Lawrence L Wu

Lawrence L Wu is a Professor of Sociology and Director of the NYU Population Center at New York University. He holds a Ph.D. in Sociology from Stanford University (1987) and an A.B. in Sociology and Applied Mathematics from Harvard University (1980). His research focuses on social demography, nonmarital fertility, sexual and contraceptive behavior, family dynamics, poverty, life course analysis, and event history methods.

Dr. Wu’s work examines demographic trends such as fertility patterns, premarital births, and the intergenerational transmission of social behaviors. He has contributed to understanding the impacts of economic conditions (e.g., the Great Recession) on fertility, the role of education in fertility decisions, and the effects of public policies like sex education on teen births. His methodological expertise includes event history analysis and competing risks modeling.

Recent publications highlight trends in nonmarital fertility, the decoupling of sex and marriage across cohorts, and causal estimates of demographic processes. Though no awards are explicitly listed, his extensive peer-reviewed output reflects significant contributions to demographic research. As director of the NYU Population Center, he likely oversees collaborative research in population studies, though specific grants or lab activities aren’t detailed in the text.