Brad J. Hershbein

Brad Hershbein is a senior economist and deputy director of research at the W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research. He also serves as a communications advisor at the Institute and as a non-resident fellow in Economic Studies at the Brookings Institution.

His research focuses on the transition between education and career and how employers hire and compensate workers. His work spans higher education access and completion, the long-term effects of recessions on places and employer skill demands, and measuring both employer market power and nontraditional work activities such as contracting and outsourcing. His work has appeared in several leading academic journals and has been covered by the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, and other national outlets. He earned his BA in economics from Harvard College, and his PhD, also in economics, from the University of Michigan. Before graduate school, he worked at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston.

Research Highlights

Training Contact Tracing Workers: The Need Right Now

April 17, 2020 · Research Highlight

3rd IZA Labor Statistics Workshop: Contract Work

July 19, 2019 · Research Highlight

Upjohn Institute report offers ideas to help communities build broadly-shared prosperity

March 14, 2019 · Research Highlight
Report outlines strategies that small and medium-sized cities, along with rural areas, can follow to create jobs for their residents

Pre-K Impact Depends on Quality

April 3, 2018 · Research Highlight

College grads earn less if they grew up poor

March 4, 2016 · Research Highlight

Kalamazoo Promise boosts college completion

June 25, 2015 · Research Highlight

What we really know (and don’t) about student debt

January 31, 2015 · Research Highlight