James Ziliak, Ph.D.
Professor, Carol Martin Gatton Chair in Microeconomics, University Research Professor, Director of the Center for Poverty Research
Education
- Ph.D., Indiana University, 1993
- M.A., Indiana University, 1990
- B.A., Purdue University, 1988
- B.S., Purdue University, 1988
James P. Ziliak holds the Carol Martin Gatton Endowed Chair in Microeconomics and University Research Professor in the Department of Economics at the University of Kentucky. He currently serves as Founding Director of the Center for Poverty Research. He previously served as Department Chair, Founding Executive Director of the Kentucky Federal Statistical Research Data Center, and as assistant and associate professor of economics at the University of Oregon. Ziliak has held visiting positions at the Brookings Institution, Russell Sage Foundation, University College London, University of Michigan, and University of Wisconsin. He is a Research Fellow at the Institute for Fiscal Studies in London, England. Ziliak's research expertise is in the areas of labor economics, poverty, food insecurity, and tax and transfer policy. He received a BS degree in economics and BA degree in sociology from Purdue University, and his Ph.D. in Economics from Indiana University.
Teaching Expertise:
- Labor Economics
Research Expertise:
- Poverty; Inequality
- Food Insecurity
- Taxation
Selected Publications:
- Blundell, Richard, Hugo Lopez, and James P. Ziliak. 2025. “Labor Market Inequality and the Changing Life Cycle Profile of Male and Female Wages,” American Economic Journal: Applied Economics 17(4): 100-133.
- Blundell, Richard, Christopher Bollinger, Charles Hokayem, and James P. Ziliak. 2025. “Interpreting Cohort Profiles of Lifecycle Earnings Volatility,” Journal of Labor Economics 43(S1): S55-S82.
- Ziliak, James P., Christopher Mackie, and Constance F. Citro (editors). 2023. An Updated Measure of Poverty: (Re)Drawing the Line. National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.
- Hartley, Robert Paul, Carlos Lamarche, and James P. Ziliak. 2022. “Welfare Reform and the Intergenerational Transmission of Dependence,” Journal of Political Economy 103(3): 523-565.
- Jones, Maggie R., and James P. Ziliak. 2022. “The Antipoverty Impact of the EITC: New Estimates from Survey and Administrative Tax Records,” National Tax Journal 75(3): 451-479.
