people

Professor Ronald D. Lee
University of California, Berkeley

 

E-mail: rlee@demog.berkeley.edu

Mailing Address:
University of California, Berkeley
Department of Demography
2232 Piedmont Ave.
Berkeley, CA 94720-2120

Phone #: (510) 640-8986

Fall Office Hours: Office hours by appointment.

CV: (cv.pdf)

Downloadable Papers: This page includes all of Ron Lee's downloadable papers, including but not limited to those pertaining to aging.)

NBER Profile: An NBER profile of Ron Lee, in the NBER Bulletin on Aging and Health

Brief Biography: Professor Ronald Lee holds an M.A. in Demography from the University of California, Berkeley, and a Ph.D. in Economics from Harvard University. He spent a postdoctoral year at the National Institute of Demographic Studies (INED, France). After teaching for eight years at the University of Michigan in the Economics Department and working at the Populations Studies Center, he joined Demography at Berkeley in 1979, with a joint appointment in Economics. He currently holds the Edward G. and Nancy S. Jordan Endowed Chair in Economics. He has taught courses here in economic demography, population theory, population and economic development, demographic forecasting, population aging, indirect estimation, and research design, as well as a number of pro-seminars.

Honors include Presidency of the Population Association of America, the Mindel C. Sheps Award for research in Mathematical Demography, the PAA Irene B. Taeuber Award for outstanding contributions in the field of demography, an Honorary Doctorate, honoris causa, from Lund University, Sweden. He is an elected member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Philosophical Society, and a Corresponding member of the British Academy. He has held NIA MERIT Awards continuously from 1994 and will through 2013.

He has chaired the population and social science study section for NIH and the National Academy of Sciences Committee on Population, and has served on both the National Advisory Committee on Aging (NIA Council) and the NICHD Council.

For nineteen years, Professor Lee was the Director of the Center on the Economics and Demography of Aging at U.C. Berkeley, funded by the National Institute of Aging.

His current research focuses on intergenerational transfers and population aging. He co-directs with Andrew Mason the National Transfer Accounts project, which currently includes 28 collaborating countries, and is estimating intergenerational flows of resources through the public and private sectors. A separate project investigates the interrelations between intergenerational transfers and the evolution of life histories. He also continues to work on modeling and forecasting demographic time series, and Social Security. He enjoys tennis and hiking.

Courses:

• Demography/Economics C175: Introduction to Economic Demography (syllabus from Spring 2013)
  This course examines various economic and social causes and consequences of population change. The consequences studied include the economic impact of immigrants on US workers and taxpayers, the growing pension burden as populations age, the effect of population growth on economic growth, and environmental consequences of population growth. The course also examines the economic causes of demographic behavior including fertility, marriage, and labor supply. How have the functions of the family changed during the course of economic development, and how do they continue to change today? Why have divorce and extramarital fertility risen so much, while fertility has fallen way below replacement in many countries, and marriages are postponed to later ages or foregone altogether? How are these profound changes in family life related to the changing economic roles of women, and to economic growth? Finally, the course considers whether there is a gap between individual and societal net benefits to childbearing, which would provide grounds for government intervention to alter birth rates.

  • bSpace Web Portal
  • office hours for summer are by appointment only

• Demography 275/Economics C275A: Economics of Population (syllabus from Spring 2013)
  Economic Demography teaches economic consequences of demographic change in developed and developing countries, for savings and capital formation,labor markets and intergenerational transfers. It also considers economic influences on family, fertility, migration, health and mortality.

  • bSpace Web Portal
  • office hours for summer are by appointment only