Robert W. Bednarzik is a Visiting Professor at Georgetown Public Policy Institute (GPPI), joining the faculty full time in 2004. He had been an Adjunct at GPPI for over 10 years, guiding thesis students interested in international and/or labor policy issues. He recently retired from the U.S. Department of Labor after 30 years of public service. Twenty of those years were spent as a Senior Economist in the Bureau of International Labor Affairs studying the impact of international phenomenon on U.S. workers’ employment and wages, and comparing how workers adjust to job loss with similar situations in other countries. He paid particular attention to the policies and programs necessary to support this adjustment. Spent the early part of his government career at the Bureau of Labor Statistics learning databases and analyzing the domestic employment situation.

He served as chair of the OECD's Employment Working Party for five years, responsible for reviewing chapters in the OECD's flagship annual publication the Employment Outlook. Dr. Bednarzik also was part of OECD teams assigned to review the labor markets of Poland and the Czech Republic prior to their entry into the OECD. He served on the U.S.-European Union Working Group to guide joint work between the U.S. Department of Labor and the EU's Commission on Employment and Social Policy. He was the senior staff person for the annual G8 Labor Ministers meetings. He participated and represented the U.S. Department of Labor at numerous international meetings and conferences at the OECD, EU, and the International Labor Organization (ILO).

He joined IZA as a Research Fellow in August 2006.