Kerwin joined Yale in 2019 as the Indra K. Nooyi Dean and Frederic D. Wolfe Professor of Economics, Policy, and Management at the Yale School of Management (SOM). Previously, he was the Edwin A. and Betty L. Bergmann Distinguished Service professor at the University of Chicago. He has studied and published on a range of topics including earnings and wealth inequality, conspicuous consumption, race and gender labor market discrimination, health and the labor market, the effects of housing booms and busts, and non-employment in the economy. 

Among other professional duties, Kerwin recently 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; a fellow of the American Academy of Political and Social Science; and an elected fellow of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences.