Christopher J. Ruhm

I received my doctorate in economics from the University of California at Berkeley in 1984.  Prior to joining UVA, in 2010, I held faculty positions at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and Boston University, and was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Brandeis University.  During the 1996-97 academic year I served as Senior Economist on President Clinton’s Council of Economic Advisers, where my main responsibilities were in the areas of health policy, aging and labor market issues. I am currently a Research Associate in the Economics of Health and Children’s Programs of the National Bureau of Economic Research and a Research Fellow at the Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) in Germany. 

My recent research has focused on examining how various aspects of health are produced – including the rise in obesity; the relationship between macroeconomic conditions and health; the increase in poisoning deaths – and on the role of government policies in helping parents with young children balance the competing needs of work and family life.  My earlier research includes study of the determinants of health and risky behaviors, effects of job displacements and mandated employment benefits, transition into retirement, and the causes and consequences of alcohol and illegal drug policies. I am co-author of The Case for Paid Parental Leave (published by Zero to Three) and Turbulence in the American Workplace (published by Oxford University Press), and 170 pieces published as book chapters; articles in economics, public policy and health journals; or writings for public policy audiences  My research has been cited over 27,000 times in academic outlets (click here for my Google Scholar profile) and in local, national, and international media outlets such as the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Money Magazine, USA Today, Business Week, CNN, ABC, CBS, BBC, and NPR (click here for some examples).

I have received external research funding from a diverse set of organizations including the U.S. Department of Labor, National Science Foundation, several of the National Institutes of Health, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, Russell Sage Foundation and Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.  I am currently associate editor or on the editorial board of of the the American Journal of Health Economics, Journal of Health Economics  Economics Letters and the Southern Economic Journal, a steering committee member of the Southeastern Health Economics Study Group and on the Board of Directors of the American Society of Health Economists. I was also previously President, Vice President, and on the Board of the Southern Economic Association.