The Causes and Behavioral Foundations of Mortality Decline in Developing Countrie

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Building on my background in economics and international development, the proposed career development award will enable me to embark on an independent research career that seeks to better understand both the causes of mortality decline in developing countries and {{{how declines are amplified or attenuated by behavioral responses to them.}}} On the former, rapid growth in available data from developing countries together with advances in applied econometrics hold promise for providing new insight into health improvement and mortality change where quantitative analyses have not previously been possible. The potential of this combination has yet to be realized. {{{On the latter, understanding how Drivate health behaviors respond to mortality and epidemiological conditions is essential for anticipating how health interventions with known efficacy in laboratory settings will actually work in the field. Insight into these behavioral dynamics is also important for understanding why mortality decline is not occurring in some settings.}}} Although my doctoral training has begun equipping me with the skills to conduct this research, I lack formal training in the quantitative tools and interdisciplinary traditions of demography and population studies. This is problematic because these tools and traditions represent the frontier in mortality research and because my deficient background prevents me from joining the community of scholars who are my most natural colleagues. The proposed program of training and research is critical for allowing me to join this community and to pursue a new and innovative line of mortality research. Four specific training objectives are proposed: 1.) Learning the principal tools and paradigms of demography and population studies, 2.) Exploring with my mentors and advisory committee how these tools and paradigms enrich my agenda of mortality research, 3.) Becoming a member of the community of scholars in demography and population studies that focus on mortality change, and 4.) Preparing me to develop and teach a new course on health, population, and development at Stanford. Activities to accomplish these objectives include auditing relevant sections of courses, engaging in extensive directed reading, attending prominent demography and population seminars, talking regularly with leading population scientists (including my mentors and advisory committee), pursuing a research plan that builds upon the knowledge and skills gained through other career development activities, and presenting my work to demography and population audiences with whom I have not previously interacted. The research plan, in turn, has three objectives: 1.) Producing novel data sets capable of addressing unresolved questions about mortality change in developing countries; 2.) Conducting a series of rigorous micro-level mortality studies that begin to better identify the most important causes of mortality decline in poor countries; and {{{3.) Analyzing behavioral responses to changes in epidemiological conditions and the mortality environment to better understand how the behavioral consequences of mortality change in turn influences mortality processes.}}}