Bronfenbrenner Life Course Center

The newly-organized Cornell Population Program (CPP) is an interdisciplinary group of researchers from across Cornell who came together to create synergies in population research. The current CPP activities have been spearheaded through the collaborative efforts of economist Elizabeth Peters, director of Cornell’s Evolving Families Project and demographer and sociologist, Daniel Lichter, who has recently assumed the position of director of the Bronfenbrenner Life Course Center. The CPP has as its goal the establishment of a multidisciplinary NIH-funded population research and training center that serves faculty and students campus-wide. The center will comprise a disciplinarily-diverse group of Cornell University’s large cadre of eminent population scholars, roughly 40-50 faculty and research associates. There are significant concentrations of faculty doing population relevant research in at least eight different social science departments (see below), and several other departments (e.g., anthropology, government, psychology) have at least one or two faculty doing research in population related areas.

CPP’s planning activities are centered on three core research themes: (1) Evolving Family Patterns, (2) Health Behaviors and Disparities, and (3) Poverty and Inequality.

Evolving Family Patterns. The Cornell University has considerable strength in research in family demography, as evidenced by the Evolving Family theme project. The scope of the work among Cornell family researchers is wide-ranging. For example, PAM faculty have been involved in research on the historical and current patterns of marriage and cohabitation in the United States. Cornell faculty have been national leaders in research on work and the family, including research on formal and informal childcare, gender inequality in household production, and maternal employment and pay. Cornell was recently awarded a program project grant (P01) from NICHD on the Transition to Fatherhood.

A number of ongoing Cornell research projects address ways in which family processes vary across different types of families and how these processes lead to different outcomes for children. Concern about the declining prevalence of two biological parent families is a central feature of a number of recent policy initiatives, including welfare reform and tax policy, child support policy, and marriage promotion policies, and the research done by Cornell scholars has the potential to inform policy makers about the types of policies that might work to effect change.

Cornell also has growing strength in international family demography. For example, faculty in Development Sociology study human fertility, schooling trends, and socioeconomic change in developing countries with an emphasis on sub-Saharan African. Other faculty focus on social change and the family in a number of contexts in Asia (Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines, Vietnam, Singapore, and Taiwan). Faculty in Economics have studied savings and credit groups in South India as well as intra-household allocations in Indonesia and child investment in polygynous households in West Africa. Other economics faculty have been working on the impact of fertility shocks on child quality, tradeoffs between women's roles in the labor market and in home production on child health, as well as on the links between poverty and reproductive health outcomes in Africa. These areas are linked in obvious ways to health and well-being, and, as we describe below, to persistent poverty and national and global inequality.

Health Behaviors and Disparities. Cornell University features a strong group of health researchers across several departments. In the U.S., Cornell researchers have studied diet/nutrition and physical activity, and their relationship to the epidemic of obesity and chronic disease. Smoking, preventive medical care, and pharmaceutical use also are areas of faculty research strength. For example, a research team in PAM is studying the impact of branded food advertisements on the consumption decisions of children, teens, and adults. Marketers in AEM and the School of Hotel Administration study the impact of visual cues on consumption. Researchers in the Division of Nutritional Science study predictors and consequences of food insufficiency and food insecurity, and the impact of programs such as food stamps, Women Infants and Children (WIC), and nutritional information outreach. Researchers in multiple academic units study the determinants of malnutrition in developing countries.

In the developing country context, Cornell researchers have studied reproductive health, infectious diseases, such as HIV/AIDS, and related issues of causes of inequalities in access to health services and health outcomes. Common research needs in both domestic and international settings are to gain a better understanding of demand behavior: why do the poor not make greater use of health services, with particular attention to the role of factors such as education, income and social attitudes, as well as the quality, price and accessibility of services. Likewise, our focus on the role of risk and vulnerability, both in terms of exogenous health shocks, and at-risk behaviors, is common to both the international and domestic arena. This is illustrated by work on smoking, delinquency and incarceration, teen sex, and AIDS transmission. In addition, we continue to focus on the evaluation of the impact of intervention programs designed to improve health outcomes among the poor. This work includes both employing randomized experiments and structural models based on rigorous statistical analysis that relies on non-experimental survey data.

Poverty and Economic Inequality. Basic research on poverty and inequality is essential to the study of population diversity, family change, and the linkages between biology and health. Cornell has had a long tradition of research and training strength in poverty, social stratification and inequality, both in terms of problems and policies in the U.S. (largely in Sociology, ILR, and PAM) and as part of the university’s strength international economic development (Development Sociology, Economics, AEM, and Division of Nutrition Sciences). The Center for The Study of Inequality includes a large roster of affiliated faculty members, many of whom have population interests.

Illustrative examples of demographic research on racial and economic inequality in the United States include work by sociology faculty on education and racial inequality and by faculty in PAM studying the relationship between work-disability and poverty, and the measurement of trends in wage inequality. Other work in PAM has examined the relationship between changing family structure and trends and differentials in child poverty. Faculty in Human Development are examining the relationship between poverty and allostatic load, stress (as measured by cortisol), and childhood health. Several faculty in Development Sociology have studied spatial inequality and the concentration of America's poor families, especially the distribution of historically disadvantaged populations across geographic space (including racial minorities and new immigrant groups). Clearly, basic research on poverty and inequality is essential to the study of health disparities and evolving family change.

