PSC News

Alison Buttenheim and co-researchers' study on the Philadelphia community's use of the Free Library staff as de facto social workers and community health specialists in preparation for an opiod overdose, was mentioned in Penn Medicine News.

Joseph Kable and co-authors have published an article in the Journal of Neuroscience about choices adolescents make in relation to brain development.

Dorothy Roberts was interviewed on The Dig podcast about rascism and poverty policing that pervades the child protection system.

Jere Behrman and co-authors just published their study in Demographic Research on adults supporting child development economically, socially, and emotionally.

Luca Maria Pesando recently published an article in Education Economics on the financial literacy of high school students.

PSC research associate, Olivia Mitchell, wrote an article for the Wall Street Journal about financial fraud on older people. 

Olivia Mitchell and co-authors' research, "Borrowing from the Future: 401(k) Plan Loans and Loan Defaults," was quoted in a Nasdaq article on 401(k) loans

Olivia Mitchell was interviewed by Marketplace about tech companies may encourage people to invest in retirement accounts.

Olivia Mitchell was interviewed on The Street podcast about retirement systems

Olivia Mitchell's article, "Simplifying Choices in Defined Contribution Retirement Plan Design," was quoted in a Forbes article about investments and saving for the future.

PSC research associate Olivia Mitchell was mentioned in an Associated Press (AP) about pension benefit plans.

Caroline Hartnett, GGD alumna and Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of South Carolina, recently penned an article in The Conversation about fertility in the US and it's current and past significance.

New Bloomberg Businessweek report reinforces Olivia Mitchell and co-author’s findings, that Global Financial Literacy are low, with implications for retirement security.

Wharton's Katherine Milkman and Penn's Angela Duckworth discuss the Behavior Change for Good Initiative on the Knowledge@Wharton podcast.

Kevin Volpp and co-author have published a report on patient engagement in NEJM Catalyst.

Congratulations to PSC research associate Courtney Boen for being awarded the best dissertation award from the ASA Section on Mental Health for her dissertation “Inequality ‘Under the Skin’: Stress & the Biodemography of Racial Health Disparities Across the Life Course.”

Kevin Volpp and co-authors have published an article in the New England Journal of Medicine on the use of electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes) to promote the cessation of smoking. More »

What makes preschool good? Penn GSE's Sharon Wolf is helping transform early childhood education in Ghana. Listen to to her NPR interview and read her BOLD blog post.

Daniel Aldana Cohen will join the Insitute for Advanced Study, School of Social Science (Princeton Campus) for the 2018-2019 academic year. The theme of next year's seminar is Crisis and Critique.

PhillyVoice recently featured Sam Preston's work on obesity, mortality rates, and life expectancy. 

Dorothy Roberts was quoted in Inside Higher Ed discussing the issues with black motherhood and academia and its regulations.

New Penn LDI research brief provides an excellent synopsis of Kevin Volpp and co-authors' study on smoking cessation, financial incentives and e-cigarettes.

Daniel Aldana Cohen won a Research and Teaching Seed Fund award from the Penn Program in Environmental Humanities.

Samuel Preston spoke with Penn Today about mortality rates, obesity, and life expectancy. 

PSC research associate Dorothy Roberts details the history of high mortality rates of African American women on the American Medical Association ethics podcast.

PSC research associate Annette Lareau has co-authored Parental Challenges to Organizational Authority in an Elite School District: The Role of Cultural, Social, and Symbolic Capital  in Teachers College Record. The article examines education and the socioeconomic elite in the public sector.

Pilar Gonalons-Pons' article, “Trends in economic homogamy: Changes in assortative mating or the division of labor in marriage?”, has been awarded the honor of nominee for the annual Rosabeth Moss Kanter Award for Excellence in Work-Family Research. 

Kevin Volpp and co-authors' paper, Using Active Choice Within the Electronic Health Record to Increase Influenza Vaccination Rates, was quoted in a Harvard Business Review article on the best flu prevention methods.

