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Kerwin K. Charles

Kerwin K. Charles

Indra K. Nooyi Dean & Frederick W. Beinecke Professor of Economics, Policy, and Management

Kerwin joined Yale in 2019 as the Indra K. Nooyi Dean and Frederick W. Beinecke Professor of Economics, Policy, and Management at the Yale School of Management (SOM). He was just reappointed to his second term.

As Dean of SOM, Kerwin has overseen the creation of the Broad Center at Yale SOM for training education leaders, worked with the City of New Haven to establish the Yale/New Haven Center for Inclusive Growth, launched a new degree in Asset Management, and introduced two new joint degrees with the Yale School of Engineering.

In his scholarly work, Kerwin has published on a range of topics in labor and applied economics, with much of his work touching on different dimensions of labor market inequality.

Kerwin has served as the vice president of the American Economics Association and is a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research. He is a Fellow of the Society of Labor Economics; of the American Academy of Political and Social Science; and of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences. 

Education

  • PhD, Cornell University, 1996
  • MS, Cornell University, 1993
  • BS, University of Miami, 1989

Selected Works

Articles

Imposing Policy on Reluctant Actors: The Hospital Desegregation Campaign and Black Postneonatal Mortality in the Deep South
D.M. Anderson, K. K. Charles, and D.I. Rees
The Review of Economics and Statistics 
2025 forthcoming

Trade Competition and the Decline in Union Organizing: Evidence from Union Certification Elections
K. K. Charles, M. Johnson and Nagisa Tadjfar
Journal of Labor Economics
2025 forthcoming

The Effects of Sexism on American Women: The Role of Norms vs. Discrimination 
K. K. Charles, J. Guryan, and J. Pan
Journal of Human Resources
Volume 60, Issue 3, pp. 693-743
2025

Demand Conditions and Worker Safety: Evidence from Price Shocks in Mining
K. K. Charles, M. S. Johnson, M. Stephens Jr., and D. Q. Lee
Journal of Labor Economics
Volume 40, Issue 1
January 2022

Re-Examining the Contribution of Public Health Efforts and the Decline in Urban Mortality
D. M. Anderson, K.K. Charles, and D. Rees
American Economic Journal: Applied Economics
Volume14, Issue 2, pp. 126-157 
April 2022

Leisure Luxuries and the Labor Supply of Young Men
M. Aguiar, M. Bils, K. K. Charles, and E. Hurst
Journal of Political Economy
Volume 129, Issue 2, pp 337-382
2021

Occupational Licensing and Maternal Health: Evidence from Early Midwifery Laws 
D. M. Anderson, R. Brown, K. K. Charles, and D. I. Rees
Journal of Political Economy
Volume 128, Issue 11
2020

Housing Booms and Busts, Labor Market Opportunities, and College Attendance 
K. K. Charles, E. Hurst, and M. J. Notowidigdo
American Economic Review
Volume 108, Issue 10, pp 2947-94
2018

Divergent Paths: A New Perspective on Earnings Differences Between Black and White Men Since 1940
P. Bayer and K. K. Charles
The Quarterly Journal of Economics
Volume 133, Issue 3, pp 1459-1501
2018

Conspicuous Consumption and Race
K. K. Charles, E. Hurst, and N. Roussanov
The Quarterly Journal of Economics
Volume 124, Issue 2, pp 425-67
2009

Prejudice and Wages: An Empirical Assessment of Becker’s "The Economics of Discrimination"
K. K. Charles and J. Guryan
Journal of Political Economy
Volume 116, Issue 5, pp 773-809
2008

Working Papers

The Long Road to Equality: Racial Capital and Generational Convergence
P. J. Bayer, K. K.Charles, and J. Y. Park
NBER WP#33690
Under Review