Hans Gersbach studied economics at the University of Basel in Switzerland, where he received his Masters Degree in mathematics in 1984. In the following year he obtained the Masters Degree in actuarial science and his Masters Degree in economics in 1986. After he completed his doctoral thesis in 1990 he worked as a management consultant with McKinsey & Co. in Switzerland.

From 1992 to 1993 he was Research Project Manager at the McKinsey Global Institute in Washington, DC. After that he was Assistant Professor of Economics at the University of Basel and visiting scholar at the University of California in Los Angeles. In 1995 he received his post-doctoral degree (Habilitation) in economics.

In 1995 Hans Gersbach was appointed a Full Professor for economic policy at the University of Heidelberg, Germany. Since 2006 he is Professor for Macroeconomics: Innovation and Policy and Director of CER-ETH at ETH Zurich.

He has published in journals such as American Economic Review, Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Journal of Public Economics, Review of Economic Studies and European Economic Review.

His main fields of research are in Macroeconomics, Political Economy and Industrial Organization.

Hans Gersbach joined IZA as a Research Fellow in September 2000.