Joseph Potter's interests lie in the areas of reproductive health, population and development, and demographic estimation. Together with Carl Schmertmann, Renato Assun??o, and Suzana Cavenaghi, he has been involved in analyzing the fertility transition in Brazil using microdata from the censuses from 1960 to 2000 and spatial statistics. He is also using census data to study the rise of Protestantism, and its impact in Brazil and Mexico.

Potter is Principal Investigator of the Border Contraceptive Access Study (BCAS), a project on oral contraceptive use along the US-Mexico border in El Paso, Texas. BCAS is a six-year collaborative investigation with the University of Texas at El Paso and Ibis Reproductive Health funded by NICHD (R01HD047816). Data were collected between September 2006 and December 2008, and will soon be available for distribution. Potter and colleagues have also received an award from the Society of Family Planning to investigate frustrated demand for female sterilization in the BCAS study population.

Since 2008, Potter?s publications have appeared in Population and Development Review, Demography, the American Journal of Public Health, Contraception, Obstetrics & Gynecology, Population Studies, Population Research and Policy Review, Birth, the Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, Estudios Demogr?ficos y Urbanos, Redes, and the Revista Brasileira de Estudos de Popula??o.