Luo’s research focuses on (1) how aging, social change, and population processes interact with social institutions such as schools and family to produce inequality and disparities and (2) identifying trajectories and explaining trends in health, cognitive, and mortality outcomes. She has developed a novel model for determining age, time periods, and cohort patterns in various outcomes such as cognitive development, health status and behaviors, mortality, and substance use.  She also studies quantitative methods for describing and explaining temporal trends in health behaviors and vital rates.  She recently expands her research areas to investigating the heterogeneous effects of education between men and women on their health and social well-being. Her work has appeared in top journals including the American Sociological Review, the American Journal of Sociology, Demography (lead article with four commentaries and a reply), and Sociological Methods & Research. She serves on the editorial board of Sociological Methods & Research and Sociological Methodology.

Research Support:

National Institutes of Health. “Heterogeneous Effects of Education on Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Dementias among Demographic Groups: A Multigenerational and Multilevel Study.” PI; Total cost: $1,779,640.

National Institutes of Health, “Cohort Differences in Cognitive Impairment and Alzheimer Disease and Related Dementias: Education Effects and Sex Differences.” PI; Total cost: $321,000.00.

Cisco Research Center. “Education, Work, and Family Pathways of Women and Men in Computer Science, Engineering and Math.” $114,000. Role: Co-I (PI: Susan McHale)

Selected Publications:

Luo, Liying, Orfeu M. Buxton, David M. Almeida, Alyssa A. Gamaldo, and Qian Xiao. 2021. “Opposite Educational Gradients in Sleep Duration between Black and White Adults, 2004-2018.” Sleep Health 7 (1):3-9

Fan, Wen, and Liying Luo. 2020. “A Decomposition of Trends in the Infant Mortality Disadvantage Index in the United States: 1983-2010.” Demography 57(3): 979-1005

Warren, John Robert, Liying Luo, Andrew Halpern-Manners, James Raymo, and Alberto Palloni. 2015. “Do Different Methods for Modeling Age-Graded Trajectories Yield Consistent and Valid Results?” American Journal of Sociology 120 (6): 1809-1856.

Luo, Liying. 2013. “Assessing Validity and Application Scope of the Intrinsic Estimator Approach to the Age-Period-Cohort Problem.” Demography 50 (6): 1945-1967.