Sp2003
Sociology 433
Research Methods in Demography
Course Description
Instructor:William Lavely
(206) 543-6805
Meeting:Mondays and Wednesdays 1:30-2:50 in Gould 317.
Office hours:Mondays 3:00-4:30 in Savery 106G, or by appointment
Description. This is an introductory course on demographic methods, built around a recently published textbook by Samuel Preston, Patrick Heuveline, and Michel Guillot. Subjects to be covered include evaluation of data; rates and ratios; standardization and decomposition; the life table; measures of fertility and reproduction; the stable population model; model life tables; and population projection. The course is also implicitly concerned with the materials of demography (mainly, censuses, surveys, and registers), but these are raised indirectly and on an ad hoc basis throughout the course. The quarter system limits us to ten weeks, so many important areas of demographic methods have been omitted. For example, the course omits survival analysis and multiple decrement life tables; many other important areas are barely touched upon. These are left for an advanced demography course and for other specialized courses.
This course takes a “traditional” approach to demographic methods in the sense that it emphasizes aggregate rates and models such as life tables and stable populations, whereas much demographic analysis now involves the modeling of micro-level data using hazards models and other advanced statistical techniques that are not specifically “demographic.” This course nonetheless covers techniques needed by any journeyman demographer. The course takes a problem-oriented, hands-on approach. Students will learn the techniques by using them. Class time will be spent in approximately equal parts of lecture and discussion. The more interactive the class is, the better it will be.
Course readings. A textbook, Demography: Measuring and Modeling Population Processses by Samuel H. Preston, Patrick Heuveline, and Michel Guillot (Oxford: Blackwell 2001) may be purchased at the University Bookstore. Recommended readings, marked in the syllabus with an *asterisk, are generally available from JSTOR ( Other readings will be on reserve at the CSDE Library in the basement of Savery Hall, or available on the course web site at
Course Requirements. There will be six sets of exercises, a midterm quiz and a final examination. The exercises will count 60 percent of the course grade, and the midterm and final will each count 20 percent.
Exercises. The exercises will be evaluated more on “process” than on obtaining the correct answer. Please follow the following instructions carefully. Exercises will usually be (but not always) provided on Excel spreadsheets. These should be worked using Excel and e-mailed as an attachment to me (). Non-Excel-based problems may be provided in Excel or Word. Without exception, exercises should be done in digital format. Provide all answers and commentary on the spreadsheet, and be sure to label all your work carefully. Your name should also be placed on the first page of the spreadsheet. Before sending your spreadsheet to the instructor, change the filename by appending your initials in capital letters to the original filename. For example, I would change exercise2.xls to exercise2BL.xls. Exercises are due prior to class time on the date that the exercise is due. Exercises will be discussed in class, and exercises will generally (but not always) be returned with comments by e-mail.