David Blau, Distinguished Professor of Social and Behavioral Sciences in Economics, has been appointed chair of the Department of Economics, effective June 1, 2012.

Blau joined the Department of Economics at Ohio State in 2007 as a labor and population economist with research interests in the areas of demography and economics of aging, and demographic and economic determinants of child wellbeing. He is the profession’s leading scholar on the economics of child care.

Blau’s body of work on child care and child outcomes consists of 17 articles, including Child Care Costs and Family Labor Supply, a pioneering economic analysis of the demand for child care. He is credited with spurring the development of sophisticated models of the market for child care. His book, The Child Care Problem: An Economic Analysis was published by the Russell Sage Foundation in 2001. Most recently, Blau has been focusing on the determinants of family structure and how family structure affects children in the long run.

In addition to his pioneering work in child care, Blau is recognized among the leading researchers in the field of the economics of aging. His research interests in this area include the impact of pensions and Social Security on retirement and saving; the effect of labor market rigidities on the employment decisions of older workers; and explaining long run trends in the timing of retirement in the U.S.

Blau earned an MA and PhD in economics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.