Florencia Torche

Professor of Sociology

Ph.D. Columbia University 2004

Florencia Torche is a social scientist with expertise in social demography and social stratification. Professor Torche’s scholarship examines inequality dynamics including intergenerational mobility, disparities in educational attainment, family dynamics and assortative mating. Her research also examines the influence of early-life exposures –starting before birth– on individual wellbeing and inequality.

Professor Torche was elected to the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2020, and to the Sociological Research Association in 2013. She has led large data collection projects, including the first national social mobility surveys in Chile and in Mexico. She has served as deputy editor of the American Sociological Review, Consulting Editor of the American Journal of Sociology, and on the Editorial Board of the Journal of Health and Social Behavior, Social Forces, Sociology of Education, and Sociological Theory among others.

Professor Torche holds a BA from the Catholic University of Chile and an MA and PhD in Sociology from Columbia University.

Latest Publications

Journal Articles & Book Chapters

Torche, Florencia and Alejandra Abufhele. 2021. "The Normativity of Marriage and the Marriage Premium for Children's Outcomes" American Journal of Sociology 126(4): 931-968. Unpawalled version and supplemental material: https://osf.io/preprints/socarxiv/e4vnx/

Torche, Florencia and Tamkinat Rauf. 2021. "The Political Context and Infant Health in the United States." American Sociological Review. April 2021. doi:10.1177/00031224211000710

*Download the replication code from OSF.

Torche, Florencia. 2020. “Early Life Circumstances and their Effect over the Life Course” Population Research and Policy Review 38(6): 771-783

Torche, Florencia, and Tamkinat Rauf. 2020. “Transition to Fatherhood and the Health of Men.” Journal of Marriage and Family. https://doi.org/10.1111/jomf.12732

Torche, Florencia and Catherine Sirois. 2019. “Restrictive Immigration Law and Birth Outcomes of Immigrant Women.” American Journal of Epidemiology. 188(1): 24–33.

Torche, Florencia and Catherine Sirois*. 2019. “Restrictive Immigration Law and Birth Outcomes of Immigrant Women.” American Journal of Epidemiology. 188(1): 24–33.

Telles, Edward and Florencia Torche. 2019. “Varieties of Indigeneity in the Americas” Social Forces 97(4): 1543–1570.

Florencia Torche and Alejandro Corvalan. 2018. "Estimating Intergenerational Mobility With Grouped Data: A Critique of Clark’s the Son Also Rises" In Press, Sociological Methods and Research 47(4) 787-811

Torche, Florencia. 2018. “Intergenerational Mobility at the Top of the Educational Distribution” Sociology of Education 91(4) 266–289.

Torche, Florencia. 2018. “Prenatal Exposure to an Acute Stressor and Children’s Cognitive Outcomes.” Demography 55: 1611-1639.

Lopez-Calva, Luis Felipe, Jamele Rigolini and Florencia Torche. 2017. “Is There Such Thing as Middle Class Values?: Class Differences, Values and Political Orientations in Latin America" Journal of Globalization and Development 7(2): 709-751

Halpern-Manners, Andrew, John Robert Warren, and Florencia Torche. 2017. “Panel Conditioning in the General Social Survey.” Sociological Methods and Research 46(1) 103-124.

Torche, Florencia and Peter Rich. 2016. “Declining Racial Stratification in Marriage Choices? Trends in Black/White Status Exchange in the US 1980-2010” In Press, Sociology of Race and Ethnicity

Torche, Florencia. 2015. “Intergenerational Mobility and Equality of Opportunity,” European Journal of Sociology 56(3): 343–371.

Torche, Florencia. 2015. “Intergenerational Mobility and Gender in Mexico,” Social Forces 94: 563- 587

Torche, Florencia and Uri Shwed. 2015. “The Hidden Costs of War: Environmental Stress Exposure and Birth Outcomes” Sociological Science 2: 558-581.

Caudillo, Monica and Florencia Torche. 2014. “Exposure to local violence and early educational attainment” Sociology of Education 87(2): 89-105

Torche, Florencia. 2014. “Intergenerational Mobility and Inequality: The Latin American Case” Annual Review of Sociology 40: 619 - 642.

Gullickson, Aaron and Florencia Torche. 2014. “Patterns of racial and educational assortative mating in Brazil” Demography 51(3):835-56.

Torche, Florencia and Andres Villarreal. 2014. “Prenatal Exposure to Violence and Birth Weight in Mexico: Selectivity, Exposure, and Behavioral Responses” American Sociological Review 79(5): 966-92

Mizala, Alejandra and Florencia Torche. 2012. “Bringing the Schools Back In: The Stratification of Achievement in the Chilean Voucher System” International Journal of Educational Development 32: 132-44

Torche, Florencia and Karine Kleinhaus. 2012. “Prenatal stress, gestational age and secondary sex ratio: The sex-specific effects of exposure to a natural disaster in early pregnancy”, Human Reproduction 27(2): 558-67

Torche, Florencia 2011. “Is a College Degree Still the Great Equalizer? Intergenerational Mobility across Levels of Schooling in the US” American Journal of Sociology 117(3): 763-807

Torche, Florencia 2011. “The Effect of Maternal Stress on Birth Outcomes: Exploiting a Natural Experiment” Demography 48(4): 1473-1491

Telles, Edward and Florencia Torche. 2019. “Varieties of Indigeneity in the Americas” Social Forces 97(4): 1543–1570.

Torche, Florencia. 2018. “Intergenerational Mobility at the Top of the Educational Distribution” Sociology of Education 91(4) 266–289.

Torche, Florencia. 2018. “Prenatal Exposure to an Acute Stressor and Children’s Cognitive Outcomes.” Demography 55: 1611-1639.