Kerwin joined Yale in 2019 as the Indra K. Nooyi Dean & Frederick W. Beinecke Professor of Economics, Policy, and Management at the Yale School of Management (SOM). He moved to Yale from the University of Chicago, where he was the Edwin A. and Betty L. Bergmann Distinguished Service professor. He has studied and published on a range of topics in labor and applied economics. Among other professional duties, he has served as the vice president of the American Economics Association and is on the Board of several academic and nonprofit entities. He is also a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research. He is an elected Fellow of the Society of Labor Economics; of the American Academy of Political and Social Science; and of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences.