There are several significant debates in Hesiodic scholarship over the value of both the ancient biographical tradition and of the autobiographical information in the Hesiodic poems in evaluating the historical life of Hesiod. The scholarly debate does not concern whether there were two historical individuals, one the author of Theogony and the other the author of Works and Days, versus a single author for both works. Instead, the debate hinges around whether a single person, Hesiod, wrote both works (albeit relying on many traditional materials) or whether both works are the product of an oral tradition rather than of singular individuals. Wilhelm Blümer and Mark Griffith assume the existence of an actual historical individual, Hesiod, who is the author of both works, while Gregory Nagy, in writing about Hesiod as well as Homer, takes the more extreme oralist position in which "Hesiod" is a mythical name for the author function of an oral traditional epic.

The authorship of both works, whether their oral and regional character or the composer of the texts in the form into which they were crystallized in their current form, is identical across both poems and distinct from the authorship of other works, including some that have been attributed to Hesiod such as the Catalogue of Women, although there are legitimate arguments concerning possible interpolations within the Hesiodic works.

The type of dactylic hexameter, vocabulary, and frequency of the metrical presence of the digamma are quite similar in both works and quite distinct from Homeric epic. Both works begin with invocations to the Muse, both have kingship as significant themes, and both elevate the role of the poet in society in similar manners. Both also reflect archaic society and have similar concerns about justice.