Director of Undergraduate Studies and Honors Advisor

Subject Areas: Labor Economics, Public Economics, Public Policy Analysis, Social Policy

Kenneth Couch received his Ph.D. in economics from the University of Wisconsin. His research interests include a wide ranging set of topics dealing with disadvantaged groups in society and the labor market and public policies designed to assist them. He has written extensively about the experiences of workers who experience layoff, groups who are historically discriminated against in the labor market, and evaluated the effects of many different public programs such as workfare and Social Security. Professor Couch is currently Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Policy Analysis and Management.

Education: Ph.D., Economics, University of Wisconsin, 1992 M.Sc., Economics, University of Wisconsin, 1989 M.Phil., Monetary Economics, University of Glasgow, 1984 B.A., Economics and Philosophy, University of Tennessee, 1982

Courses Taught: — Labor Economics (undergraduate and PhD)

Research Interests: Economic Mobility, Job Displacement, Minimum Wages, Inequality, Employment Training, Program Evaluation, Life Course Events

Selected Publications

Lifecycle Events and Economic Security:  The Roles of Job Loss, Disability and Changing Family Structure (2013) Eds.  Kenneth A. Couch, Mary Daly, and Julie Zissimopoulos.  Stanford University Press.

Counting the Poor: New Thinking About European Poverty Measures and Lessons for the U.S. (2012) Eds. Douglas J. Besharov and Kenneth A. Couch, New York: Oxford University Press.

“Earnings Impacts of Job Displacement Revisited,” American Economic Review (2010) 100(1), 572-589 (with Dana Placzek).

“Last Hired, First Fired? Black-White Unemployment and the Business Cycle,” Demography (2010) 47(1), 227-247 (with Robert Fairlie).

 

Google Scholar Page:  http://scholar.google.com/citations?user=GScR_hcAAAAJ&hl=en