Penn Population Studies Centers

The Population Studies Center (PSC) at the University of Pennsylvania has fostered research and training in population since its founding in 1962. The PSC has received support from a number of federal and private funding sources since its inception, including support from the NICHD. PSC Research Associates come from six schools at Penn and many different academic departments including, Sociology, Economics, Business, Nursing, and Medicine. The scale of research at the Population Studies Center ranges from macroeconomics and macro demography to human genetics and focus on understanding the dynamics of human populations and our research falls into the following research themes: New Dynamics of Population Diversity, Demography, Human Resources and Endowments, International Population Research and New Directions in Population Research. The PSC also houses the Graduate Group in Demography which trains Ph.D. students in Demography.   

The Population Aging Research Center (PARC) at the University of Pennsylvania has over 25 years of experience of creating the right setting for interdisciplinary research on the demography and economics of aging, including a focus on diverse and often underrepresented populations domestically and globally. PARC was established in 1994 with a grant from the National Institute on Aging. The overall research themes of PARC reflect the interests and expertise of our research associates. These include: Health Care and Long-Term Care in Older Adults, Cognition and Alzheimer's Disease and Related Dementia (ADRD), Health Disparities in Aging, Early Life-Conditions and Older Adult Health, Behavior and Well-Being, and Global Aging and Health. PARC sponsors an annual Quartet Pilot Project Competition with 3 other centers at Penn, and a weekly seminar series in conjunction with the Population Studies Center, the Penn Population Studies Colloquium.

