A set of all-cause and cause-specific life expectancy sensitivity and decomposition methods, including Arriaga (1984) &lt;<a href="https://doi.org/10.2307%2F2061029" target="_top">doi:10.2307/2061029<...

Overview of the Graduate Admission Process The Department of Demography offers M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in Demography, a Ph.D. degree in Sociology and Demography, training with no degree goal under “cou...

17th Conference of Young Demographers4–6 February 2026, Prague (Wednesday–Friday)Call for Papers Dear friends and colleagues, On behalf of the Young Demographers, the Geographical Institute and the...

The Population Research Institute (PRI) at Väestöliitto – Family Federation of Finland and the University of Helsinki invite applications for three positions as Postdoctoral research fellow to study…

Current Employees: If you are currently employed at any of the Universities of Wisconsin, log in to Workday to apply through the internal application process.Job Category:FacultyEmployment Type:Regula...

How we remember our past can be shaped by the realities of our present. This study examines how changes to present circumstances influence retrospective reports of family income rank at age 16. While retrospective survey data can be used to assess the long-term effects of childhood conditions, present-day circumstances may “anchor” memories, causing shifts in how individuals recall and report past experiences. Using panel data from the 2006–2014 General Social Surveys (8,602 observations from 2,883 individuals in the United States), we analyze how changes in objective and subjective indicators of current social status—income, financial satisfaction, and perceived income relative to others—are associated with changes in reports of childhood income rank, and how this varies by sex and race/ethnicity. Fixed-effects models reveal no significant association between changes in income and in childhood income rank. However, changes in subjective measures of social status show contrasting effects, as increases in current financial satisfaction are associated with decreases in childhood income rank, but increases in current perceived relative income are associated with increases in childhood income rank. We argue these opposing effects follow from theories of anchoring in recall bias. We further find these effects are stronger among males but are consistent across racial/ethnic groups. This demographic heterogeneity suggests that recall bias is not evenly distributed across the population and has important implications for how different groups perceive their own pasts. Our findings further highlight the malleability of retrospective perceptions and their sensitivity to current social conditions, offering methodological insights into survey reliability and recall bias.

Two Postdoctoral Researchers on Health Inequalities