Seminar Series

In recent years, polygenic scores have become the favored tool for summarizing the influence of genetic predispositions on phenotypic characteristics and behavior when the genetic effect arises from the accumulation of small effects from a potentially very large number of genetic markers. Columbia University's Thomas DiPrete discusses the potential use of polygenic scores as proxies for unobservables in the context of a returns to schooling estimation.

Oxford University's Melinda Mills discusses her projects, which combine demographic, sociological, biological and molecular genetic research to study the life course.

Using individually linked data for all RI children born between 1991 and 2005 that includes early childhood blood lead levels, in-school disciplinary infractions and juvenile detention, Anna Aizer examines the impact of early lead exposure on future delinquency. She discusses how exposure to lead is associated with a significantly greater likelihood of in-school disciplinary infractions and juvenile detention.

Cornell University's Chris Wildeman discusses maltreatment, racial inequality and geographic variation in the foster care system.

UCLA'S Rodrigo Pinto examines a range of questions regarding social experiments concerning young adults: inference under compromised randomization, cost-benefit analysis, external validity and impact evaluation. He also discusses the economics of human capital accumulation of early childhood interventions, policy evaluation, and causality.

Relationships between genes and social behavior have historically been viewed as a one-way street, with genes in control. Research in social genomics has begun to challenge this view by discovering broad alterations in the expression of genes across differing socio-environmental conditions. UCLA's Steve Cole summarizes the emerging field of social genomics and its efforts to identify the types of genes subject to social regulation, the psychological and biological signaling pathways mediating such effects, and the genetic polymorphisms that modify their impact across individuals.

The impact of technological change on family and fertility has focused on contraceptives (the pill), household appliances, medical progress. It is important to understand whether digitalization, and the spread of the Internet in particular, has an effect. Earlier evidence points to a potential effect on teenage fertility (and younger age fertility). Oxford University's Francesco Billari discusses how access to high-speed Internet has affected fertility at all ages.

Duke's Jessica Ho discusses whether demographic, socioeconomic, labor force/industrial conditions, public assistance and income inequality are related to county-level drug overdose death rates in 1999-2010.

Migration theories posit that processes selecting people into voluntary and involuntary migration differ, but without data sets that include measures of the causes of mobility there is little evidence demonstrating these selection effects. Brown's Elizabeth Fussell discusses how using The American Housing Survey, 1997-2013 provides a unique opportunity to examine selection effects associated with a variety of reported reasons for changing residences, and in doing so, to unify disparate fields of migration research. She reviews five mover types (employment related, housing-related, family-related, disaster-related, and other forced moves) and the residential outcomes for each of these mover types.