Daniel S. Hamermesh
(on leave)
Professor Emeritus — Ph.D., Yale University
Sue Killam Professor Emeritus
Contact
- E-mail: hamermes@eco.utexas.edu
- Phone: 512-350-7364
- Office: BRB 2.162
- Office Hours: None. Please email me.
- Campus Mail Code: C3100
Biography
Daniel S. Hamermesh is Professor in Economics, Royal Holloway University of London and Sue Killam Professor Emeritus in the Foundation of Economics at the University of Texas at Austin. His A.B. is from the University of Chicago (1965), his Ph.D. from Yale (1969). He taught from 1969-73 at Princeton, from 1973-93 at Michigan State, and at Texas from 1993-2014. He has held visiting professorships at universities in North America, Europe, Australia and Asia, and lectured at over 250 universities in 48 states and 33 foreign countries. His research, published in nearly 100 refereed papers in scholarly journals, has concentrated on time use, labor demand, discrimination, academic labor markets and unusual applications of labor economics (to beauty, sleep and suicide).
Check out the Economic Thought of the Day

Hamermesh is a Fellow of the Econometric Society and the Society of Labor Economists, a Research Associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research and the Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), and Past President of the Society of Labor Economists and of the Midwest Economics Association. In 2013 he received the biennial Mincer Award for Lifetime Contributions to Labor Economics of the Society of Labor Economists; the annual IZA Prize in Labor of the Institute for the Study of Labor; and the biennial John R. Commons Award of the international economics honor society OΔE. His magnum opus, Labor Demand, was published by Princeton University Press in 1993. The same press published his Beauty Pays in 2011. In 2014 Worth Publishers published the fifth edition of his Economics Is Everywhere, a series of 400 vignettes designed to illustrate the ubiquity of economics in everyday life and how the simple tools in a microeconomics principles class can be used.His undergraduate teaching, particularly of large classes in introductory economics, has gained him several University-wide teaching awards.
Hamermesh has been married for 48 years to Frances W. Hamermesh, an attorney, and they have two sons. His hobbies include long-distance running, at which his skills are rapidly deteriorating; foreign travel, in which increasing practice has heightened his enjoyment, and spending time with his six grandchildren, ages 19 to 9, whom he does not see often enough.
Courses
ECO 304K • Introduction To Microeconomics
33240 • Fall 2015
Meets TTH 11:00AM-12:30PM SAC 1.402
ECO 304K • Intro To Microeconomics-Honors
34405-34415 • Fall 2013
Meets TTH 11:00AM-12:30PM BUR 106
ECO 304K • Intro To Microeconomics-Honors
34100-34110 • Fall 2012
Meets TTH 11:00AM-12:30PM BUR 106
ECO 376M • Economics Of Life
34320 • Fall 2012
Meets TTH 2:00PM-3:30PM UTC 3.112
ECO 304K • Introduction To Microeconomics
34020 • Fall 2011
Meets TTH 11:00AM-12:30PM BUR 106
ECO 304K • Introduction To Microeconomics
33315 • Fall 2010
Meets TTH 11:00AM-12:30PM BUR 106
ECO 341K • Introduction To Econometrics
33480 • Fall 2010
Meets TTH 2:00PM-3:30PM BUR 220
ECO 304K • Intro To Microeconomics-Honors
33620-33630 • Fall 2009
Meets TTH 11:00AM-12:30PM BUR 106
ECO 376M • Economics Of Life-W
33915 • Fall 2009
Meets TTH 2:00PM-3:30PM BRB 2.136
ECO 376M • Economics Of Life-W
33975 • Spring 2008
Meets TTH 9:30AM-11:00AM BRB 2.136
(also listed as WGS 345)
ECO 304K • Introduction To Microeconomics
34210 • Fall 2007
Meets TTH 11:00AM-12:30PM BUR 106
ECO 341K • Intro To Econometrics-Honors
33265 • Spring 2007
Meets TTH 11:00AM-12:30PM BRB 1.118
ECO 304K • Introduction To Microeconomics
33760 • Fall 2006
Meets TTH 11:00AM-12:30PM BUR 106
ECO 341K • Intro To Econometrics-Honors
32295 • Spring 2006
Meets TTH 11:00AM-12:30PM BRB 1.120
ECO 304K • Introduction To Microeconomics
31570 • Fall 2005
Meets TTH 11:00AM-12:30PM JES A121A
