Seth Zimmerman

Assistant Professor, Booth School of Business

Bio

Seth Zimmerman is an Assistant Professor of Economics at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. Professor Zimmerman studies labor economics and public finance, with a focus on the economics of education. His research combines partnerships with local, state, and national governments with field-experimental and observational methods to evaluate public policy and understand economic behavior. Topics of particular interest include the market and policy determinants of educational attainment and the returns to education, as well as the role of firm- and school-specific social networks in job-finding and career success over the long run. Zimmerman’s work has appeared publications such as the Journal of Labor Economics, the Journal of Public Economics, and the American Economic Review, and also has been featured in national and international news outlets, including the New York Times and the Washington Post. Professor Zimmerman is the recipient of a grant from the National Science Foundation and the George Trimis Dissertation Prize, among other honors.

 

Selected Publications

“Elite Colleges and Upward Mobility to Top Jobs and Top Incomes” American Economic Review
109(1) (2019) 1-47 (lead article).

“(Un)informed College Choice: Evidence from Linked Survey and Administrative Data” with
Justine Hastings, Christopher Neilson, and Anely Ramirez, Economics of Education Review 51
(2016) 136-151.

“Connecting Student Loans to Labor Market Outcomes: Policy Lessons from Chile” with Harald Beyer, Justine Hastings, and Christopher Neilson, American Economic Review Proceedings 105 (2015) 508-513.

“The Returns to College Admission for Academically Marginal Students’,’ Journal of Labor Economics 32(4) (2014), 711-754.

“The Effect of School Construction on Test Scores, School Enrollment, and Home Prices” with
Christopher Neilson, Journal of Public Economics 120 (2014) 18-31.

“The Costs of and Net Returns to College Major” with Joseph Altonji, forthcoming in NBER
volume Productivity in Higher Education.

 

CV

Click here to download a copy of Seth Zimmerman’s CV.