IPUMS International Team

Jose Pacas

Research Scientist

pacas002@umn.edu

IPUMS Data Projects

IPUMS CPS

IPUMS International

IPUMS USA

Research Interests and Project Expertise

poverty transitions; methodological improvements to urban and rural poverty measurement in public-use data

Biography

I am a research scientist on the IPUMS International project and an advisor to the IPUMS USA and IPUMS CPS projects. Before joining IPUMS, I served as an economist in the Poverty Statistics Branch at the U.S. Census Bureau. I am currently serving as a member of the National Academy of Sciences Panel on Evaluation and Improvements to the Supplemental Poverty Measure. In 2019, I was selected for the Institute for Research on Poverty Scholars-in-Residence Program at the Center on Poverty and Social Policy, Columbia University and as an Annie E. Casey Rural Poverty Research Fellow. My current research focuses on the factors influencing poverty transitions, methodological improvements to urban and rural poverty measurement in public-use data and estimating the Supplemental Poverty Measure in the American Community Survey. Prior work has included estimating the population of undocumented immigrants in the US, estimating the net fiscal impact of labor unions, and a historical profile of the biomedical labor force. I have a Ph.D. in applied economics and a Master of Public Policy degree from the University of Minnesota, and a B.A. from Williams College

Selected Works

Schroeder, Jonathan P. and Jose D. Pacas. "Across the Rurla-Urban Universe: Two Continuous Indices of Urbanization for U.S. Census Microdata."forthcoming in Spatial Demography

Pacas, Jose D., and David W. Rothwell. 2020. "Why is Poverty Lower in Rural American According to the Supplemental Poverty Measure? An Investigation of the Geographic Adjustment." Population Research and Policy Review (39.5), 941-975.

Sojourner, Aaron and Jose Pacas. 2019. "The Relationship Between Union Membership and Net Fiscal Impact." Industrial Relations: A Journal of Economy and Society, 58.1, 86-107.

Heggeness, Misty L., Kearney TW Gunsalus, Jose Pacas, and Gary McDowell. 2017. "The New Face of US Science." Nature, 541.7635, 21-23.