DEMOGRAPHYof the relationship between demographic change
and change in these characteristics. The relation-
ship between female labor force participation and
changing fertility patterns has been a main topic of
the ‘‘new home economics’’ within economic de-
mography (Becker 1960; T. W. Schultz 1974; T. P.
Schultz 1981; Bergstrom 1997). The relationship
between cohort size and earnings is a topic treated
by both economists and sociologists (Winsborough
1975; Welch 1979). A system of relationships be-
tween cohort size, economic well-being, and fertili-
ty has been proposed by Easterlin (1980) in an
effort to explain both fertility cycles and long
swings in the business cycle.
A second uniquely demographic contribution
to the study of socioeconomic characteristics ap-
pears to be the notion of a cohort moving through
its socioeconomic life course (Duncan and Hodge
1963; Hauser and Featherman 1977; Mare 1980).
The process of leaving school, getting a first job,
then subsequent jobs, each of which yields in-
come, was initially modeled as a sequence of recur-
sive equations and subsequently in more detailed
ways. Early in the history of this project it was
pointed out that the process could be modeled as a
multistate population (Matras 1967), but early da-
ta collected in the project did not lend itself to
such modeling and the idea was not pursued.
POPULATION POLICYThe consideration and analysis of various popula-
tion policies is often seen as a part of demography.
Population policy has two important parts. First is
policy related to the population of one’s own
nation. The United Nations routinely conducts
inquiries about the population policies of member
nations (United Nations 1995). Most responding
governments claim to have official positions about
a number of demographic issues, and many have
policies to deal with them. It is interesting to note
that the odds a developed country that states its
fertility is too low has a policy to raise the rate is
about seven to one, while the odds that a less
developed country that states that its fertility is too
high has a policy to lower the rate is about 4.6 to
one. The prospect of declining population in the
United States has already begun to generate policy
proposals (Teitelbaum and Winter 1985).
The second part of population policy is the
policy a nation has about the population of other
countries. For example, should a country insist on
family-planning efforts in a developing country
prior to providing economic aid? A selection of
opinions and some recommendations for policy in
the United States are provided in Menken (1986)
and in the National Research Council (1985).IMPORTANT CURRENT RESEARCH AREASThree areas of demographic research are of espe-
cially current interest. Each is, in a sense, a sequela
of the demographic transition. They are:- Institutional arrangements for the produc-
tion of children, - Immigration, emigration, ethnicity, and
nationalism, - Population aging, morbidity, and
mortality.
Institutional arrangements for the produc-
tion of children. The posttransition developed
world has seen dramatic changes in the institution-
al arrangements for the production of children.
Tracking these changes has become a major preoc-
cupation of contemporary demography. Modern
contraception has broken the biological link be-
tween sexual intercourse and pregnancy. Deci-
sions about sexual relations can be made with less
concern about pregnancy. The decision to have a
child is less colored by the need for sexual gratifi-
cation. People no longer must choose between the
celibate single life or the succession of pregnancies
and children of a married one. Women are em-
ployed before, during, and after marriage. Their
earning power makes marriage more an option
and a context for child raising than an alternative
employment. Women marry later, are older when
they have children, and are having fewer children
than in the past. Divorce has moved from an
uncommon event to a common one. Cohabitation
is a new, and somewhat inchoate, lifestyle that
influences the circumstances for childbearing and
child rearing. Although only a modest number of
children are currently born to cohabiting couples,
most children will spend some time living with a
parent in such a relationship before they are adults
(Bumpass and Lu 1999). Changes such as these
have occurred in most of Europe and North Ameri-
ca and appear to be increasing in those parts of
Asia where the demographic transitions occurred
first. The changes have, of course, been met with