Born January 12, 1937. Ingénieur de l'école Polytechnique. Directeur of research at Ined. Books, articles, chapters of books on demography, human migration, event history analysis, multilevel analysis, quantitative genetics, historical demography, human geography, methodology and epistemology of social sciences. Recent publications: Multilevel synthesis, Springer Series on Demographic Methods and Population Analysis, Springer, Dordrecht (2007); Methodology and epistemology of multilevel analysis, Kluwer, Dordrecht (2003). Editor with Robert Franck of the Methodos Series, published by Springer. This book series is devoted to examining and solving the major methodological problems social sciences are facing.
Abstract: The use of behaviour genetic heritability analysis to study demographic behaviour is fraught with problems. We explain the concepts and methods used by behaviour geneticists, which are based on Fisher (1918) and Jinks and Fulker (1970), point out their deficiencies, and show that the basic assumptions of the behaviuor genetic model do not hold.
A behaviour trait should be analysed not by using heritability but by using the coefficient of intensity of inheritance. Confusion about statistical concepts and heritability abounds.
Fertility differs from many behavioural traits in many respects. It is affected by many known environmental factors. Male and female fertility are affected by different factors and should be studied using different techniques. Galton's 19th century idea of nature-nurture or Fisher's early 20th century genetics have little use in the genomic area. We need new concepts. One of these could be the species value of a gene, another is regulatory genes i.e. + or - genes that regulate a behavioural trait. The latter poses a seriuos challenge to the Fisherian concept of additive genes and this concept has to be discarded. Molecular genetics is the key to the understanding of human and animal behaviour.
Abstract: In this paper we explore both the influence of life events on spatial mobility and the behaviour of birth cohorts in different social, economic, or political contexts. Our field of study is French society, viewed as a structure defined by the interaction of interdependent relational systems: familial, economic, political, and educational.
To study the interrelations of these systems, we consider their expression in time and space through events. Using a retrospective survey schedule, we are able to collect information on events in the occupational, political, educational, and family history of interviewees. An event or change in status in one relational system will be followed by an event or change of status in another. By measuring probabilities of change and investigating the kinds of changes which occur when a new situation arises, we are able to know more about interactions among relational sytems.
Abstract: This volume presents a historical panorama of the evolution of demographic thought from its seventeenth-century origins to the present day. Courgeau demonstrate how the multilevel approach can resolve some of the contradictions that have become apparent and thus achieve a synthesis of the different approaches employed. Part One guides the reader from period analysis to multilevel analysis, examining longitudinal and event-history analysis on the way. Part Two is a detailed account of multilevel analysis, its methods, and the relevant mathematical models notably as regards the type of variables used. Numerous examples, used across succesive chapters, make the book clear and easy to follow.
In his theoretical and epistemological treatment of these issues, the author revisits the foundations of sociology and demography while outlining the logical development that has led to the most recent approaches. This presentation is sufficiently rigourous to satisfy social scientists yet accessible for readers new to the field. The whole adds up to a comprehensive account of progress in sociological and demographic savoir-faire. Courgeau offers us both a textbook and an assesment of multilevel analysis that tackles one of the major challenges in empirical sociology: how to integrate analysis at the individual and group levels.
Abstract: The purpose of this book's multilevel approach is to understand individual behaviour taking into account the social context in which it occurs. This book deals with concepts and methods underlying this approach. Its scope is larger than solely statistical multilevel modelling, even though this does enjoy a prominent place in the volume. Through examples drawn from different social sciences, this book considers the methodological challenges that multilevel analysis allows us to answer and points out some limitations of these models. Educational science (Harvey Goldstein), demography (Daniel Courgeau), epidemiology (Ana Diez Roux), geography (Marc Tranmer, David Steel, Ed Fieldhouse), economics (Bernard Walliser) are the different social sciences considered. It also considers the more general philosophical ans epistemological isuues (Robert Franck) raised by their use, as they permit to discard the dualistic approach, which pits society against the individual.
Finally it allows to resume the theme of the first volume of this series (The explanatory power of models, Robert Franck ed.), offering a means of combining causal explanation and systemic explanation.
Abstract: This book constitutes the first review of the techniques of event history analysis in demography. It is the translation of a book published in French 1969.
During the 1970's, the amount of reliable data made available as a result of surveys increased enormously. At the same time, statistical and computational techniques developed to allow the new data to be handled.
The treatment of the subject permits to develop methods of event history analysis. It provides not only a thorough description of models, but also a theoretical presentation of this new research path without loosing sight of the underlying application to population dynamics. It will serve as a handbook of methodology for demographers and other social scientists interested in the study of the timing of events in individual lives.
Abstract: En este estudio se analiza la historia de la movilidad en Francia desde comienzos del siglo XVIII hasta nuestros dias.
La movilidad se considera aqui en sus formas mas diversas, tanto temporales como definitivas, con el proposito de describir todos los cambios que va sufriendo. Se ven asi las modificationes de los desplazamientos y de la perception del espacio que entrana el paso del mundo agricola al mundo industrial y urbano.
En este analisis se tuvieron en cuenta no solo los cambios economicos, sino tambien los del mundo politico y religioso y de la familia, asi como los que conciernen a la education y los esparcimientos.
Esto a permitido delimitar mejor las razones de la original evolucion que se ha producido en Francia a lo largo de su historia demografica y de su urbanizacion.
Abstract: This study examines the history of population mobility in France from the begining of the eighteenth century to the present day.
It considers migration in its most widely varying forms, both temporay and permanent, with a view to identifying all the changes that occur.
The findings of this analysis take into account not only economic changes, but also changes in the world of politics, religion and the family as well in education and leisure activities. This approach provides a means of identifying more clearly the reasons for the highly original trends that have occured in France through the process of demographic change and urbanization.
Abstract: This chapter will give a general review of certain novel ideas concerning the study of partnership and fertility behaviour.
First, new approaches developed to undertake multi-state analyses have been responsible for important methodological innovations and have contributed to the emergence of a new paradigm in micro-demographic research.
Secondly, recent experimentation with more complex systems has led to the development of non-linear models capable of generating persistent oscilatory or erratic behaviour in certain areas of their parameter space.
Thirdly, the analysis of complex structures permit to identify the mechanisms responsible for the effects of each context; Such a multilevel analysis give the possibility of working simultaneously at different levels of aggregation, with the aim of explaining an individual's behaviour or of understanding the working of the system at an aggregate level.
Abstract: Estimation of hazard functions of moving from information about the commune of residence of individuals at a time when they experienced different vital events. In the absence of population registers, this is the only information available for nineteenth-century France. A non-parametric and a parametric model were used to find this distribution and a test was undertaken on twentieth century data.
These methods have been successful, in certain conditions, to estimate such hazard functions for the past.
Abstract: Estimation of instantaneous transition rates in nonparametric, semiparametric and parametric models. The bivariate and mutlivariate problems are introduced and discussed using data from a retrospective life history survey, undertaken in France,1981.
