Mark Schaffer is Professor of Economics at Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, UK. Prof. Schaffer graduated magna cum laude from Harvard University in 1982, and holds degrees in economics from Stanford University (MA, 1985) and the London School of Economics (MSc, 1983 and PhD, 1990). His fields of research include transition and emerging economies, labour markets, applied econometrics, economic history, quantitative criminology and energy economics.

Prof. Schaffer is also a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and of the Royal Society of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce, and a Research Fellow of the Centre for Economic Policy Research in London. He has worked in the past for organizations such as the IMF, the World Bank, EBRD, the United Nations, and the Department for International Development of the UK Government.

He joined IZA as a Research Fellow in October 1999.