PSC research associate Emilio Parrado was interviewed on WBUR 90.9 on the shifting attitudes in motherhood and its effects on U.S. birth rate.

PSC researcher Olivia Mitchell and co-authors have published their research in the America Economic Association on the issue of debt in older Americans. This article is quoted in a Wall Street Journal.

PSC Researcher Kevin Volpp is mention in a Philadelphia Inquirer article on the cost of health care and the decisions made by patients.

Congratulations to PSC Researcher Kevin Volpp on his appointment as Penn's inaugural Founders President's Distinguished Professor!

Kevin Volpp and co-author have published an article in The New England Journal of Medicine about preventive interventions in the treatment of diabetes.

Congratulations to Monica King on winning the IPUMS Research Award for her paper Under The Hood: Revealing Patterns Of Motor Vehicle Fatalities In The United States!.

Hans-Peter Kohler of the School of Arts and Sciences is interviewed on PBS Newshour on the downward trend in the birthrate despite improved economic conditions. More »

Mark Pauly of the Wharton School argued in a Philly Inquirer article for compromise over Medicaid redesign. Although work requirements are controversial, according to Pauly their implementation may persuade lawmakers to expand health coverage to the bulk of non-disabled poor working adults. 

Politics and Demography Francesco Billari, Professor of Demography at Bocconi University and PSC Research Affiliate, examines the changing demography of Turkey under the Ergodan administration. Read the article here.

Jesus Fernandez-Villaverde discusses the potential—and pitfalls—of cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin in an Omnia article. Read the full article here.

New Population Center Working Paper (PSC/PARC): Ashraf, Nava; Natalie Bau; Corinne Low; and Kathleen McGinn (2018). “Negotiating a Better Future: How Interpersonal Skills Facilitate Inter-generational Investment.” University of Pennsylvania Population Center Working Paper (PSC/PARC) WP2018-17.

Jordan Weiss was awarded an internship with the National Institute on Aging's Laboratory of Epidemiology & Population Science as part of the Summer Trainee in Aging Research Program. Jordan will expand on his current work in biodemography and epidemiology, and focus on concepts related to frailty and life course determinants of cognitive aging. Jordan was also recently awarded the President Gutmann Leadership Award.

Kevin Volpp and co-authors have published a new article on health care expenditure and life expectancy in the United States in Jama Cardiology. Read more here.

Daniel Cohen was mentioned in a Zilient article about greening urban spaces. Read more here.

Courtney Boen received a pilot award from Penn Institute on Aging for her project on Psychosocial Stress Exposure, Biological Functioning, and Cognitive Change across the Life Course. Check out the list of awardees here.

Onoso Imoagene has published new research on "Stepping up Your Game: Workplace Experiences of Second-Generation Nigerians in the USA" in the Journal of International Migration and Integration.

Mark Pauly and fellow Penn professors have published a book titled "Managing Discovery in the Life Sciences: Harnessing Creativity to Drive Biomedical Innovation,” which explores importing both scientific knowledge and business acumen for launching scientific discovery into a billion dollar market. More »

Joseph Kable and his co-authors' research on risk tolerance linked to amygdala and prefrontal cortex brain regions has just been published in Neuron and Penn News. The structure and function of the bra More »

New Population Center Working Paper (PSC/PARC): Pesando, Luca Maria and Alejandra Abufhele (2018). "Household Determinants of Teen Marriage and Childbearing: Sister Effects Across Four Low- and Middle-Income Countries." University of Pennsylvania Population Center Working Paper (PSC/PARC) WP2018-16.

Jason Karlawish is mentioned in a Washington Post article about informing alzheimer patients of their mental state due to the disease. He says, "the default is the truth and that the mere fact that the truth may be painful isn’t sufficient to avoid it".

Linda Aiken wrote an article in NHS England about a safe workforce for maximizing patient outcomes.

A Next City article mentions study by John MacDonald of the School of Arts and Sciences and others pointing to the value of reviving vacant and abandoned city lots. More »

Researchers Mark V. Pauly and Kevin G. Volpp have publish an article in MarketWatch about the effects of proposed government budget cuts to Medicare on healthcare.