ECO 324 • Intro To Labor Economics
30885 • Spring 2005
Meets TTH 11:00AM-12:30PM UTC 3.122
ECO 304K • Introduction To Microeconomics
31300 • Fall 2004
Meets TTH 11:00AM-12:30PM BUR 106
ECO 304K • Introduction To Microeconomics
29755 • Fall 2003
Meets TTH 11:00AM-12:30PM BUR 106
ECO 341K • Introduction To Econometrics
29205 • Spring 2003
Meets TTH 12:30PM-2:00PM UTC 3.124
ECO 376M • Economics Of Life-W
29280 • Spring 2003
Meets TTH 11:00AM-12:30PM BRB 2.136
ECO 304K • Introduction To Microeconomics
29445 • Fall 2002
Meets TTH 11:00AM-12:30PM UTC 2.112A
ECO 341K • Introduction To Econometrics
29280 • Spring 2002
Meets TTH 12:30PM-2:00PM UTC 3.124
ECO 304K • Introduction To Microeconomics
29910 • Fall 2001
Meets TTH 12:30PM-2:00PM BAT 7
ECO 341K • Introduction To Econometrics
29575 • Spring 2001
Meets TTH 9:30AM-11:00AM GAR 313
ECO 376M • Economics Of Life-W
29625 • Spring 2001
Meets TTH 12:30PM-2:00PM BRB 1.120
ECO 304K • Introduction To Microeconomics
29870 • Fall 2000
Meets TTH 9:30AM-11:00AM WCH 1.120
ECO 376M • Economics Of Life-W
29105 • Spring 2000
Meets TTH 9:30AM-11:00AM BRB 1.120
Research & Books
Beauty Pays
BEAUTY PAYS. Princeton University Press, 2011, Cover
BEAUTY PAYS. Princeton University Press, 2011, Table of Contents
Link to Daily Show Nov. 14, 2011, segment
Link to Fox and Friends, Aug. 31, 2011, segment
Beauty Pays Research Papers
General: "Beauty and the Labor Market," American Economic Review, 1994 PDF Version
Lawyers: "Beauty, Productivity and Discrimination; Lawyers' Looks and Lucre," Journal of Labor Economics, 1998 PDF Version
Ad. execs: "Business Success and Businesses' Beauty Capital," Economics Letters, 2000 Word Version
China: "Dress for Success: Does Primping Pay?" Labour Economics, 2002 PDF Version
College Teaching: "Beauty in the Classroom: Instructors' Pulchritude and Putative Pedagogical Productivity," Economics of Education Review, 2005 PDF Version
Economists: "Changing Looks and Changing 'Discrimination': The Beauty of Economists," Economics Letters, 2006 PDF Version
Happiness: "'Beauty Is the Promise of Happiness'"? European Economic Review, 2013 PDF Version
Economics Is Everywhere
Cover for Economics is Everywhere
Table of Contents, Description and Chapter 1
Time Use Papers
"Why Are Professors 'Poorly Paid'" PDF File
"Taking Time Use Seriously" (with J. Biddle) PDF File
"Labor Supply Elasticities: Overcoming Nonclassical Measurement Error Using More Accurate Hours Data" Journal of Human Resources, 2019(with G. Barrett) PDF File
"Racial/Ethnic Differences in Non-Work at Work" (with K. Genadek and M. Burda) PDF File
"Non-Work at Work, Unemployment and Labor Productivity" (with K. Genadek and M. Burda) PDF File
"The Stress Cost of Children" European Economics Review 2018 (with H. Buddelmeyer and M. Wooden) PDF File
"Long Workweeks and Strange Hours" Industrial and Labor Relations Review, 2015 PDF File
"Not Enough Time?" American Economist, Sept. 2014 PDF File
"A Gift of Time" Labour Economics, 2013 (with D. Kawaguchi and J. Lee) PDF File
"Cyclical Variation in Labor Hours and Productivity Using the ATUS," American Economic Association, Papers and Proceedings, 2013 (with M. Burda and J. Stewart) PDF File ATUS-Based Productivity Series
"How Do Immigrants Spend Their Time? The Process of Assimilation" Journal of Population Economics, 2013 (with S. Trejo) PDF File
"Total Work and Gender: Facts and Possible Explanations," Journal of Population Economics, 2013 (with M. Burda and P. Weil) PDF File
"Aggregate Impacts of a Gift of Time," American Economic Association, Papers and Proceedings, 2012 (with J. Lee and D. Kawaguchi) PDF File
"The Timing of Labor Demand," Annales d'Economie et de Statistique, 2012 (with A. Cardoso and J.Varejao) PDF File
"Unemployment, Market Work and Household Production" Economics Letters, May 2010 (with M. Burda) PDF File
"Incentives, Time Use and BMI: The Roles of Eating, Grazing and Goods," Economics and Human Biology, March 2010 PDF File
