Learning objectives
Demographic processes are often the final outcome resulting from the combination of individual behaviors, biological characteristics and socioeconomic factors. The course aims at giving students the theoretical and methodological basis of the relationship between those elements and the mechanisms of population growth. The course will also describe the demographic methodologies based on individual and aggregate quantitative analysis of demographic mechanisms.
Prerequisites
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Course unit content
Introduction. 1. Fundamentals of demography: concepts of rate and probability; period and cohort; life tables. 2. First anmd second demographic transition 3. Fertility between biology and personal choices. Age at reproduction. Intermediate determinants of fertility: length of reproductive life, fecundability, intra-uterine mortality, sterility, breastfeeding. Sex ratio at birth. Birth control and abortion. 4. Selection and survival. Infant mortality; differential mortality by gender; Old age and population aging. 5. Nuptiality and the importance of marriage in demographic studies 6. Migrations: history and characteristics of human migrations.
Full programme
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Bibliography
M. Livi Bacci, Introduzione alla demografia. Loescher, Torino.
Teaching methods
The course is based on lectures.
Assessment methods and criteria
Written examination
Other information
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