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Mitchell Hoffman

University of Toronto Rotman School of Management, Canada, and NBER, USA

IZA World of Labor role

Author

Current position

Assistant Professor, University of Toronto Rotman School of Management, Canada

Research interest

Behavioral economics, organizational economics, productivity, strategy

Website

http://www.rotman.utoronto.ca/FacultyAndResearch/Faculty/FacultyBios/Hoffman.aspx

Positions/functions as a policy advisor

University of Toronto Rotman School of Management, Canada, and NBER, USA

Past positions

Postdoctoral Associate, Yale School of Management, 2012–2013

Qualifications

PhD Economics, University of California, Berkeley, 2012

Selected publications

  • "Compulsory voting, turnout, and government spending: Evidence from Austria." Journal of Public Economics 145 (2017): 103–115 (with G. León and M. Lombard).

  • "How is information valued? Evidence from framed field experiments." The Economic Journal 126:595 (2016): 1884–1911.

  • "The value of hiring through employee referrals." Quarterly Journal of Economics 130:2 (2015): 805–839 (with S. Burks, B. Cowgill, and M. Housman).

  • "Who's naughty? Who's nice? Social preferences in online industries." Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization 109 (2015): 173–187 (with J. Morgan).

  • "Does higher income make you more altruistic? Evidence from the Holocaust." Review of Economics and Statistics 93:3 (2011): 876–887.

article(s)

  • The value of hiring through employee referrals in developed countries

    Firms can benefit by hiring employee referred candidates; however, there are potential drawbacks that must be considered

    Mitchell Hoffman, June 2017
    Companies frequently hire new employees based on referrals from existing employees, who often recommend friends or family members. There are numerous possible benefits from this, such as lower turnover, possibly higher productivity, lower recruiting costs, and beneficial commonalities related to shared employee values. On the other hand, hiring through employee referrals may disadvantage under-represented minorities, entail greater firm costs in the form of higher wages, lead to undesirable commonalities, and reflect nepotism. A growing body of research explores these considerations.
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