Thomas Bauer is currently professor of economics at the University of Bochum (Ruhr-Universität Bochum). He studied economics at the University of Munich and received his degree as Diplom-Volkswirt in 1993. From 1993-1997 he worked as research associate at SELAPO, University of Munich. In July 1997 he obtained his doctoral degree from the University of Munich for his dissertation on the labor market effects of immigration and migration policy in Germany. From 1997-1998 Thomas Bauer visited the Rutgers University, USA, under the auspices of a Feodor-Lynen-Fellowship of the Alexander von Humboldt-Foundation. In September 1998 he joined IZA as Senior Research Associate and became IZA Program Director for the Research Area "Mobility and Flexibility of Labor" in July 1999. After joining the faculty of the University of Bochum in 2003, he has continued to maintain close ties with IZA as a Research Fellow. In 2004, he became a member of the executive board and in 2009 Vice-President of the RWI in Essen. Thomas Bauer is also research affiliate of the Center for Comparative Immigration Studies (CCIS) at the University of California-San Diego, USA.

His further research interests include migration, population economics, and applied microeconometrics. He has published several articles in collected volumes and in journals such as Economic Journal, Economica, Labour Economics, Scottish Journal of Political Economy, Journal of Population Economics, Economic Inquiry, and Economics of Education Review.