Elizabeth Hoffman graduated from Smith College with a B.A. in history. She went on to earn an M.A. and a Ph.D. in history from the University of Pennsylvania in 1969 and 1972, respectively. Her dissertation, Sources of Mortality Changes in Italy Since Unification, combined history, demography, and economic history. It was published by Arno Press in 1981. She was a founding member of the Cliometric Society, an organization focused on promoting mathematics, economics, and history. She taught economics and history, and also earned a Ph.D. in social science/economics from California Institute of Technology in 1979. After a distinguished career as a professor of economics, specializing in the new field of experimental economics, she came to Iowa State as dean of liberal arts and sciences in 1993. She went on to become Provost at the University of Illinois at Chicago and System President at the University of Colorado, returning to Iowa State as Executive Vice President and Provost in 2007. Since 2012, she has been professor of economics.