Mitchell Hoffman

Mitchell Hoffman is the Richard F. Aster Jr. Professor of Economics at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB), within the Department of Economics, College of Letters & Science. He also serves as Director of the NBER Personnel Economics Working Group. His research focuses on workplace productivity, labor economics, personnel/organizational economics, and behavioral economics, with emphasis on hiring practices, firm performance, and societal impacts.

Hoffman holds a BA from Yale University and a PhD from UC Berkeley. He has held academic positions at UCSB and previously at the University of Toronto Rotman School of Management. His research has been recognized with prestigious awards, including being a finalist for the 2024 Exeter Prize for his work on employee referral programs.

Key research areas include employee referral programs, information frictions in labor markets, bankruptcy stigma effects, and the role of managerial skills in reducing employee attrition. He frequently collaborates with institutions like the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) and has published in top journals such as the Journal of Political Economy and Quarterly Journal of Economics.

Hoffman teaches courses on personnel economics at both undergraduate and PhD levels at UCSB, and has extensive teaching experience in strategic management and econometrics. He actively mentors research assistants and maintains affiliations with the Consortium for Applied Research in Economics and the Theory and Experiment Consortium.