Robert D. Plotnick

Robert D. Plotnick
Professor of Public Affairs
Ph.D., University of California at Berkeley, 1976

Contact Information:
Parrington Hall, Room 225
plotnick@u.washington.edu
206.685.2055

Areas of Specialization:
Labor Economics, Social Demography, Social Welfare Policy

Robert D. Plotnick joined the Evans School faculty in 1984, and served as associate dean from 1990-95 and acting dean from 1994-95. He teaches courses in economic analysis and social welfare policy. His research primarily focuses on poverty, income inequality, income support policy, and related social policy issues.

Plotnick also serves as an adjunct professor in the University of Washington's (UW) Department of Economics, and is senior adviser to the UW's Population Leadership Program. He is also a research affiliate with: the West Coast Poverty Center at the Evans School, Center for Studies in Demography and Ecology at the UW, and the Institute for Research on Poverty at the University of Wisconsin.

Plotnick's current research projects address the effects of being childless, the health and economic well-being of the elderly, the effect of child support policies on nonmarital childbearing, and teenagers' views of marriage and parenthood.

He previously served on the faculty at Bates College from 1975-77, and Dartmouth College from 1977-84.

He has been a visiting scholar at the Russell Sage Foundation, and former director of UW's Center for Studies in Demography and Ecology from 1997-02.

Plotnick holds a Ph.D. and MA in economics from University of California, Berkeley, and BA in mathematics from Princeton University.

Curriculum Vitae (214 KB PDF)