Erik Hurst is an economist whose work lies at the intersection of macroeconomics, labor economics and urban economics. His research has addressed 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. His research has been extensively covered in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, and The Economist.
In 2006, Hurst was awarded the TIAA-CREF Paul A. Samuelson Award for Outstanding Scholarly Writing on Lifelong Financial Security for the work examining how individuals use home production to maintain their consumption during retirement. In 2012, Hurst was also award the Ewing Marion Kauffman Prize Medal for Distinguished Research in Entrepreneurship. In both 2008 and 2010, the Chicago Booth MBAs selected him as the recipient of the Emory Williams Award for Outstanding MBA Teaching. Hurst also was the 2017 recipient of the McKinsey Award for Excellence in Teaching bestowed biannually to one Chicago Booth faculty member.
Hurst is a member of the Economic Fluctuations Group, Aging Group, and Public Economics Group at the National Bureau of Economic Research. Hurst was a former co-editor of the Journal of Political Economy, the NBER Macro-Annual, and the Journal of Economic Perspectives. Hurst is a fellow of the Econometrics Society and the IZA Institute of Labor Economics. In 2024, he was elected into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Hurst earned a bachelor’s degree in economics and finance from Clarkson University in 1993. He received a master’s degree in economics in 1995 and a PhD in economics in 1999 from the University of Michigan. He joined the Chicago Booth faculty in 1999.