Breaking Down Silos for a Holistic Science of Populations

The most pressing questions about human populations do not respect academic discipline boundaries. Understanding why fertility is falling, how inequality reproduces across generations, or what drives mass migration requires insights from economics, sociology, psychology, public health, and beyond. The Institute of Experimental Demography is fundamentally interdisciplinary in its structure and ethos. We actively foster collaborations that bring together demographers with experts from these allied fields, creating research teams that are greater than the sum of their parts. This fusion is not merely additive; it is transformative, leading to new theoretical frameworks, innovative methodologies, and more comprehensive explanations of demographic phenomena. Our physical and intellectual space is designed to encourage serendipitous encounters and deep dialogue, with shared seminar series, co-taught workshops, and joint grant-writing initiatives that break down traditional silos.

Exemplary Collaborative Projects

With economists, we co-develop models of human capital investment and demographic transition. A prominent joint project applies microeconomic theory and econometric techniques to demographic puzzles. For instance, we work with labor economists to use tax data and policy reforms as natural experiments to study how changes in the child tax credit affect fertility decisions, rigorously accounting for income and substitution effects. Another collaboration with development economists uses randomized controlled trials to evaluate the impact of conditional cash transfer programs on child health and subsequent mortality. These partnerships ensure our demographic models are grounded in sound theories of individual and household decision-making under constraints.

With sociologists, we delve into the role of culture, norms, and social networks. A key joint endeavor investigates how gender norms evolve and influence family behavior. Sociologists contribute deep qualitative understanding and network theory, which we combine with demographic surveys and experimental methods to test how normative pressures operate. For example, we jointly designed a survey experiment that randomizes exposure to different narratives about work and family, measuring subsequent shifts in fertility intentions. We also collaborate with sociologists of migration to understand the social processes of integration, combining ethnographic observation with longitudinal analysis of administrative data on employment and housing.

Further collaborations extend to epidemiologists (studying social determinants of health), psychologists (examining decision-making heuristics around family planning), and environmental scientists (modeling human-environment interactions).

• Life-Course Inequality Initiative: A joint economics-sociology-demography project using linked administrative data to track how childhood neighborhood and school quality causally affect adult earnings, family formation, and health.
• Norms and Networks Lab: Combines agent-based modeling from complexity science with social network analysis and demographic surveys to simulate norm diffusion.
• Historical Demography Partnership: Works with historians and climatologists to use historical parish records and climate data to study long-run demographic adaptations to past environmental change.
• Policy Evaluation Consortium: A formal partnership with public policy schools to rigorously evaluate the demographic impacts of social policies using integrated administrative datasets.

Cultivating the Next Generation of Interdisciplinary Scholars

A cornerstone of our mission is training. We offer specialized doctoral and postdoctoral fellowships that require coursework and mentorship across multiple departments. Trainees learn to speak the languages of different disciplines, to appreciate their distinct epistemologies and methods, and to integrate them creatively. This training produces a new breed of population scientist who is methodologically versatile and theoretically sophisticated. The institute also hosts visiting scholars from around the world, creating a global hub for interdisciplinary demographic thought. By proving that interdisciplinary work yields superior scientific insights, we aim to catalyze a broader shift in the social sciences. The complex challenges of the 21st century—from population aging to climate migration—demand such integrated approaches. The Institute of Experimental Demography serves as a living laboratory for this collaborative future, demonstrating that when we bridge disciplines, we can build a richer, more actionable understanding of human life and society.