The long-term consequences of mortality crises

The short-term impact of mortality crises is well-established on a range of outcomes, but we do not know how long these effects can last, possibly affecting multiple generations. I will study whether mortality crises in Nordic countries led to long-term population change, e.g. depopulation, influenced the difference in survival between socioeconomic groups, or impacted families across generations. Mortality crises were common in the past, so their long-term impacts could have shaped population processes and structures into the present. Mortality crises also continue to happen today, both in Nordic countries (e.g. the COVID-19 pandemic) and around the world. Investigating the long-term consequences that crises had in the past could help us predict the consequences of contemporary crises. I will use demographic and statistical techniques to confront mortality and fertility trends across subgroups through time, estimating their contribution to population change. I will investigate the influence of crises on individual demographic and socioeconomic outcomes across generations. I will take advantage of the uneven impact of mortality crises to establish causal links when possible.