Livia Olah

I defended my PhD thesis in Demography (Gendering family dynamics: The case of Sweden and Hungary) at Stockholm University in 2001. Since 2006 I have been an associate professor and senior lecturer in Demography at Stockholm University. As principal investigator of a project financed by the Foundation for Baltic and East European Studies, I have also held a research position at Södertörn University since 2025.

My research addresses the pronounced changes in family patterns over recent decades. These developments highlight the need for partnership configurations and dynamics to be systematically incorporated into research on well-being. Recognizing vulnerability as a specific dimension in the relationship between well-being and partnership forms and processes supports efforts to develop more direct measures of well-being. Based on a comparative research design, my work aims to make substantial theoretical and empirical contributions to the field.

I mainly work with quantitative methods but also employ mixed-method approaches that combine quantitative and qualitative perspectives.

Main fields of research

- family life and partnership

- well-being

- inequality (gender and ethnic origin)

- social policy and welfare state models

Ongoing research project

I am currently engaged in the following research project:

Vulnerability and partnership dynamics in the Baltic Sea region: Similarities and differences within and between Eastern European and Nordic countries (Principal Investigator).

The project aims to advance understanding of the interplay between relationships, vulnerability, and well-being in Eastern Europe and the Nordic countries during the first decades of the 21st century.

Financier: Foundation for Baltic and East European Studies