Considering demographic life courses as sequences, non recurrent and recurrent sequences are distinguished from each other. The description of life courses in terms of sequences leads to distinguish atomistic from holistic and static from dynamic approaches. Optimal matching and a monothetic...

We exploit a multistate generalisation of a classical, one-sex, stable population model to evaluate structural and long-term effects of changes in the attainment of adulthood. The demographic framework that inspired this paper is provided by Italy, where a strong delay in the transition to...