Keane has built an academic career that establishes him as one of the foremost experts on economic choice modeling. A prolific contributor to top journals in economics and marketing, Keane’s 1996 paper with Tulin Erdem in Marketing Science is considered foundational in consumer learning and brand equity literature. His Econometrica paper the following year with economist Kenneth Wolpin holds the same esteem in the field of human capital. The GHK economic algorithm is named partially for him, and he won the 2008 Kenneth J. Arrow Award for best paper in health economics.
Keane joins Carey Business School from the University of New South Wales in Australia, where he was a professor of economics and Australian Research Council laureate fellow. Prior to UNSW, he was the Nuffield Professor of Economics at the University of Oxford. His tenured academic career began in 1993 at the University of Minnesota, followed by New York University, Yale, and the University of Technology Sydney. His economics PhD is from Brown University, and his bachelor’s degree in the field is from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
“In recent years I’ve been doing more and more health-related research, and the strengths of Johns Hopkins and Carey Business School in that area are very attractive to me,” said Keane, who officially joined the Carey faculty in January.
In addition to his seminal work in econometrics, Keane has served in several policy-related roles, including as a consultant to the Australian Federal Treasury, an international research fellow for the Institute for Fiscal Studies, and a member of the National Institutes of Health Social Sciences Panel. Carey Vice Dean for Faculty and Research Goker Aydin called him a towering figure in economics and quantitative marketing.
“By training his inquisitive talent on health care questions, Michael will surely make contributions that will improve health policy,” Aydin said. “We are delighted that he chose Carey and Johns Hopkins as his academic home for this exciting research agenda.”
The Wm. Polk Carey Distinguished Professorships were established as part of a $25 million gift from the W. P. Carey Foundation in 2020. They are named in honor of William Polk Carey, whose $50 million contribution to Johns Hopkins University in 2006 was the catalyst for the founding of Carey Business School. Keane is the second renowned professor to be installed with a chair; the first was digital health research pioneer Ritu Agarwal, in October 2022. Agarwal joined Carey Business School from the University of Maryland Smith School of Business, where she had also served as interim dean in 2019.
“We are privileged to have Michael here at Carey Business School,” said Dean Alex Triantis. “His contributions to the field of economics are extraordinary, and thanks to the generosity of the Carey Foundation, his impact here will set a tone for generations to come.”
In addition to his ongoing research, Keane will teach customer analytics at Carey Business School in the fall.
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About Johns Hopkins Carey Business School
Grounded in the Johns Hopkins legacy of excellence and research, Johns Hopkins Carey Business School shapes business leaders who seize opportunity, inspire change, and create lasting value. We bring a modern business perspective to Johns Hopkins by shaping leaders who build for what’s next ®. With locations in Baltimore, MD, and Washington, D.C., Carey offers full-time, part-time, and online MBA and MS degree programs, and executive education programs for the global marketplace that are data-driven and built to compete in an everchanging business world. Carey’s faculty are thought-leaders, trailblazing what’s next in the business world and in the classroom. And at Carey, we learn by doing. For more information, visit carey.jhu.edu.