Interdisciplinary Centers, Units and Projects
 

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Author: Behrman, Jere R. ×

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Now showing 1 - 10 of 25
  • Publication
    Floods, Community Infrastructure, and Children's Heterogeneous Learning Losses in Rural India
    (2025-02-03) Hannum, Emily; Khalid, Nazar; Behrman, Jere R.; Thapa, Amrit
    India has the world’s largest number of school-aged children. The majority live in rural areas, many of which are highly flood-prone. Previous studies document that in such areas, floods are associated with lower enrollments, attendance, and learning, in some cases with differentiation by gender, caste/religion, and family SES. Previous literature suggests that components of community infrastructure have positive associations with children’s learning. However, previous literature has not addressed whether better community physical and social infrastructures are associated with (1) smaller flood-related learning losses on average, (2) different learning for marginalized versus other children in the absence of floods, and (3) different vulnerabilities to floods for marginalized versus other children. This paper finds that (1) most aspects of community physical and social infrastructure are not associated with lower flood-related learning losses on average, but proximity to towns and several components of social infrastructure are associated with lower flood-related learning losses on average, (2) community physical and social infrastructure components have heterogeneous associations, in some cases increasing, in most cases not affecting, and in other cases reducing disparities in learning between marginalized and other children in the absence of floods, and (3) community physical and social infrastructure components have heterogeneous effects, in some cases increasing, in most cases not affecting, and in other cases reducing disparities in learning between marginalized and other children in the presence of floods.
  • Publication
    Intergenerational Mobility in Depression and Anxiety in India
    (2025-03-06) Hervé, Justine; Mani, Subha; Behrman, Jere R.; Laxminarayan, Ramanan; Nandi, Arindam
    This paper is the first to provide estimates of intergenerational associations in mental health for a low- and middle-income country. Using rich mental health data on ∼4,000 parent-child pairs in India, we find intergenerational associations in depression and anxiety scores to be 0.61 and 0.68, respectively, suggesting low mobility in mental health. However, once we allow for the mobility estimates to vary along the distribution of parental mental health, we find notable heterogeneity- while minimal symptoms of anxiety and depression in parents persist into the next generation, children of parents with mild to severe symptoms experience significant improvements in mental health. This upward mobility in mental health is largely driven by high socioeconomic-status households. Importantly, we show that even minimal symptoms have significant economic implications for both children and adults. Our findings suggest that programs that improve mental health in one generation can also facilitate intergenerational mobility in mental health and related outcomes.
  • Publication
    Does Schooling Improve Cognitive Abilities at Older Ages
    (2023-02-02) Amin, Vikesh; Behrman, Jere R.; Fletcher, Jason M.; Flores, Carlos A.; Flores-Lagunes, Alfonso; Kohler, Hans-Peter
    An estimated 11% of U.S. adults aged 65 or older have dementia, and as the population ages, dementia cases are predicted to nearly double from 5.2 million in 2019 to 10.2 million by 2050. Understanding how education levels may affect cognitive decline and presumably dementia is important for projecting future dementia in the population and potentially helping individuals understand and possibly reduce their risk. Prior research has suggested a link between more schooling and better later-life performance on cognitive tests. However, most of these studies provided suggestive associations rather than causal estimates. When prior studies did provide causal estimates, inferences were generally based on changes in educational levels after compulsory schooling laws were enacted. This limited estimated causal effects of schooling to the lower grade levels targeted by the laws and the individuals affected by them. In this study, the authors expanded the evidence about causal effects of schooling on older adults to higher levels of schooling, such as attending college, and to a broader population. The authors applied advanced methods to data from a national, longitudinal cohort study representative of U.S. individuals over age 50.
  • Publication
    Female Headship and Poverty in the Arab Region: Analysis of Trends and Dynamics Based on a New Typology
    (2024-02-07) AlAzzawi, Shireen; Dang, Hai-Anh; Hlasny, Vladimir; Behrman, Jere R.; Kseniya, Abanokova
    Various challenges are thought to render female-headed households (FHHs) vulnerable to poverty in the Arab region. Yet, previous studies have mixed results and the absence of household panel survey data hinders analysis of poverty dynamics. We address these challenges by proposing a novel typology of FHHs and analyze synthetic panels that we constructed from 20 rounds of repeated cross-sectional surveys spanning the past two decades from Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Mauritania, Palestine, and Tunisia. We find that the definition of FHHs matters for measuring poverty levels and dynamics. Most types of FHHs are less poor than non-FHHs on average, but FHHs with a major share of female adults are generally poorer. FHHs are more likely to escape poverty than households on average, but FHHs without children are most likely to do so. While more children are generally associated with more poverty for FHHs, there is heterogeneity across countries in addition to heterogeneity across FHH measures. Our findings provide useful inputs for social protection and employment programs aiming at reducing gender inequalities and poverty in the Arab region.
  • Publication
    Minimum Wages and Intergenerational Health
    (2024-02-07) Majid, Muhammad Farhan; Wang, Hanna; Behrman, Jere R.
    Most minimum wage (MW) research focuses on wage and employment impacts in high-income countries. Little is known about broader impacts, including on parental and child health in low- and middle- income countries (LMICs) where most people affected by MWs live. This study studies MW effects on employment, earnings, parental health and child health in Indonesia, the third most-populous LMIC. Results include: MWs improve men’s earnings, parental hemoglobin, and child height-for age and reduce pregnancy complications. This study highlights nuanced but positive roles MWs may play in improving parental and child health, despite not directly affecting women’s earnings and labor supplies.
