Paul Allan David (born May 24, 1935) is an American academic economist who is noted for his work on the economics of scientific progress and technical change. In addition, he is also well known for his work in American economic history and in demographic economics. He was formerly a president of the Economic History Association and is a Fellow of the Econometric Society, a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a fellow of the British Academy, a fellow of the Oxford Internet Institute and All Souls College, Oxford, a member of the American Philosophical Society, a Professor Emeritus and Senior Fellow of Stanford University's Institute for Economic Policy Research and Professorial fellow at the UNU-MERIT.