Overview
Professor Hotz specializes in the subjects of applied econometrics, labor economics, economic demography, and economics of the family. His studies have investigated the impacts of social programs, such as welfare-to-work training; the relationship between childbearing patterns and labor force participation of U.S. women; the effects of teenage pregnancy; the child care market; the Earned Income Tax Credit; and other such subjects. He began conducting his studies in 1977, and has since published his work extensively in books and leading academic journals. Many of his projects have been funded by grants awarded by the National Institute of Health and the National Science Foundation. He is currently completing a project with Duncan Thomas on, “Preference and Economic Decision-Making” under a grant from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. His recent works also include, “Tax Policy and Low-Wage Labor Markets: New Work on Employment, Effectiveness and Administration” with John Karl Scholz and Charles Mullin; and “Designing New Models to Explain Family Change and Variation” with S. Philip Morgan. Along with his duties as an independent researcher, Professor Hotz has also held positions as a research associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research, the National Poverty Center, the Institute for the Study of Labor, and the Institute for Research on Poverty. He is presently a member of the Committee on National Statistics for the National Academy of Sciences’ Research Council.
Current Appointments & Affiliations
Arts and Sciences Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Economics
·
2024 - Present
Economics,
Trinity College of Arts & Sciences
Professor Emeritus of Economics
·
2024 - Present
Economics,
Trinity College of Arts & Sciences
Professor Emeritus in the Sanford School of Public Policy
·
2024 - Present
Sanford School of Public Policy
Faculty Research Scholar of DuPRI's Population Research Center
·
2010 - Present
Duke Population Research Center,
Duke Population Research Institute
Recent Publications
Data Privacy Protection: A More Sustainable Future for Applied Social Science Research
Journal Article Harvard Data Science Review · August 20, 2025 Full text CiteAdult Children's Responsiveness to Parental Needs During the Pandemic.
Journal Article Journal of marriage and the family · April 2025 ObjectivesGuided by the life-course principles of linked lives embedded in historical time and place, we investigated whether nonresident adult children provided financial and time assistance to parents in response to their needs during the COVID- ... Full text CiteThe Association between the Volatility of Income and Life Expectancy in the United States.
Journal Article Journal of labor economics · April 2025 We examine the relationship between income volatility and life expectancy in mid-sized U.S. commuting zones between 2006 and 2014. We use a commercial dataset, InfoUSA, to measure income volatility which we link to estimates of life expectancy by gender, c ... Full text CiteRecent Grants
Tracing the Health Consequences of Family Support during the COVID-19 Pandemic
ResearchPrincipal Investigator · Awarded by Syracuse University · 2022 - 2024Add Health Parent Study: Phase I
ResearchPrincipal Investigator · Awarded by National Institutes of Health · 2013 - 2019Panel Study of Income Dynamics
ResearchPrincipal Investigator · Awarded by University of Michigan · 2012 - 2018View All Grants
Education, Training & Certifications
University of Wisconsin, Madison ·
1980
Ph.D.
University of Wisconsin, Madison ·
1977
M.S.
University of Notre Dame ·
1972
B.A.