Antonino Polizzi
@polizzan.bsky.social
980 followers 270 following 19 posts
Postdoc @mpidr.bsky.social. PhD @sociologyoxford.bsky.social & @oxforddemsci.bsky.social. Researching drivers and consequences of working-age mortality + formal demography of fertility & mortality. Photo by Potters Instinct Photography.
Posts Media Videos Starter Packs
polizzan.bsky.social
Very kind reading recommendation from @amandajean.bsky.social: My new paper "Fertility, birth, reproduction: Connecting formal demographic frameworks" with Annette Baudisch. 🤓 Just out in Population Studies. doi.org/10.1080/0032...
amandajean.bsky.social
I love you, European demographers. Please never, ever change ❤️
www.tandfonline.com
polizzan.bsky.social
Maybe these functions are useful for forecasting fertility? Or for jointly modeling fertility and mortality? We do not fully know yet—but there’s plenty of exciting applied work ahead. Give our paper a read, try out the functions, and let us know what you think! 👇 6/n
doi.org/10.1080/0032...
Fertility, birth, reproduction: Connecting formal demographic frameworks
The conventional framework of fertility research conceptualizes childbirth from the mother’s perspective. From her perspective, birth is an uncertain and potentially recurring event. In contrast, t...
doi.org
polizzan.bsky.social
What are the density, survival, and hazard functions good for? They capture fertility age patterns without individual birth histories, complex models, or parity-specific data. All you need are age-specific fertility rates, e.g. from the Human Fertility Database or UN World Population Prospects. 5/n
polizzan.bsky.social
What’s the difference between density, survival, and hazard functions based on birth counts vs fertility rates? We show that birth counts carry information on mortality in the maternal cohort; the fertility rates do not. That means if mortality is high, the two sets of functions will differ. 4/n
Density, survival, and hazard functions calculated from birth counts (B1D1) and fertility rates (Conventional), by maternal cohort (1880–1960), Sweden. The lowest panels show the ratios of the functions.
polizzan.bsky.social
The 'Born once, die once' framework described above uses birth counts. Most demographers, however, work with fertility rates. Can we apply the 'life table logic' directly to these rates to get density, survival, and hazard functions of fertility? Yes! And we show exactly how in the paper. 3/n
polizzan.bsky.social
Every person dies only once—and is also born only once. We apply life table logic to all births in a cohort of women, treating birth (not death) as the event, and using maternal age as the time axis. The result: density, survival, and hazard functions that capture the timing of reproduction. 2/n
polizzan.bsky.social
Feeling bittersweet as I read this wonderful thread and reflect on my time at @oxforddemsci.bsky.social, @nuffieldcollege.bsky.social, + @sociologyoxford.bsky.social coming to a close. Immensely grateful to my supervisors, assessors, colleagues, + friends for making this journey so meaningful. 👨‍🎓📜
Matriculation, Nuffield College, October 2021 Thesis defense, Nuffield College, May 2025
polizzan.bsky.social
Thanks so much, @drjenndowd.bsky.social! Fortunately, one thing I learned during my time at @oxforddemsci.bsky.social is that you never really leave. Here's to a long collaboration! 🤓
Reposted by Antonino Polizzi
mpidr.bsky.social
👋👋👋WelcomeWeeks @mpidr.bsky.social!

We are happy to welcome @polizzan.bsky.social! He is a new member in the Laboratory of Population Health at the Department of Social Demography. Welcome Antonino!
www.demogr.mpg.de/en/news_even...
polizzan.bsky.social
New @pnasnexus.org: How did non-COVID causes of death affect life expectancy (LE) in 2015-2022? 📑

tl;dr: By 2022, many of the 24 countries examined had NOT recovered to pre-pandemic levels. Rising cardiovascular and substance/external mortality prevented larger LE gains. 📉

doi.org/10.1093/pnas...
Graph showing how changes in COVID-19 and non-COVID-19 mortality affected life expectancy in 24 countries in the periods 2015-19, 2019-20, 2020-21, 2021-22.
polizzan.bsky.social
Thanks so much for this, @evangelinewarren.com! Could you please add me to the list? Thank you. ☺️
polizzan.bsky.social
New @socarxiv.bsky.social preprint! 🚨 In "An integrated formal demographic fertility framework", A. Baudisch & I present new functions to describe population-level fertility age patterns—useful for modeling & forecasting? 🌟

📖 doi.org/10.31235/osf...
@oxforddemsci.bsky.social @imprs-phds.bsky.social
polizzan.bsky.social
You can also read Abrams et al.’s response here: https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2320028121
Let's keep the conversation going! 🗨️ #mortality #demography #lifeexpectancy
polizzan.bsky.social
Different counterfactuals provide different perspectives, neither is ‘right’ or ‘wrong’. What do you think is the best way to analyze US life expectancy stagnation? Read our letter: https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2318276121
@leverhulme.bsky.social @popassocamerica.bsky.social @eapsphd.bsky.social (6)
polizzan.bsky.social
BOTTOM LINE: Working-age mortality is still an important driver of US life expectancy stagnation globally, but as Abrams et al. rightfully point out, we need to explore older-age slowdowns too. 📉 (5)
polizzan.bsky.social
We calculate an alternative counterfactual: What would US life expectancy be if 2010-19 age-specific mortality improved like in other high-income countries? 🌍 We find the opposite pattern: 25-64 mortality is more important than 65+ for explaining counterfactual differences. (4)
Figure 2 from Polizzi/Dowd (2024), showing counterfactual US life expectancy values for females and males in 2010-2019. USA panel replicates Figure 1 from Abrams et al. (2023).
polizzan.bsky.social
We question whether this within-US counterfactual tells the whole story for 2 reasons:
- 25-64 US mortality was already stagnating in 2000-09, so less room to get worse.
- 2010-19 slowdowns in 65+ mortality improvements were common globally, but rising 25-64 mortality wasn’t. (3)
Figure 1 from Polizzi/Dowd (2024), showing rates of mortality improvement in 2000-2009 and 2010-2019 for females and males in five high-income countries.
polizzan.bsky.social
Abrams et al. calculated counterfactual US life expectancy in 2010-19 if annual age-specific mortality changes followed 2000-09 trends. Surprise finding: Slowdowns in 65+ mortality improvements explain more post-2010 stagnation than 25-64 mortality. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2308360120 (2)
Figure 1 from Abrams et al. (2023), showing counterfactual US life expectancy values for women and men in 2010-2019.
polizzan.bsky.social
What’s the best way to analyze #lifeexpectancy stagnation in the US? 🤔 In PNAS, @drjenndowd.bsky.social & I share our thoughts on a recent paper by Abrams, Myrskylä & Mehta. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2318276121
@oxforddemsci.bsky.social @nuffieldlibrary.bsky.social @mpidr.bsky.social (1)
Figure 1 from Polizzi/Dowd (2024), showing rates of mortality improvement in 2000-2009 and 2010-2019 for females and males in five high-income countries.