Research > International Population Research
This is isomorphic with the previous signature theme, international aspects. Penn has always had a strong association with international population research. Fourteen of the program scientists come from outside the US and another 6-7 have language skills that permit them to do fieldwork and/or give talks in languages other than English. The PSC’s presence in international population research has been important in attracting excellent graduate students, who are crucial to the research environment at the Center. The international flavor of the PSC is also important in faculty recruitment, since top scientists are increasingly recruited from a worldwide pool, and many of the newest program scientists in the PSC at Penn originally came from abroad: Saiz, Yakubovich, Valeggia, De Paula, Park, with Cunha and Krueger to be added shortly. Two recent SAS-wide searches in East Asian studies led to the appointments of population scientists with offices at the PSC (Hannum and Park). The PSC’s hispanophone breakfasts brings together a large number of researchers and students whose disciplines and work are otherwise different, e.g., Ríos-Rull and Valeggia; a francophone breakfast is starting this year. Zuberi’s institutional contacts in establishing ACAP were instrumental when Jemmott and colleagues wanted to do HIV intervention work in Botswana and South Africa; field sites pioneered by Valeggia in Argentina will soon be the site of a project by Schurr on genetic diversity and demography of Amerindian populations; Smith counsels Hannum on institutional issues associated with fieldwork in China; and ongoing (Malawi, Watkins/Kohler/Behrman) and prior (Mexico, Massey) international research projects are providing research opportunities and data for De Paula. International population research still has a strong ameliorative component—improving the health and life chances in the world’s population through investments in nutrition and schooling, and in the fight against HIV/AIDS—but lessons learned abroad can have important consequence for the US: Work in Mexico on PROGRESA/Oportunidades by Wolpin and Todd attracted the advice of the Mayor of NYC, who sought counsel on similar interventions and incentive programs for fighting poverty in New York; the large group working in Chile (Todd, Behrman, Mitchell, Pauly, Soldo) is primarily interested in the Chilean experience in changing social security and pension policies, from “pay-as-you-go” to investment schemes, on populations and individual well-being across the life-cycle—a topic much debated in US public policy; and Furstenberg’s work on the interaction between changing labor markets, mating patterns, and the transition to adulthood in the US is increasingly informed by collaborations in Europe and S. America.
Vision for future. The Best Practices Core grows out of the PSC’s interest in remaining strong in international population research. We have found that the largest growth in the call on PSC services comes from international PSC projects with related problems in (a) meeting evolving understanding of human subjects procedures; (b) collecting biomarkers in settings with storage and transportation issues, plus questions of expertise and differential “local meanings” to the enterprise; and (c) coordinating field and data access among researchers from multiple institutions and disciplines. The PSC’s experience in international work has made it attractive in collaborating with Provost-level initiatives in African health; Kohler, Soldo, Smith, and Behrman are already assisting with initiatives coming from the School of Medicine; we want to be sure to have a hand in shaping this growing Penn enterprise. Although Penn is widely viewed as having an exceptionally strong record in the training of African students and Africanists (and similarly for Latin America), many of the institutions who were paying for this training (Mellon, Hewlett) are getting out of the business. The potential negative impact on research is partially offset by SAS’s increase in their contribution to the Demography program, including a dedicated southern African position as a result of a new Provostial initiative in this region; but we shall also seek additional external funding. We are also dedicated to seeing that more research gets done with the ACAP archives. There are complicated access issues that we are in the process of smoothing out. A recent resolution at the government-directed 2nd Africa Symposium on Statistical Development explains the interest of the nations involved in ACAP, and Zuberi is working with these officials to host a donors’ conference on dissemination, while Ewbank is drafting an NICHD application for analysis.