Héctor Pifarré i Arolas

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Department of Public Affairs

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Curriculum Vitae

Biography

Héctor Pifarré i Arolas is an Assistant Professor of Public Affairs. An applied population economist, his research lies at the intersection of demography and population economics. He studies the determinants and measurement of the fundamental demographic processes of fertility and mortality. A central theme in his recent work is the distinction between period and cohort perspectives. Demographic trends are often summarized using period measures such as life expectancy, but these statistics can mask important differences across birth cohorts. Much of his current work explores how cohort perspectives change our understanding of mortality trends, the determinants of fertility, and demographic forecasting.

Selected Publications:

Andrade, J., Camarda, C. G., & Pifarré i Arolas, H. (2025). Cohort mortality forecasts indicate signs of deceleration in life expectancy gains. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 122(35), e2519179122. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2519179122

Pifarré i Arolas, H., Andrade, J., & Myrskylä, M. (2025). An overlapping cohorts perspective of lifespan inequality. Demography, 62(2), 441–465. https://doi.org/10.1215/00703370-11876384

Pifarré i Arolas, H. (2017). A cohort perspective of the effect of unemployment on fertility. Journal of Population Economics, 30(4), 1211–1239. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00148-017-0640-5