J. David Hacker

Why did you choose Lund University?

My research field is historical demography—the study of human fertility, mortality, migration, family structure and ageing in the past. Sweden is blessed with the best long-term demographic data in the world and Lund University has nurtured expertise in the analyses of these data. 

Early in my career I became acquainted with researchers affiliated with Lund University’s Centre for Economic Demography (CED), a multidisciplinary research centre focusing on the complex, long-term interactions between population, economy, and the environment and was impressed with their ground-breaking research. 

Although my early research focused on the demographic history of the United States, the questions I asked and the methods I used were deeply informed by research conducted at the CED by Tommy Bengtsson, Martin Dribe, Maria Stanfors, and many others using the Scanian Economic Demographic Database. 

In 2010, I was lucky enough to be able to visit Lund University on a sabbatical and began several collaborations with Martin Dribe and Francesco Scalone, a statistician from Bologna University who was visiting Lund at the time. We published several research articles together. It was a wonderful experience. 

Lund is a beautiful city, the department of economic history and CED seminars were well-attended and intellectually stimulating, and my research benefitted tremendously from adding a comparative dimension. My children had a wonderful experience at the International School. 

If possible, Lund University has become an even more attractive place to visit than before. New faculty, researchers, and graduate students (Jonas Helgertz, Lucian Quarana, Ingrid van Dijk, Gabriel Brea Martinez, Marcos Castillo, Jeanne Cilliers, Louise Cormack, Björn Eriksson, and many others) have made Lund University the single-best location in the world to study historical demography. I look forward to collaborating with this impressive group of researchers on exciting new projects. 

Can you briefly describe your current research?

I am a demographic historian with expertise in nineteenth and early twentieth century census data and the use of indirect methods to estimate long-term population trends and differentials. 

Currently, my research focuses on five topics: 

1. The long-term decline of human fertility between 1790 and 1940. 
2. The long-term decline of mortality commencing in the nineteenth century and continuing through the twentieth century.
3. The demographic cost and consequences of war.
4. The demographic behavior of immigrants.
5. The impact of racial residential segregation on mortality.

Most of my research relies on “IPUMS” data—individual level census data on every person in the United States between 1790 and the present—constructed at the University of Minnesota. 

I am a principal investigator or co-investigator of grant projects funded by the National Institutes of Health and National Institutes of Aging to construct and disseminate full-count linked IPUMS datasets for the 1850-1950 censuses of the United States.

What will be your main research focus during your time at Lund University? 

I will be working with Lund researchers on several projects during my time visiting. 

One project that I am very excited about is already in an initial descriptive phase: I am working with Jonas Helgertz to estimate child mortality and fertility among hundreds of millions of individuals using our new linked IPUMS datasets. We anticipate using these estimates to explore the factors associated with the demographic transition in more detail than ever possible. 

Another project, with Lund faculty members Martin Dribe and Jonas Helgertz, will examine the changing relationship between economic well-being and fertility over the course of the fertility transition. 

I also hope to collaborate with Lund researchers on projects examining the changing relationship between demographic behavior and social mobility over time.