Jason Fletcher

About

I am currently the Director of the Center for Demography of Health and Aging (CDHA) at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and an affiliate of the Center for Demography and Ecology (CDE). I have expertise related to several core areas of interest to CDE, including Biodemography, Health and the Life Course, and the Demography of Inequality. My research has been supported by NIA, NICHD, NIDA and NIMH, as well as a number of foundations (including the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the Russell Sage Foundation, and the William T. Grant Foundation). I have a broad background in economics and have worked on a large number of interdisciplinary teams on several grants and projects. I also serve as a member of CDE’s Executive Committee. My research on Sociogenomics is summarized in my recent book, The Genome Factor: What the Social Genomics Revolution Reveals about Ourselves, Our History, and the Future (Princeton University Press; 2017), co-authored with Dalton Conley.

CDE research theme area affiliations

Biodemography, Health and the Life Course, and the Demography of Inequality

Selected Publications

Fletcher, Jason. “Crushing Hope: Short Term Responses to Tragedy Vary by Hopefulness.” Social Science & Medicine 201 (2018): 59-62. PubMed Central ID. NIHMS ID.

Fletcher, Jason, Marian Vidal-Fernandez, and Barbara Wolfe. “Dynamic and Heterogeneous Effects of Sibling Death on Children’s Outcomes.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 115, no. 1 (2018): 115-20. PubMed Central ID 5776792.

Fletcher, Jason. “The Effects of in Utero Exposure to the 1918 Influenza Pandemic on Family Formation.” Economics & Human Biology 30 (2018): 59-68.

Fletcher, Jason, Ross, Stephen. “Estimating the Effects of Friends on Health Behaviors of Adolescents.” Health Economics 27, no. 10 (2018): 1450-83.

Kim, Jinho, and Jason Fletcher. “The Influence of Classmates on Adolescent Criminal Activities in the United States.” Deviant Behavior 39, no. 3 (2018): 275-92. PubMed Central ID 5788185.

Domingue, Benjamin, Daniel Belsky, Jason Fletcher, Dalton Conley, Jason Boardman, and Kathleen Harris. “The Social Genome of Friends and Schoolmates in the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 115, no. 4 (2018): 702-07. PubMed Central ID 5789914. .

Conley, Dalton, and  Jason Fletcher,. The Genome Factor. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2017.

Jason Fletcher, and Stefanie Schurer. “Origins of Adulthood Personality: The Role of Adverse Childhood Experiences.” B. E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy 17, no. 2 (2017). PubMed Central ID 6063370.

Jason Fletcher, and David E. Frisvold. “The Relationship between the School Breakfast Program and Food Insecurity.” Journal of Consumer Affairs 51, no. 3 (2017): 481-500. PubMed Central ID 6040671.

Conley, Dalton, Thomas Laidley, Daniel W. Belsky, Jason Fletcher, Jason D. Boardman, and Benjamin W. Domingue. “Assortative Mating and Differential Fertility by Phenotype and Genotype across the 20th Century.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 113, no. 24 (2016): 6647-52. PubMed Central ID 4914190.

Domingue, Benjamin, Dalton Conley, Jason Fletcher, and Jason Boardman. “Cohort Effects in the Genetic Influence on Smoking.” Behavior Genetics 46, no. 1 (2016): 31-42. PubMed Central ID 4720550.

Fletcher, Jason, and Taehoon Kim. “The Effects of Changes in Kindergarten Entry Age Policies on Educational Achievement.” Economics of Education Review 50 (2016): 45-62. PubMed Central ID 6049095.

Fletcher, Jason, and Norma Padron. “The Effects of Teenage Childbearing on Adult Soft Skills Development.” Journal of Population Economics 29, no. 3 (2016): 883-910. PubMed Central ID 6049085.

Fletcher, Jason, and Barbara Wolfe. “The Importance of Family Income in the Formation and Evolution of Non-Cognitive Skills in Childhood.” Economics of Education Review 54 (2016): 143-54. PubMed Central ID 6040669.

Pacheco, Julianna, and Jason Fletcher. “Incorporating Health into Studies of Political Behavior: Evidence for Turnout and Partisanship.” Political Research Quarterly 68, no. 1 (2015): 104-16. PubMed Central ID 6042216.

Fletcher, Jason. “New Evidence of the Effects of Education on Health in the Us: Compulsory Schooling Laws Revisited.” Social Science & Medicine 127 (2015): 101-07. PubMed Central ID 6056268

Fletcher, Jason, David Frisvold, and Nathan Tefft. “Non-Linear Effects of Soda Taxes on Consumption and Weight Outcomes.” Health Economics 24 (2015): 566-82. PubMed Central ID 6047515.

Fletcher, Jason. “Social Interactions and College Enrollment: A Combined School Fixed Effects/Instrumental Variables Approach.” Social Science Research 52 (2015): 494-507. PubMed Central ID 4443273.

Boardman, Jason, and Jason Fletcher. “To Cause or Not to Cause? That Is the Question, but Identical Twins Might Not Have All of the Answers.” Social Science & Medicine 127 (2015): 198-200. PubMed Central ID 5830117.

Cook, Justin, and Jason Fletcher. “Understanding Heterogeneity in the Effects of Birth Weight on Adult Cognition and Wages.” Journal of Health Economics 41 (2015): 107-16. PubMed Central ID 4417462.

Bifulco, Robert, Jason Fletcher, Sun Jung Oh, and Stephen Ross. “Do High School Peers Have Persistent Effects on College Attainment and Other Life Outcomes?”. Labour Economics 29 (2014): 83-90. PubMed Central ID 6063366.

Fletcher, Jason. “The Effects of Childhood Adha on Adult Labor Market Outcomes.” Health Economics 23, no. 2 (2014): 159-81. PubMed Central ID.

Domingue, Benjamin, Jason Fletcher, Dalton Conley, and Jason Boardman. “Genetic and Educational Assortative Mating among Us Adults.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 111, no. 22 (2014): 7996-8000. PubMed Central ID 4050565.

Fletcher, Jason, and Barbara Wolfe. “Increasing Our Understanding of the Health-Income Gradient in Children.” Health Economics 23, no. 4 (2014): 473-86. PubMed Central ID 6047525.

Cook, Justin, and Jason Fletcher. “Interactive Effects of in Utero Nutrition and Genetic Inheritance on Cognition: New Evidence Using Sibling Comparisons.” Economics & Human Biology 13 (2014): 144-54. PubMed Central ID 3943815.