Population Issues

This volume marks the end of an eight-year program of research on population issues, launched in 1990 by the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research: The NWO Priority Program on Population Issues. Initiatives for this program of research were taken over ten years ago by Hans Van Ginkel-who became the first program chair - and Dirk Van De Kaa. The Dutch community of population scientists is deeply indebted to them for their early efforts. At the time, the program carried the name "Between Individual Development and Social Solidarity: Pop ulation and Society in a Period of Transition. " The goals of the Priority Program were threefold: To reduce the fragmentation of research on population issues; to increase collabora tion among population researchers with different disciplinary back grounds; and to strengthen the position of population studies in Dutch academe and in international forums. Looking back over eight years of programed research, we can safely say that the Priority Program has given an enormous impetus to population research in the Netherlands - as this volume attests. This program of research could not have been carried out success fully without the valuable contributions and constructive input of a large group of scientists. The scope and the focus of the Priority Program were defined by a preparatory committee chaired by Gerard Frinking.

1. Introduction: The Life Course Approach as an Interdisciplinary Framework for Population Studies. - 1. 1. Demography as an Object Science. - 1. 2. The Life Course Approach. - 1. 3. Overview of Chapters. - 2. The Life Course: Models and Analysis. - 2. 1. Introduction. - 2. 2. The Life Course: A Paradigm Shift. - 2. 3. Anatomy of the Life Course. - 2. 4. Life Histories Analysis: Variables, Data and Models. - 2. 5. Conclusion. - 3. From Youth to Adulthood: Understanding Changing Patterns of Family Formation from a Life Course Perspective. - 3. 1. Introduction. - 3. 2. Changes in Family-Life Transitions: The Dutch Case. - 3. 3. Major Recent Developments in Studies on the Transition from Youth to Adulthood. - 3. 4. Societal Changes Influencing the Transition from Youth to Adulthood. - 3. 5. Dynamic Studies of the Individual-Level Determinants of Family-Life Decisions. - 3. 6. Opening the Black Box : Studies on Individual Decision-Making Process. - 3. 7. Features of the Future: How Will Studies on the Transition from Youth to Adulthood Evolve? . - 4. Households, Families, and Kin Networks. - 4. 1. Introduction. - 4. 2. Changing Household and Family Structures in Present-Day Europe. - 4. 3. Young Families and the Aging of Fertility. - 4. 4. Changing Kin Networks. - 4. 5. Social Networks of the Elderly. - 4. 6. Conclusion. - 5. Work, Savings, and Social Security in a Life Course Perspective. - 5. 1. Introduction. - 5. 2. Transitions in the Labor Market. - 5. 3. Savings over the Course of a Life Time. - 5. 4. Social Security over the Source of a Life Time. - 5. 5. Sustainability of Social Security. - 5. 6. Conclusions. - 6. Residential Relocations in the Life Course. - 6. 1. Introduction. - 6. 2. A Life Course Theory of Residential Relocations. - 6. 3. Processes Underlying the Decision to Move. - 6. 4. Who Moves Under WhichCircumstances. - 6. 5. Household Formation: Leaving the Parental Home. - 6. 6. Residential Environments. - 6. 7. Renting and Owning. - 6. 8. The Consequences of Migration for Labor Market Careers. - 6. 9. Conclusion. - 7. Medical Demography in the Netherlands: Recent Advances, Future Challenges. - 7. 1. Introduction. - 7. 2. Challenges for Medical Demography. - 7. 3. Studies on Past Trends in Mortality. - 7. 4. Studies on Mortality Differentials Between Population Groups. - 7. 5. Studies on Future Trends in Mortality. - 7. 6. Studies on Future Trends in Morbidity. - 7. 7. Studies on Consequences for Health Care Demand, Costs and Financing. - 7. 8. Policy Relevance. - 7. 9. Challenges to Future Research. - 8. Advances in the Microsimulation of Demographic Behavior. - 8. 1. Introduction. - 8. 2. Theory: Micro Biographies and Macro Structures. - 8. 3. Microsimulation Methodology. - 8. 4. State of the Art: Microsimulation Models in the Priority Program. - 8. 5. Conclusion. - 9. Epilogue: New Directions in Population Studies. - 9. 1. Introduction. - 9. 2. Accomplishments and Challenges. - 9. 3. The Life Course: A Useful Interdisciplinary Framework.