As president of the Population Association of America for 2008, School of Education and Social Policy professor Greg Duncan will deliver the presidential address on April 17 at the organization's annual meeting. The Population Association of America (PAA), with 3,000 members, is a nonprofit, scientific, professional organization that promotes research on population issues. Duncan is co-chair of the 2008 program organizing committee for the annual meeting in New Orleans and is also participating in two programs: "Public Policy and Child Wellbeing" at 1:30 p.m. on April 17 and "Neighborhood Effects in the Moving to Opportunity Experiment: An Exchange" at 10:30 a.m. on April 18.
The PPA annual meeting features 92 programs, based on 1,856 submissions from members. Thirteen invited programs center on special topics including post-Katrina New Orleans and what has been learned from demographic research after similar natural disasters.
For the public policy session, Duncan will present "Economic Costs of Early Childhood Poverty" with Ariel Kalil of the University of Chicago. Their talk will point out that the empirical research shows that poor children are less successful in school and in the labor market as adults, have poorer health, and are more likely to commit crimes and engage in other forms of problem behavior. Duncan and Kalil's paper focuses on the long-term impact of low income early in life on adult outcomes measured as late as age 37.
At Northwestern University, Duncan is Edwina S. Tarry Professor of Education and a faculty fellow at the Institute for Policy Research. His research interests focus on the impacts of poverty, neighborhood conditions and welfare reform on children's development. Duncan received his PhD in economics and, prior to joining the Northwestern University faculty in 1995, spent 23 years at the University of Michigan working on and ultimately directing the Panel Study of Income Dynamics project.
Duncan directs the Northwestern University/University of Chicago Joint Center for Research on Poverty and is president-elect of the Society for Research on Child Development. He is also a member of the American Economics Association, the Society for Research on Adolescence, and the Association for Policy Analysis and Management. Along with SESP professor P. Lindsay Chase-Lansdale, he is co-author of For Better and For Worse: Welfare Reform and the Well-Being of Children and Families.
Last Modified: 8/14/09