Faculty

Dowell Myers

Professor

Director, Population Dynamics Research Group

Education

Ph.D. in Urban Planning, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Expertise

Demographic change
Future of California
Housing impacts
Workforce and education
Immigration and assimilation
Communication for consensus about change

Biography

Dowell Myers, Ph.D., is a specialist in urban growth and societal change, with expertise as a planner and urban demographer. He has been an advisor to the Bureau of the Census and authored the most widely referenced work on census analysis, Analysis with Local Census Data: Portraits of Change (Academic Press, 1992). His demographic work has included substantial emphasis on immigration, and his 2007 book, Immigrants and Boomers: Forging a New Social Contract for the Future of America, has been widely recognized. In the policy and planning field, he is a champion of future-oriented research, which helps inform better decisions today. As an instructor of planning theory, he professes a communicative, citizen-oriented approach that embraces the residents as consumers and the ultimate voting decision makers. His research embodies the approach of integrated demography that treats demographic factors as interwoven with aggregate behaviors and impacts. This also includes public perceptions and reactions to demographic change as part of the problem analysis.

Recent research projects have focused on public narratives about immigration, aging, and taxation, projections of generational change in the U.S., California, and Los Angeles, and the upward mobility of immigrants the longer they reside in the U.S. Professor Myers has been an academic fellow of the Urban Land Institute and a member of the Governing Board of the Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning. He is also one of two recipients of the Haynes Award for Research Impact.

Selected Publications

Myers, D., & Frick, K. T. (2022). Rebuilding Common Purpose for the 21st Century with New Civic Infrastructure. Journal of Comparative Urban Law and Policy, 5(1), 71-92.
Myers, D., Park, J., & Cho, S. (2021). Housing shortages and the new downturn of residential mobility in the US. Housing Studies, 1-22.
Levy, M., & Myers, D. (2021). Racial Projections in Perspective: Public Reactions to Narratives about Rising Diversity. Perspectives on Politics, 1-18.

View full list of publications

In The News

The New York Times

Myers quoted about the growing number of Americans who identify as more than one race

Featured Faculty: Dowell Myers

The Mortgage Note

Myers quoted on how high house prices multiplied by high interest rates is influencing people to move

Featured Faculty: Dowell Myers

Newsweek

Myers quoted about how high housing costs are contributing to California’s population decline

Featured Faculty: Dowell Myers

Read: Myers mentioned in an op-ed emphasizing the need for communities to build luxury housing to spur churn in the housing market that enables younger people to rent and buy their first homes

Las Vegas Sun

Myers mentioned in an op-ed emphasizing the need for communities to build luxury housing to spur churn in the housing market that enables younger people to rent and buy their first homes

Featured Faculty: Dowell Myers

Affiliated Research Centers

Population Dynamics Research Group

The Population Dynamics Research Group uncovers demographic trends that drive major changes in society, providing insights that lead to effective policies.

METRANS Transportation Consortium

METRANS Transportation Consortium is a joint partnership of USC and California State University, Long Beach. Its mission is to solve transportation problems in large metropolitan regions through interdisciplinary research, education, and outreach.

Sol Price Center for Social Innovation

The Sol Price Center for Social Innovation was established with the recent gift to name the USC Sol Price School of Public Policy. This new center aims to advance ideas, strategies, and practices that enhance the quality of life for people in urban communities.