Nicholas Mark

My primary research agenda is focused on understanding how social policy and contextual stressors influence health and fertility. In my work I develop and employ novel methodology to examine the effects of policies, environments, and events on family outcomes, with emphasis on variation by race/ethnicity and age. Some of my published work estimates the effects of federal funding for sex education on teen birth rates, and work in progress estimates the effects of the Great Recession on cohort measures of fertility.

In addition to my research on health and fertility, I also maintain a secondary focus on racial inequality in education, with particular attention to the links between the educational and criminal justice systems. Recent projects explore the effects of contact with the police on student outcomes, and the role of school choice systems in the unequal distribution of students to schools.

CDE Research Area Affiliations:

Fertility, Health & the Life Course; Demography of Inequality

Selected Publications:

Mark, Nicholas DE. “Reexamining the causes of age patterns in Black-White birth weight disparities: Evidence from US cohorts.” Social Science Research 123 (2024): 103066.

Mark, Nicholas DE. “Racial/Ethnic Differences in Relationships Between Pregnancy Intentions and Maternal Outcomes.” Maternal and Child Health Journal (2024): 1-11.

Mark, Nicholas, and Gerard Torrats-Espinosa. “Exposure to crime and racial birth outcome disparities.” Journal of Urban Health (2024): 1-10.