Michael Pammer studied law (J.D., 1985) and history (M.A., 1986, Ph.D.,1991) at the University of Salzburg. In his dissertation (published in 1994) he studies the impact of political reform in the enlightenment period on mentalities in the population.

After his studies, he worked as a Law Clerk at the Trial, Labour and Appelate Court in Linz (1990–1), and as an employee of the Ministry of Science and Research in Vienna (1991–2).

Since 1992, he has been employed at the Department of Social and Economic History of the University of Linz, first as an Assistant Professor, and from 2001 on, as an Associate Professor. In 1994–5 he was Erwin Schrödinger Research Fellow at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis. In his second book (Habilitation), opens an external URL in a new window (published in 2002) he studies the wealth distribution in Austria in the 19th century.

In the fall semester of 2021/2 he was a guest lecturer at the Università degli Studi „Magna Graecia“ di Catanzaro.

His research focuses on the central European economic and social history of the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries.

His topics are
• Convergence and divergence , opens a filein Austria-Hungary, particularly regarding investments, opens a file, the capital market, opens a file, and agriculture,
• the state finances in the 19th century,
• income distribution, wealth formation , opens a fileand wealth distribution, opens a file,
• the occupational structure in the 18th and 19th centuries,
• the agricultural history of the 19th und 20th centuries,
• historical demography, in particular epidemiology,
• institutions , opens a fileand mentalities , opens a filein the 18th and 19th centuries, opens an external URL in a new window,
• the history of national socialism (Jewish wealth , opens an external URL in a new windowand the restitution of expropriated wealth after 1945, opens an external URL in a new window), and
• the history of industry, trade and commerce in Austria.

He was a member of the Commission for the History of the Habsburg Empire in the Austrian Academy of Sciences (2008–11) und a member of the advisory board of the Central European Digital Economic and Social History Archive (ZEDHIA, opens an external URL in a new window) (2012–15).

He is a member of the European Network for the Comparative History of Population Geography and Occupational Structure from 1500 to the present (ENCHOS), opens an external URL in a new window.

Together with Mark Spoerer, Ali Coskun Tuncer und Ulrich Woitek, he is co-editor of the book series „Economy and History, opens an external URL in a new window“ at Mohr Siebeck’s.

Research projects: State finances in the 19th century; income distribution in Cisleithania before 1914; infant diseases and infant mortality in the 19th century; agricultural history of the 19th century; occupational structure from the 17th to the 19th centuries.