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Robert McCaa

Robert McCaa

2017 Warren E. Miller Award for Meritorious Service to the Social Sciences

Robert McCaa (ICPSR '69) is research professor at the Minnesota Population Center and Professor emeritus, Department of History, University of Minnesota. He received the PhD in History from the University of California Los Angeles in 1978. His academic specialties include historical demography, Latin American history, history of smallpox, and world census microdata research.

In 1989, as a Fulbright fellow Bob began a campaign to liberate census microdata, first in Latin America and then the world. A decade later, in partnership with Steven Ruggles, IPUMS-International was born. The project's Memorandum of Cooperation provides the legal authority for National Statistical Agencies to entrust anonymized microdata in perpetuity to the Minnesota Population Center. Endorsed by more than 100 countries encompassing over 90% of the world's population, the agreement charges the MPC to manage access to the microdata by researchers worldwide free of cost. Thanks to on-going major funding by the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health, some 300 high precision samples totaling over 600 million person records are currently integrated into the IPUMS with more added each year. Bob's recent publications are focused on the questions and concerns of National Statistical Offices about what happens to the microdata once they are entrusted to the MPC.

His many publications include:

  • The Census in global perspective and the coming microdata revolution. Scandinavian Population Studies, vol. 13 (2002). Co-author: Steven Ruggles.
  • Statistical coherence of primary schooling in IPUMS-International integrated population samples for China, India, Vietnam, and ten other Asia-Pacific countries. Chinese Journal of Sociology. doi: 10.1177/2057150X15593710 Co-authors: Lara Cleveland, Patricia Kelly-Hall, Steven Ruggles, and Matthew Sobek.
  • Human Development Index-like Small Area Estimates for Africa computed from IPUMS-International integrated census microdata.Journal of Human Development and Capabilities, DOI 10.1080/19452829.2014.956300. Co-authors: I�aki Permanyer, Albert Esteve, and Joan Garcia.
  • Controlled shuffling, statistical confidentiality and microdata utility: a successful experiment with a 10% household sample of the 2011 population census of Ireland for the IPUMS-International database. In J. Domingo-Ferrer (Ed.): Privacy in Statistical Data 2014, LNCS vol 8744, pp. 326-337. Co-authors: Krish Muralidhar, Rathindra Sarathy, Michael Comerford, and Albert Esteve.
  • Creating Statistically Literate Global Citizens: The Use of IPUMS-International Integrated Census Microdata in Teaching". Statistical Journal of the IAOS (International Association of Official Statisticians), 27(2011). Co-authors: Ann Meier and David Lam.
  • The Nahua calli of ancient Mexico: household, family, and gender. Continuity and Change, 18:1 (2003), 23-48.
  • Missing millions: the demographic costs of the Mexican Revolution. Mexican Studies/Estudios Mexicanos, 19:2(Summer 2003), 367-400.
  • Paleodemography of the Americas: From Ancient Times to Colonialism and Beyond," in Richard H. Steckel and Jerome C. Rose (eds.), The Backbone of History: Health and Nutrition in the Western Hemisphere, New York: Cambridge University Press. 2002.
  • Spanish & Nahuatl Views on Smallpox and Demographic Catastrophe in Mexico," Journal of Interdisciplinary History, 25:3 (Winter 1995), 397-431.
  • Isolation or Assimilation? A Log-linear Interpretation of Australian Marriages, 1947-1986. Population Studies 43:1 (March 1989), 155-162.
  • Marriage and Fertility in Chile: Demographic Turning Points in the Petorca Valley, 1840-1976. Dellplain Latin American Series, Westview Press, Boulder, Co. 1983.