The Causes and Behavioral Foundations of Mortality Decline in Developing Countrie

描述(申请人提供)：在我经济学和国际发展背景的基础上，拟议的职业发展奖将使我能够开始一项独立的研究职业生涯，寻求更好地了解发展中国家死亡率下降的原因，以及{{如何通过对它们的行为反应放大或减弱死亡率下降。}关于前者，发展中国家现有数据的快速增长以及应用计量经济学的进步有望为健康改善和死亡率变化提供新的洞察力，而在此之前，定量分析是不可能的。这一组合的潜力尚未实现。{{关于后者，了解驱动健康行为如何应对死亡率和流行病状况，对于预测实验室环境中已知疗效的健康干预措施将如何在现场实际发挥作用至关重要。对这些行为动态的洞察对于理解为什么在某些情况下死亡率没有下降也很重要。尽管我的博士培训已经开始让我具备进行这项研究的技能，但我缺乏人口统计学和人口研究的量化工具和跨学科传统方面的正式培训。这是有问题的，因为这些工具和传统代表了死亡率研究的前沿，而且我缺乏背景，使我无法加入学者的社区，他们是我最自然的同事。拟议的培训和研究计划对于让我加入这个社区并追求一条新的、创新的死亡率研究路线至关重要。提出了四个具体的培训目标：1.学习人口统计学和人口研究的主要工具和范例，2.)与我的导师和咨询委员会一起探索这些工具和范例如何丰富我的死亡率研究议程。成为关注死亡率变化的人口学和人口研究学者社区的一员，以及3.)为我在斯坦福大学开发和教授一门关于健康、人口和发展的新课程做好准备。实现这些目标的活动包括审计课程的相关部分，进行广泛的定向阅读，参加著名的人口学和人口研讨会，定期与主要的人口科学家(包括我的导师和咨询委员会)交谈，实施以通过其他职业发展活动获得的知识和技能为基础的研究计划，以及向我以前从未接触过的人口学和人口受众介绍我的工作。研究计划又有三个目标：1.)制作能够解决发展中国家死亡率变化悬而未决的问题的新数据集；2.进行一系列严格的微观死亡率研究，开始更好地确定贫穷国家死亡率下降的最重要原因；以及{{3.]分析对流行病学条件和死亡环境变化的行为反应，以更好地了解死亡率变化的行为后果如何反过来影响死亡过程。

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.}}}