google Scholar Profiles. Behrma More »

New Population Center Working Paper (PSC/PARC): Greenwood, Jeremy, Nezih Guner, and Ricardo Marto. 2021. "The Great Transition: Kuznets Facts for Family-Economists." University of Pennsylvania Population Center Working Paper (PSC/PARC), 2021-65.

Courtney Boen (PSC/PARC Research Associate) and Morgan Hoke (PSC Research Associate) co-authored new research, published in Social Science & Medicine, that links eviction to a greater risk for depression. More »

Linda Aiken (PSC/PARC Research Associate) was quoted in a WHYY article discussing the outcomes of understaffing in hospitals.

New Population Center Working Paper (PSC/PARC): Hoke, Morgan and Courtney Boen. 2021. "The Health Impacts of Eviction: Evidence from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health." University of Pennsylvania Population Center Working Paper (PSC/PARC), 2021-64.

Olivia Mitchell (PSC/PARC Research Associate) was interviewed in a recent episode of the Knowledge@Wharton podcast about why early 401k withdrawals are a bad idea. More »

Atheendar Venkataramani (PSC/PARC Research Associate) moderated the first LDI Health Equity virtual seminar of 2021. The virtual seminar dives into the interconnections of voting, structural racism, and health inequities. More »

New Population Center Working Paper (PSC/PARC): Hervé, Justine, Subha Mani, Jere Behrman, Arindam Nandi, Anjana Sankhil Lamkang, and Ramanan Laxminarayan. 2021. "Gender Gaps in Cognitive and Noncognitive Skills: Roles of SES and Gender Attitudes." University of Pennsylvania Population Center Working Paper (PSC/PARC), 2021-63.

Daniel Aldana Cohen (PSC Research Associate) was interviewed in The Philadelphia Inquirer about the Texas electricity black-outs and how a Green New Deal could prevent such disasters. Cohen discusses the disadvantages of deregulated and market-based energy systems.

The Behavior Change for Good Initiative (BCFG), co-directed by Angela Duckworth (PSC Research Associate), at the Wharton School and the School of Arts & Sciences of the University of Pennsylvania, in collaboration with the Penn Medicine Nudge Unit, today released findings from two of the largest-ever research studies aimed at increasing vaccine adoption. More »

Damon Centola (PSC Research Associate) was interviewed for a recent segment of The Money with Richard Aedy, an Australian radio program. Centola discussed how social change happens and his research on the science of networks. 

Wendy Roth (PSC Research Associate) was featured in The New York Times and appeared on The Behavior Corner podcast discussing her research on genetic ancestry testing and racial perceptions.

Research by Wendy Roth (PSC Research Associate) was cited in a New York Times Op-ed entitled, "America’s Brutal Racial History Is Written All Over Our Genes." The article discusses the relationship between genetic testing services, identity, and perceptions of race in the US.

Tukufu Zuberi (PSC Research Associate) launched a new YouTube channel entitled, Curating National Narratives, which will feature his documentaries, African Independence; a history of ancient Sudan entitled, “Before Things Fell Apart” and “Decolonizing The Narrative,” a series on museums, reparations, restitution, and race. More »

A new LDI/PARC Research Brief on a recent study by Alberto Ciancio, Fabrice Kämpfen, Hans-Peter Kohler, and Iliana Kohler looking at the health effects of blood pressure screenings for adults in rural Malawi. The PARC team found that adults with elevated blood pressure who were referred to a health care provider were 22 percentage points less likely to have hypertension four years later. More »

Iliana Kohler (PSC/PARC Research Associate) received the National Academy of Medicine Catalyst Grant Award. More »

Daniel Aldana Cohen's (PSC Research Associate) book, A Planet to Win, has been translated into Brazilian Portuguese by Autonomia Literária, with a new preface by Raquel Rolnik, former United Nations Special Rapporteur on housing as a human right and Professor of Architecture and Urbanism at More »

New Population Center Working Paper (PSC/PARC): Georgiadis, Andreas, Liza Benny, Paul Dornan, and Jere Behrman. 2021. "Maternal Undernutrition in Adolescence and Child Human Capital Formation over the Life-Course: Evidence from an International Cohort Study." University of Pennsylvania Population Center Working Paper (PSC/PARC), 2021-62.

Wendy Roth (PSC Research Associate) created a video for the Penn Latin American and Latinx Studies Program (LALS) describing her career and research on the dynamics of racial classification in the United States and Latin America. Roth discusses some her of past and current projects surrounding the questions of why and how racial classification changes across
cultures and geographies.

Olivia S. Mitchell (PSC/PARC Research Associate) was featured in Penn Today about getting financially fit in 2021. Mitchell gives five financial resolutions for people who aim to save and eliminate debt in 2021.

Iliana Kohler (PSC/PARC Research Associate) was featured in a video produced by the Swiss Programme for Research on Global for Development about treating the causes of depression in Malawi. Watch the full video: "How Does Mental Wellbeing Connect to Physical Health in Sub-Saharan Africa?"

New Population Center Working Paper (PSC/PARC): Liu, Xiaoying, Jere Behrman, Emily Hannum, Fan Wang, and Qingguo Zhao. 2022. "Same Environment, Stratified Impacts? Air Pollution, Extreme Temperatures, and Birth Weight in Southeast China." University of Pennsylvania Population Center Working Paper (PSC/PARC), 2022-60.