Why are the crude birth rates in Denmark, the Netherlands and Sweden declining? Is it due to a decline in fertility among married and unmarried women, or to the decline in marriage? Why is the European crude death rate increasing? Is it due to an increase in mortality or the ageing of the population? Why does the world's population growth rate change? Is it due to a change in the growth rates of the different regions of the world, or to change in the regions' population composition?
Changes in age, sex, race-ethnicity, marital status, and many other characteristics contribute to changes in demographic indicators.
Over time, compositional changes and behavioral changes interact, determining the dynamics of summary measures.
In order to accurately explain population phenomena,
demographers usually separate the variables into smaller parts. These parts are then studied separately. This allows for analysis of the specific effects that each component has on the whole dynamic. This book focuses on how decomposition methods can be used to analyze the problems of confounding compositional effects.
On the cover of this book, a painting of the creation of the universe is shown. There is change and movement in the creation of the universe under the concept of the Mayan world. One component of the painting has been isolated; one piece of the puzzle. In a similar way, the aim of decomposition theory is to separate demographic puzzles into pieces. The pieces or components can then be analyzed. They can not, however, be fully understood in isolation. For this they must be returned to their original position. Embedded in their context, the pieces of the puzzle, can then be interpreted, and the dynamics of the whole can be understood.
Vladimir Canudas Romo received his Master in Population Studies from the Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences, Mexico and his PhD in Demography from the University of Groningen, The Netherlands. He worked on this book at the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Germany. Currently he works at the Pennsylvania State University, The United States.