  • Publication
    Schooling has Smaller or Insignificant Effects on Adult Health in the US than Suggested by Cross-Sectional Associations: New Estimates Using Relatively Large Samples of Identical Twins
    (2013-12-09) Behrman, Jere R.; Amin, Vikesh; Kohler, Hans-Peter
    Adult health outcomes and health behaviors generally are strongly associated with schooling attainment. But such associations do not necessarily imply that schooling has causal effects on health outcomes and behaviors of the magnitudes of the associations. Schooling may be proxying for unobserved factors that are related to genetics and family background. Recently several studies have used within-identical (monozygotic, MZ) twins methods to control for those unobserved factors that are shared completely by identical twins. Estimates based on relatively small samples for the US, as well as some larger samples for other countries, suggest that causal impacts of schooling on health outcomes and behaviors are insignificant or much smaller than suggested by cross-sectional associations. This study contributes new estimates of cross-sectional associations and within-MZ causal effects of twins using three relatively large US samples: Mid-Atlantic Twin Registry, Minnesota Twin Registry and NAS-NRC Twin Registry of WWII Military Veterans. The estimates suggest that schooling is significantly associated with numerous health outcomes and behaviors in the US. However if within-MZ twins estimators are used to control for unobserved factors, there is no causal relationship between schooling and better health behaviors. There is some evidence that more schooling causally affects self-reported health and overweight status, net of unobservable cofounders, though not to the extent that cross-sectional associations suggest. Finally, spousal schooling is associated with better health outcomes and behaviors, but there is no evidence of any causal effect.
  • Publication
    The Social and the Sexual: Networks in Contemporary Demographic Research
    (2013-01-18) Kohler, Hans-Peter; Helleringer, Stéphane; Behrman, Jere R.; Watkins, Susan C.
    The analysis of networks has become an important theme in contemporary demographic research in both developed and developing countries, including investigations of the determinants of fertility behaviors, the interaction between social network and social structures and population policies, the role of intergenerational networks in aging societies, and the relevance for sexual networks for the spread of HIV AIDS. This paper reviews the current research on networks across several domains in demographic research, and it discusses some of the specific challenges of network-based approaches with respect to data collection, analytic approaches and methodologies, interpretation of results, and micro-to-macro aggregation by drawing on research conducted as part of the Kenyan Diffusion and Ideational Change Project (KDICP), the Malawi Longitudinal Study of Families and Health (MLSFH) and the Likoma Network Study (LNS).
  • Publication
    The Impact of Married Individuals Learning HIV Status in Malawi: Divorce, Number of Sexual Partners, Condom Use with Spouses
    (2013-03-20) Fedor, Theresa M.; Kohler, Hans-Peter; Behrman, Jere R.
    This paper assesses how knowledge of HIV status gained through HIV testing and counseling (HTC) by married individuals affects divorce, the number of sexual partners and the use of condoms within marriage. Instrumental variable probit and linear models are estimated, using a randomized experiment administered as part of the Malawi Longitudinal Study of Families and Health. The results indicate that knowledge of HIV status (1) does not affect chances of divorce for either HIV-negative or HIV-positive respondents; (2) reduces the number of sexual partners among HIV-positive respondents, and (3) increases condom use with spouses for both HIV-negative and HIV-positive respondents. These results imply that individuals actively respond to learning HIV status through HTC, invoking protective behavior against future risk of HIV/AIDS for themselves and their actual and potential sexual partners.
  • Publication
    Does Schooling Improve Cognitive Abilities at Older Ages: Causal Evidence from Nonparametric Bounds
    (2022-05-19) Amin, Vikesh; Behrman, Jere R.; Fletcher, Jason M.; Flores, Carlos A.; Flores-Lagunes, Alfonso; Kohler, Hans-Peter
    We revisit the much-investigated relationship between schooling and health, focusing on cognitive abilities at older ages using the Harmonized Cognition Assessment Protocol in the Health & Retirement Study. To address endogeneity concerns, we employ a nonparametric partial identification approach that provides bounds on the population average treatment effect using a monotone instrumental variable together with relatively weak monotonicity assumptions on treatment selection and response. The bounds indicate potentially large effects of increasing schooling from primary to secondary but are also consistent with small and null effects. We find evidence for a causal effect of increasing schooling from secondary to tertiary on cognition. We also replicate findings from the Health & Retirement Study using another sample of older adults from the Midlife in United States Development Study Cognition Project.
  • Publication
    Barker’s Hypothesis Among the Global Poor: Positive Long-term Cardiovascular Effects of In-utero Famine Exposure
    (2022-01-10) Ciancio, Alberto; Behrman, Jere R.; Kämpfen, Fabrice; Kohler, Iliana V.; Maurer, Jürgen; Kohler, Hans-Peter; Mwapasa, Victor
    An influential literature on the Barker's hypothesis (or the Developmental Origins of Health and Disease, DOHaD) has documented that poor conditions in utero lead to higher risk of hypertension, diabetes, stroke and heart disease in middle age in middle- and high-income contexts. One of the main explanations is that periods of high calorie intake after birth are inconsistent with the adaptations that the fetus makes to prepare for a poor resources environment (thrifty phenotype hypothesis). Using data from a persistently low-income country, Malawi, we find that individuals exposed in utero to a substantial famine in 1949, have lower levels of blood pressure and blood sugar and less symptoms associated with stroke over half a century later. These findings may be explained by a prolonged period of malnutrition following the famine in contrast to most of the contexts studied in the previous literature.