On the international side, Cornell President Skorton has recently announced a new "African Initiative" aimed at addressing important policy questions concerning economic development, poverty and inequality. Much of the research in this arena at Cornell takes a “bottom up” perspective focusing on the constraints to broad-based growth and emphasizing education; health (including HIV/AIDS) and nutrition; risk vulnerability and poverty dynamics; and related issues of the role of institutions and empowerment. The University's Food and Nutrition Policy Program conducts research and provides technical cooperation and training on issues in human resource development and poverty and inequality in developing countries. Development Sociology faculty have been extensively involved in research on changing economic status and education in Cameroon and several other countries in subsharan Africa. Faculty in Sociology have been involved in research on reproductive health and fertility in Southeast Asia, studying the effects of market transitions on the stratification system in China. There is a particularly strong emphasis at Cornell on rural poverty and related issues of food security, environmental stress, and individual and market behavior under risk and uncertainty, as reflected in the work of faculty in Applied Economics and Management and the International Agriculture Program in CALS. But perhaps most important, is that Cornell’s work in the area of poverty and inequality continues to bridge the worlds of rigorous analysis and practical policy making, a practice perhaps no better illustrated than by research in public and development economics which spans conceptual, empirical and policy analysis.

John M. Abowd, Edmund Ezra Day Professor of Industrial and Labor Relations, Labor Economics; Director, Cornell Institute for Social and Economic Research
David L. Brown, Professor, Development Sociology
John Cawley, Associate Professor, Policy Analysis & Management
Douglas T. Gurak, Professor, Development Sociology
David Harris, Vice Provost for Social Sciences; Robert S. Harrison Executive Director, Institute for Social Sciences; Professor, Sociology
Daniel Lichter, Director, Bronfenbrenner Life Course Center; Professor, Policy Analysis & Management
Stephen L. Morgan, Associate Professor, Sociology
H. Elizabeth Peters, Professor, Policy Analysis & Management
David E. Sahn, International Professor of Economics; Director, Cornell University Food and Nutrition Policy Program
Robert Strawderman, Professor, Biological Statistics and Computational Biology

• Policy Analysis & Management (PAM): policy research on families and health behavior
• Human Development (HD): family and child wellbeing; aging; intergenerational relations
• Division of Nutritional Sciences: international nutrition, health promotion, and health behaviors
• Sociology: work and family, inequality
• Development Sociology: migration, population policy, population and development
• Economics: development economics and economic demography
• Applied Economics & Management (AEM): development economics and economic demography
• Industrial & Labor Relations (ILR): labor economics, work and family

In addition, Cornell has a number of internally and externally supported research programs and centers that are related to demographic research.

Evolving Family Project is the first theme project funded by the Cornell Institute for the Social Sciences. The project brings together faculty from a range of disciplines, including anthropology, biology, demography, economics, human development, policy analysis, psychology, sociology, and women's studies. The aim of the group is to put Cornell at the forefront of research on the family.

The Bronfenbrenner Life Course Center (BLCC) The center has a multidisciplinary focus, involving scholars from departments throughout Cornell. BLCC affiliates conduct basic, applied, and outreach work on topics employing a life-course perspective, focusing on such themes as long-term outcomes (e.g., health, economic) of early experiences; development in the context of historical, demographic, and social change; life course transitions in areas such as family, work, or health; longitudinal assessment and analysis; and social policy.

The Population and Development Program (PDP) seeks to facilitate research on population dynamics. It promotes collaboration among scholars of diverse disciplines in the Cornell community who teach and conduct research on population issues and relationships. The PDP also supports graduate training in demography for students from throughout the world and an undergraduate concentration in population studies.

Cornell International Institute for Food, Agriculture, and Development (CIIFAD), with partners in Africa, Asia and Latin America, initiates and supports innovative programs that contribute to improved prospects for global food security, sustainable rural development and environmental conservation around the world.

The Cornell Early Childhood Program (CECP) is a network of Cornell faculty and staff, other university faculty, policy-makers, and practitioners linked together through their interest in young children and their families. The mission of the program is to integrate applied research with teaching, extension outreach, and demonstration in ways that promote greater understanding of young children and their families, and contribute to policies and practices that enhance child growth and development.

Cornell Institute for Research on Children (CIRC) conducts and commissions international scholars to collaborate on broad-ranging research on questions relevant to children and families, such as the effects of heavy metal exposure on cognition and the validity of parental fitness evaluations in child custody determinations.

The Center for the Study of Inequality (CSI) fosters basic and applied research on social and economic inequalities, as well as the processes by which such inequalities change and persist. Topics studied include racial and ethnic inequality; gender discrimination; residential segregation and urban poverty; labor market processes and earnings inequality; educational attainment and adolescent development; work and careers; life course and the family; economic development and inequality.

The Polson Institute for Global Development promotes theoretical and applied research activities related to global development. These activities are framed by the following themes: social movements, civil society, and governance; inequalities and social exclusion; gender and identity transformations; population, community, and environment; food and agricultural systems; local context, global processes.

Cornell Food and Nutrition Policy Program (CFNPP) conducts applied research and engages in technical cooperation and training on issues of poverty, human resource development, and food and nutrition policy in developing countries and transition economies. Research focuses on the functioning of markets and the behavior of various agents, including enterprises, households and individuals, in order to understand how policy change affects welfare and living standards.