Ken Troske, Ph.D.
Professor, Richard W. and Janis H. Furst Endowed Chair in Economics, Chair - Department of Economics
Education
- Ph.D. University of Chicago, 1992
- M.A. University of Chicago, 1986
- B.A. University of Washington, 1984
Kenneth R. Troske, Ph.D., is the Richard W. and Janis H. Furst Endowed Chair in Economics and Chair of the Department of Economics at the University of Kentucky. Previously, Troske was the Associate Dean for Graduate Programs and Outreach and the Senior Associate Dean in the College. Prior to moving to Kentucky, Troske was an assistant and an associate professor of economics at the University of Missouri. He received his Ph.D. in economics in 1992 from the University of Chicago and his undergraduate degree in economics from the University of Washington in 1984. Throughout his career, Troske has helped influence national economic policy previously serving as a commissioner on the U.S. Commission on Evidence-Based Policymaking, on the federal Advisory Committee on Data for Evidence Building and on a National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine panel on improving economic and social mobility in the United States. His primary research areas are labor and human resource economics. Troske has authored a number of widely known papers utilizing employer-employee matched data on topics such as education, productivity, technology and discrimination. His most recent work has focused on the labor-market returns to postsecondary education, the effectiveness of workforce development and job training programs in the U.S., and the role of human capital in promoting the economic growth of a region. His papers have appeared in many leading journals in economics including the Journal of Political Economy, Quarterly Journal of Economics, Journal of Labor Economics, Journal of Human Resources, Review of Economics and Statistics, and the American Economic Review.
While at UK, Troske has served as the chair of the Department of Economics, the senior associate dean overseeing faculty, administration and research, and the associate dean for graduate programs and outreach. He teaches courses in labor economics to both undergraduate and graduate students and managerial economics and human resource management in the MBA program. Troske currently serves as a co-editor of the Southern Economic Journal and on the Federal Advisory Committee on Data for Evidence Building and on the Bluegrass Workforce Innovation Board. Previously he served on the Commission for Evidence Based Policy Making, the Federal Congressional Oversight Panel and the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland’s Lexington Advisory Committee. Troske received his B.A. from the University of Washington and his M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Chicago.
Teaching Expertise:
- Labor Economics
- Managerial Economics
Research Expertise:
- Labor Economic
- Applied Micro-Economics
Selected Publications
- “Estimates of Earnings Returns by Field of Study for For-Profit Schools and Community Colleges” (with Christopher Jepsen, Peter Mueser and Kyung-Seong Jeon), Economics of Education Review, forthcoming.
- “The Benefits of Alternatives to Conventional College: Labor-Market Returns to For-Profit Schooling and Community Colleges.” (with Christopher Jepsen and Peter Mueser) Journal of Human Resources, forthcoming.
- “Second Chance for High School Dropouts? A Regression Discontinuity Analysis of Postsecondary Educational Returns to the GED,” (with Christopher Jepsen and Peter Mueser), Journal of Labor Economics, (July 2017) S273-S304.
- “Labor-Market Returns to the GED Using Regression Discontinuity Analysis,” (with Christopher Jepsen and Peter Mueser), Journal of Political Economy, (June 2016): 621-649.
- “The Labor-Market Returns for Community College Degrees, Diplomas, and Certificates” with Christopher Jepsen and Paul Coomes, Journal of Labor Economics, (April 2014): 95-121.
