Model-Based Demography: Towards a Research Agenda

Daniel Courgeau, Jakub Bijak (), Robert Franck and Eric Silverman
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Daniel Courgeau: Institut national d’études démographiques
Jakub Bijak: University of Southampton, Department of Social Statistics and Demography
Robert Franck: Université catholique de Louvain
Eric Silverman: Teesside University, School of Computing

Chapter Chapter 2 in Agent-Based Modelling in Population Studies, 2017, pp 29-51 from Springer

Abstract: Abstract This chapter aims to contribute to the debate on the role of model-based approaches, such as agent-based modelling, in the future of demography. First we call attention to the developments of the discipline since the seventeenth century, and we describe its four successive paradigms related to the period, cohort, event-history and multilevel perspectives. We argue that these paradigms are complementary and that demography, since its beginnings, has subscribed to the classical scientific research programme launched by the promoters of modern science. Next, we examine how simulation modelling developing in population sciences recently, may help to respond to three main challenges: how to overcome complexity in social research; how to reduce its uncertainty; and how to reinforce its theoretical foundations. We sketch a model-based research programme for demography, looking specifically at interactions between various population systems. We then show how this approach might conform to the classical scientific research programme, in order to take advantage of its benefits.

Keywords: Social Property; Functional Structure; Population System; Event History Analysis; Classical Programme (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:ssdmcp:978-3-319-32283-4_2

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DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-32283-4_2

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