A study by Samuel Preston and Irma Elo uses nationally representative data to estimate the mortality hazards associated with diabetes, combining those hazards with the prevalence of diabetes to estimate the fraction of deaths attributable to diabetes and its effect on life expectancy. Evaluating the impact of diabetes on age-specific mortality may be salient in identifying the effect of rising obesity levels on US mortality and its contribution to racial/ethnic mortality disparities. More »

Olivia Mitchell wrote an article for the Wall Street Journal about making financial decisions and planning for the future. Her article was also cited in a Wealth Professionals article.

LDI Senior Fellows Douglas Wiebe and Mitesh Patel of the Perelman School of Medicine and Hans-Peter Kohler of the School of Arts and Sciences are using pilot grants to test concepts ranging from the support of Philadelphia's effort to launch the first safe injection site to the effect of survival perceptions on HIV patients and the change of physician behavior. More »

Mark Pauly is mentioned in a Knowledge@Wharton article discussing the Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway and JPMorgan Chase health care alliance.

The Knowledge@Wharton show on SiriusXM channel 111 recently invited Janice Bellace, Wharton professor of legal studies and business ethics; Janice Madden, professor of regional science and sociology at the University of Pennsylvania and a real estate professor at Wharton; and Thorgerdur Einarsdottir, professor of gend More »

Global Family Change: Persistent Diversity with Development, authored by Luca Maria Pesando, Andrés Castro, Hans-Peter Kohler, Frank Furstenberg and other international collaborators, was posted today in the PSC Working Paper Series. Read the abstract and paper here.

Many scholars, like many moms, believe that baby fat exists to keep infants warm. More »

Last week Penn's Institute on Aging and the Population Aging Research Center co-hosted Dr. Anne Newman as a part of the Visiting Scholars Series. The talk, titled What does it take to live a long and healthy life, covered several variables that impact the stages of aging and living healthy later in life. Irma T. Elo also participated in discussion about U.S. More »

During the past 20 years, Hans-Peter Kohler of the School of Arts and Sciences has investigated how social, epidemiological and demographic factors affect people in Malawi. His is a rare example of a longitudinal study focused on a population in a low-income nation that has had to confront stressors like famine and AIDS. More »

Onoso Imoagene of the School of Arts and Sciences is quoted in a New York Times article on the expectation of success for the children of African migrants. Read article here.

Research led by professor Samuel Preston and Penn alum Andrew Stokes of the School of Arts and Sciences measured the impact of rising obesity on mortality rates in the United States, based on the maximum body mass index of individuals between 1988 and 2011. They found that the obesity epidemic is to blame for preventing the U.S. More »

The end of the individual mandate requiring Americans to purchase insurance looms large, but it’s not the only administrative change that the health care sector will see in the coming year, according to Mark Pauly. He and Robert Field looked at the future of Medicare, drug prices and health care job prospects on Knowledge@Wharton. More »

Richard Berk of the School of Arts and Sciences is cited for developing a probation and parole risk-assessment tool for Philadelphia. Read article here.

Daniel Aldana Cohen published a paper, "Climate Justice and the Right to the City" with the Kleinman Center for Energy Policy, Penn Institute for Urban Research, and Perry World House. In his article, Cohen discusses the overlap between climate justice and the "right to the city" agenda.

Patient satisfaction is closely linked to the number of nurses on wards, according to a study led by Linda Aiken of the School of Nursing, published in the journal BMJ Open. More »

Pictured above from left to right: Jeffrey Lin, Iourii Manovskii, Mallick Hossain, and Keith Sill. More »

Americans are more likely than ever before to enter retirement carrying debt, which leaves them vulnerable to rising interest rates. Olivia Mitchell emphasizes the importance of the housing market and easier mortgage products as factors in driving this debt increase in older households. Read the column and her study here. 

Before winter break Michel Guillot assembled a team of experts to meet about the newly funded NICHD research project Global Age Patterns of Under 5 Mortality. More »