The Final will give course members an opportunity to show their command of demographic concepts and techniques of analysis and to use each other's course project work in analyzing demographic questions arising out of our earlier readings and discussions. The following concepts, themes, and questions may be useful in organizing your review.

I. CONCEPTS:

CBR

ASFR

TFR

CDR

IMR

ASDR

RNI

ZPG

Doubling time

Extrapolation using exponential model

Life expectancy; life span; longevity

Life table

World system

Stable population; stationary population

Demographic transition; Epidemiological transition; Urban transition

Migration/immigration

Population structure/pyramids; sex ratio; dependency ratio; median age

Population characteristics

II. BE PREPARED TO DISCUSS:

• A. The uses of any of the above concepts, illustrating these uses through the analysis of historical processes in one or more of the countries studied by course members or through demonstrating how they might enter into population dynamics/distributions of population characteristics and issues of policy in contemporary US or California.

• B. The use of course theories and studies in the evaluation of policy options used or proposed to reduce differentials in life chances associated with particular population characteristics.

• C. The insights provided by particular theoretical perspectives within demography relative to such issues as food supply or economic development.
• D. The policy implications of a table or graph showing relations among population characteristics. Also the causal questions to be asked through further statistical analysis of such distributions and their linkage to demographic processes. You should be able to draw on examples of such analyses from the projects of course members.

III. EXAMPLES OF SPECIFIC KINDS OF QUESTIONS WHICH MIGHT BE ASKED:

• E. Use two of the countries studied by course members to illustrate the impact of changes in fertility and mortality on dependency ratios, aging of population, and feminization of old age.

• F. Given the population of a country at two points in time, derive the rate of population growth and use this to project the population at a third point in time.

• G. You have been hired to be a consultant on population policy to one of the countries which you or a colleague considered in class exercises. Your clients are particularly interested in your familiarity both with demographic theory and with the other cases covered by course members.

• 1. Describe the most salient aspects of your country's current demographic situation.
• 2. Describe your recommendations in terms of both objectives and means. Discuss specific
  demographic structures and rates as applicable.
• 3. Explain the relation of your recommendations to demographic transition theory, stable
  population theory, and any other relevant theories or models.
• 4. Show how you are drawing on the experience of specific other countries studied in course
  exercises or projects.
• 5. What is the relationship between political and technical considerations in your proposed
  policies?

• H. Explain the relevance of population structure for issues of national or regional planning and policy, locating your discussion within a specific political entity and drawing on the work of course members for relevant illustrative material. Are you considering present and projected population structure as givens to which other elements of policy must respond, or are you dealing with population structure as itself also an object of policy? How important are differences in the population structures of sub-populations within the larger population? How is migration involved in your analysis and policy recommendations?

• L. Explain the concept of triage and show its relevance to US policy alternatives either globally or in terms of domestic policies re public health, welfare, education, drugs, gangs, gun control, and/or immigration. Draw on your own work for the course and on the exercises and projects of other course members. Over the long term, what are the implication of such policy for population dynamics and structure?