About

Erik Hurst is an economist whose work lies at the intersection of macroeconomics, labor economics and urban economics. His research addresses topics such as declining male participation rates, the determinants of U.S. wage growth, the welfare losses to society stemming from gender and racial discrimination, the causes and consequences of urban gentrification, the economics of time use, small business dynamics, life-cycle consumption profiles, the role of housing and mortgage markets in driving macroeconomic conditions, and the choice to invest in human capital.

Research topics

• Labour economics
• Economics
• Political Science
• Medicine
• Computer Science
• Demographic economics
• Accounting
• Engineering
• Physical therapy
• Business
• Keynesian economics
• Internal medicine

Selected publications

• The Macroeconomic Dynamics of Labor Market Policies

  National Bureau of Economic Research · 2025-03-01

  reportOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  We develop a dynamic macroeconomic framework with worker heterogeneity, putty-clay adjustment frictions, and firm monopsony power to study the distributional impact of labor market policies over time.Our framework reconciles the well-known tension between low short-run and high long-run elasticities of substitution across inputs of production, especially among workers with different skills within a same education group.We use this framework to evaluate the effects of redistributive policies such as the minimum wage and the Earned Income Tax Credit.We argue that since these policies generate slow transition dynamics that can differ greatly in the short and long run, a serious assessment of their overall impact must take account of the entire time path of the responses they induce.

  PublisherDOI

• The Macroeconomic Dynamics of Labor Market Policies

  2025-03-28

  preprintOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  We develop a dynamic macroeconomic framework with worker heterogeneity, putty-clay adjustment frictions, and firm monopsony power to study the distributional impact of labor market policies over time. Our framework reconciles the well-known tension between low short-run and high long-run elasticities of substitution across inputs of production, especially among workers with different skills within a same education group. We use this framework to evaluate the effects of redistributive policies such as the minimum wage and the Earned Income Tax Credit. We argue that since these policies generate slow transition dynamics that can differ greatly in the short and long run, a serious assessment of their overall impact must take account of the entire time path of the responses they induce.

  PublisherDOI

• The Macroeconomic Dynamics of Labor Market Policies

  SSRN Electronic Journal · 2025-01-01

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Erratum: The Aggregate Implications of Regional Business Cycles

  Econometrica · 2025-01-01

  article
  PublisherDOI

• Task-Based Discrimination

  American Economic Review · 2024-05-30 · 16 citations

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  We develop a task-based model of occupational sorting to identify and quantify the effect of discrimination, racial skill gaps, and aggregate task prices on Black-White differences in labor market outcomes over time. At the heart of our framework is the idea that the size and nature of racial barriers faced by Black workers vary by the task requirements of each job. We define a new task that measures the extent to which individuals interact with others as part of their job. We show that this measure is a good proxy for the extent of discrimination in the economy. (JEL J15, J23, J31, J71, M51)

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• The evolution of income, consumption, and leisure inequality in the US, 1980-2010

  2024-10-07 · 33 citations

  report

  Recent research has documented that income inequality in the United States has increased dramatically over the prior three decades. There has been less of a consensus, however, on whether the increase in income inequality was matched by an equally large increase in consumption inequality. Most researchers have studied this question using data from the Consumer Expenditure Survey (CE) and some studies have suggested that the increase in consumption inequality has been modest. Unfortunately ,there is now mounting evidence that the CE is plagued by serious non-classical measurement error, which hinders the extent to which definitive conclusions can be made about the extent to which consumption inequality has evolved over the last three decades. In this paper, we use a variety of different techniques to overcome the measurement error problems with the CE. First, we use data from the diary component of the CE, focusing on categories where measurement error has been found to be less of an issue. Second, we explore inequality measures within the CE using the value of vehicles owned, a consumption component that is considered to be measured well. Third, we try to account directly for the non-classical measurement error of the CE by comparing the spending on luxuries (entertainment) relative to necessities (food). This is similar to the recent approach taken by Browning and Crossley (2009) and Aguiar and Bils (2011). Finally, we use expenditure data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics to explore the dynamics of alternative measures of consumption inequality. All of our different methods yield similar results. We find that consumption inequality within the U.S. between 1980 and 2010 has increased by nearly the same amount as income inequality.

  PublisherDOI

• A Theory of How Workers Keep Up With Inflation

  National Bureau of Economic Research · 2024-12-01 · 7 citations

  reportOpen accessSenior author

  In this paper, we develop a model that combines elements of modern macro labor theories with nominal wage rigidities to study the consequences of unexpected inflation on the labor market.The slow and costly adjustment of real wages within a match after a burst of inflation incentivizes workers to engage in job-to-job transitions.Such dynamics after a surge in inflation lead to a rise in aggregate vacancies relative to unemployment, associating a seemingly tight labor market with lower average real wages.Calibrating with pre-2020 data, we show the model can simultaneously match the trends in worker flows and wage changes during the 2021-2024 period.Using historical data, we further show that prior periods of high inflation were also associated with an increase in vacancies and an upward shift in the Beveridge curve.Finally, we show that other "hot labor market" theories that can cause an increase in the aggregate vacancy-to-unemployment rate have implications that are inconsistent with the worker flows and wage dynamics observed during the recent inflationary period.Collectively, our calibrated model implies that the recent inflation in the United States, all else equal, reduced the welfare of workers through real wage declines and other costly actions, providing a model-driven reason why workers report they dislike inflation.

  PublisherDOI

• A Theory of How Workers Keep Up with Inflation

  SSRN Electronic Journal · 2024-01-01

  articleOpen accessSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• Editorial

  NBER Macroeconomics Annual · 2024-04-01

  editorial
  PublisherDOI

• Replication package for "Income Growth and the Distributional Effects of Urban Spatial Sorting"

  Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research) · 2023-03-03

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  This package contains the code, data and instructions necessary to replicate the figures and tables in Couture, V., C. Gaubert, J. Handbury and E. Hurst (accepted for publication), "Income Growth and the Distributional Effects of Urban Spatial Sorting", Review of Economic Studies.

  PublisherDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Mark Aguiar

  188 shared

• Joseph Vavra

  University of Chicago

  101 shared

• Amit Seru

  85 shared

• Benjamin J. Keys

  85 shared

• Kerwin Kofi Charles

  69 shared

• Mark Bils

  University of Rochester

  41 shared

• Patrick J. Kehoe

  40 shared

• Thomas Winberry

  California University of Pennsylvania

  40 shared

Education

• Ph.D., Economics

  University of Chicago

  2005

• M.A., Economics

  University of Chicago

  2002

• B.A., Economics

  University of California, Berkeley

  1999

Awards & honors

• TIAA-CREF Paul A. Samuelson Award for Outstanding Scholarly…
• Ewing Marion Kauffman Prize Medal for Distinguished Research…
• Emory Williams Award for Outstanding MBA Teaching (2008)
• Emory Williams Award for Outstanding MBA Teaching (2010)
• McKinsey Award for Excellence in Teaching (2017)