Experts

David Leblang

Randolph P. Compton Professor
Leblang Current CV 7-16-18.pdf

Fast Facts

  • Director, Global Policy Center, Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy
  • Studies global migration and international investment and the spread of democracy
  • Expertise in international political economy, politics, economic policy, financial crises

Areas Of Expertise

  • Foreign Affairs
  • Immigration
  • Economic Issues
  • Finance and Banking
  • Trade
  • Political Parties and Movements

David Leblang is the Miller Center's Randolph P. Compton Professor and director of policy research. He is also the Ambassador Henry J. Taylor and Mrs. Marion R. Taylor Endowed Professor of Politics and professor of public policy at the University's Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy, where he is director of the Global Policy Center. He currently serves as interim associate dean for student experience and strategic initiatives in UVA's College and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.

A scholar in the area of international political economy, he is currently working on two major projects. The first is a book-length study of the role that global migration plays in linking host and home countries and how these linkages help explain observed patterns of international investment, remittance flows, and the spread of democracy. The second project is related but focuses on the destination choices of refugees and illegal migrants. Prior to studying flows of migrants and refugees, Leblang's projects were in the area of global capital flows: the causes and consequences of exchange rate arrangements, capital controls, and currency crises. His work has been published in outlets such as the American Political Science Review, the American Journal of Political Science, International Organization, World Politics and Economics and Politics. He currently serves on the steering committee of the International Political Economy Society and is the editor of SSRN's International Political Economy Migration eJournal.

Prior to arriving at the University of Virginia in 2008, Leblang held teaching positions at the University of Colorado, the University of North Texas, and the College of William and Mary. He has been a visiting scholar in the research department of the International Monetary Fund, the European Commission's Directorate of Economics and Finance, and has been a visiting fellow at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales in Paris, the Centro Studi Luca d'Agliano in Milan, and the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya. In 2015, Leblang was awarded the Outstanding Faculty Mentoring Award by the University of Virginia and in 2016 he received the Outstanding Mentoring Award from the Society of Women in International Political Economy of the International Studies Association.

Featured Publications

Ties That Bind
The Ties That Bind

David Leblang (co-author)

David Leblang News Feed

Photograph of afternoon panel at Rothermere American Institute on May 17, 2022.
The state of play: the Biden administration at midterm
In a round-table discussion, participants including Randolph P. Compton Professor David Leblang at the University of Virginia's Miller Center addressed the successes and failures of the Biden administration to date, and prospects for the midterm elections in November.
David Leblang RAIOxford
Brookings
Rural poverty, climate change, and family migration from Guatemala
Annual apprehensions of people from Guatemala arriving in family units at the U.S. southern border grew exponentially between 2012 and 2019—from just 340 to a whopping 185,134 (Figure 1). As a proportion of total Guatemalan apprehensions, those apprehended as family units grew from less than 5 percent to 70 percent in the same period. This increase happened before the pandemic, before the 2020 hurricanes that devastated parts of Central America, and before President Biden was elected. The underlying conditions driving migration predate these events and still exist today and—without an adequate policy response—seem set to continue.
David Leblang Brookings Institution
Refugees from Afghanistan waiting to be airlifted out, August 2021
How resettling its refugees might help Afghanistan's future
Migrants help their home countries by building trade ties and by sending back both cash and political knowledge.
David Leblang and Margaret Peters The Washington Post
AP News
Climate change creates migrants. Biden considers protections.
UVA professor David Leblang says that despite increased climate-driven migration, there's little political will to help those migrants.
David Leblang AP News
Immigrants getting onto a truck
Climate, conflict, and Honduran migration
The increase in migration from Honduras over the last several years and the growing proportion of migrants arriving as family units is driven by persistently high levels of violence coupled with sharp increases in food insecurity.
David Leblang and Sarah Bermeo The Brookings Institution
Brookings Blog
David Leblang, on climate, violence, and Honduran migration to the U.S.
David Leblang discusses effects of climate and violence on Honduran migration to the U.S. Leblang is a senior fellow at the Miller Center and professor of public policy at UVA.
David Leblang Brookings Blog