James Peck, professor in the Department of Economics, was named interim chair of the department, effective July 1, 2018, through June 30, 2019. 

Peck was a faculty member at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management before coming to Ohio State, where he has since received the Joan N. Huber Faculty Fellow Award for Excellence in the Social and Behavioral Sciences (2011) and the Big Ten Academic Alliance’s Academic Leadership Program fellowship (2011-2012).

Peck has made important contributions to economists’ understanding of uncertainty and asymmetric information in markets, including price bubbles and bank runs. With his colleagues, Peck formed a theory of destructive competition in the presence of demand uncertainty, which was cited in a U.S. Supreme Court decision.

He teaches microeconomic theory and game theory at both the undergraduate and graduate levels, and is also an associate editor of the Journal of Economic Theory.

"As chair, I will do everything I can to enhance teaching, learning and research in the economics department and the broader university community," Peck said.