Dániel Horn graduated from the Budapest University of Economics in 2002 where he was a member of the Rajk College. He continued his studies at the Central European University, where he obtained an MA and a PhD in Political Science. Between 2002 and 2007 he worked for the National Institute of Public Education, and then spent the year 2007 at the European Center for Social Research (MZES) in Mannheim. He joined the Institute of Economics in 2008. He spent the 2012/13 academic year as Max Weber postdoctoral fellow at the European University Institute in Florence.
Since August 2019, he has been the director of the Institute of Economics and the head of the Education Economics and Labour Market Unit. His research interests include the impact of educational institutions on efficiency and equity, and the impact of individual cognitive and non-cognitive skills on success in schools. He has taught at the Rajk, Széchenyi, Bibó and Angelusz Colleges for Advanced Studies. Between 2010 and 2020, he was a part-time member of ELTEcon. Since February 2020, he has been a part-time associate professor at the Institute of Economics at the Corvinus University of Budapest.