“A Structural Model of the Fixed Time Costs of Market Work,” Economics Letters, September 2009 (with S. Donald) PDF File
“The Demand for Variety: A Household Production Perspective,” Review of Economics and Statistics, August 2008 (with R. Gronau) PDF File
“Cues for Timing and Coordination: Latitude, Letterman and Longitude,” Journal of Labor Economics, April 2008 (with C. Myers and M. Pocock) PDF File
"Direct Estimates of Household Production," Economics Letters, January 2008 PDF File
"The Economics of Workaholism," Berkekley Electronic Journal in Economic Analysis and Policy: Contributions, 2008 (with Joel Slemrod). PDF File
"The Distribution of Total Work in the EU and US," (with M. Burda and P. Weil), in Boeri et al, Oxford University Press, 2008 PDF File
“Time to Eat: Household Production Under Increasing Income Inequality,” American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Nov. 2007, PDF File
“Stressed Out on Four Continents: Time Crunch or Yuppie Kvetch,” Review of Economics and Statistics, May 2007, (with J. Lee) PDF File
“Time vs. Goods: The Value of Measuring Household Production Technologies,” Review of Income and Wealth, March 2006 (with R. Gronau) PDF File
"Routine,” European Economic Review, January 2005 PDF File
"Timing, Togetherness and Time Windfalls," Journal of Population Economics, November 2002 PDF File
"Changing Inequality in Markets for Workplace Amenities," Quarterly Journal of Economics, November 1999 PDF File
"Crime and the Timing of Work," Journal of Urban Economics, March 1999 PDF File
“The Timing of Work over Time,” Economic Journal, January 1999 PDF File
“When We Work,” American Economic Association, Papers and Proceedings, May 1998 PDF File
"Sleep and the Allocation of Time," Journal of Political Economy, October 1990 (with J. Biddle) PDF File
"Shirking or Productive Schmoozing: Wages and the Allocation of Time at Work," Industrial and Labor Relations Review, January, 1990 PDF File
Unpublished Papers
Co-authorship in Economic History and Economics: Are We Any Different? Explorations in Economic History 2018 (with A. Seltzer)
Citations in Economics: Measurement, Uses and Impacts (forthcoming Journal of Economic Literature, March 2018)
Non-Work at Work, Unemployment and Labor Productivity (with K. Genadeck and M. Burda)
The Stress Cost of Children forthcoming European Economic Review, 2018 (with H. Buddelmeyer and M. Wooden)
Gossip Files
Salary Information
University Salaries-UT and Other Major Institutions, 1980 -
Citations to Labor Economists, 1991-
UT Graduates' Salaries--Report of a Survey
Salaries of Full Professors of Economics in Major Public Universities, 1998-99--2016-17
Published And Unpublished Papers
"Facts and Myths About Refereeing," Journal of Economic Perspectives, 1994.
"Age and Productivity Among Economists," Review of Economics and Statistics, 1998.
"Tools or Toys? The Impact of High Technology on Scholarly Productivity," Economic Inquiry, 2002.
"The Determinants of Econometric Society Fellows Elections," Econometrica, 2003.
"Reputation and Earnings: The Roles of Quality and Quantity in Academe," Economic Inquiry, 2012.
"Six Decades of Top Economics Publishing: Who and How?" Journal of Economic Literature, 2013.
"Citations in Economics: Measurement, Uses and Impacts" Journal of Economic Literature, March 2018
"Why Are Professors 'Poorly Paid'" PDF File
Miscellaneous
Recent Journal Acceptance Rates
Age of Authors of Articles in Major Journals
Advice for Economists
Viewpoint: Replication in Economics (Can. Journ. Econs., August 2007)
Top 10 Tips for Jump-Starting Your Career (CSWEP Newsletter, Spring/Summer 2006)
An Old Male Economist's Advice to Young Female Economists (CSWEP Newsletter, Winter 2005)
A Media Guide for Economists (Journ. of Econ. Ed., 2004)
Microeconomic Principles Teaching Tricks (AEA Papers & Proceedings, May 2002)
Professional Etiquette for the Mature Economist (AEA Papers & Proceedings, May1993)
A Young Economist's Guide to Professional Etiquette (Journ. Econ Persps., Winter 1992)