Barry Hirsch is the W.J. Usery Chair of the American Workplace at the Andrew Young School of Policy Studies, Department of Economics, Georgia State University, Atlanta, Georgia. Hirsch is an applied labor economist whose research focuses on wage determination in U.S. labor markets. Recent work includes the study of union wage gaps, Census earnings imputation methods, and earnings in regulated and previously regulated industries. Hirsch has authored The Economic Analysis of Unions: New Approaches and Evidence (with J. Addison, 1986) and Labor Unions and the Economic Performance of Firms (1991), and is co-editor (with W. Breit) of Lives of the Laureates, 5th ed., MIT Press (2009). Recent publications have appeared in the Journal of Labor Economics and Journal of Human Resources. He is on several editorial boards, including Industrial and Labor Relations Review, Industrial Relations, and the Southern Economic Journal. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Virginia.

He joined IZA as a Research Fellow in March 2003.