Hartmut Lehmann was Academic Vice-Director of the Leibniz Institute of East and Southeast European Studies and Professor of Economics at the University of Regensburg from April 2021 until May 2024. Before that he was Professor of Economics at the University of Bologna and has been awarded the honorary title of Alma Mater Professor of Economics of the University of Bologna. From 1999 until May 2023 he was IZA progam director of the area "Labor Markets in Transition and Emerging Economies."

He is an IZA Fellow since September 1999 and is a Research Fellow of IOS. He has been a consultant to the World Bank and the OECD for many years. He was president of the Association of Comparative Economic Studies in the year 2013 and is currently president of the European Association of Comparative Economic Studies. He was one of the editors of the IZA Journal of Development and Migration until the closure of the journal.

He has recently published articles in the American Behavioral Scientist, Economic Systems, the Journal of Comparative Economics, Journal of Health Economics, Economics of Transition, Labour Economics, Industrial Labor Relations Review, Research in Labor Economics, Journal for Labour Market Research, Journal of International Development, and Comparative Economic Studies.