Lynn A. Karoly

Biography

Lynn Karoly is a senior economist at the RAND Corporation. A labor economist, Karoly joined RAND in 1988. Her recent research has focused on human capital investments, social welfare policy, child and family well-being, and U.S. labor markets. In the area of child policy, she recently completed a multifaceted study of preschool education in California, documented in a series of reports and two RAND monographs. Related research has examined the economics of investing in universal preschool in California, early care and educaton among immigrant children, the costs and benefits of early childhood programs, and the use of benefit-cost analysis more generally to evaluate social programs. Other recent research has focused on the labor market impacts of Hurricane Katrina; self-employment and retirement patterns among older workers; the effects of welfare reform policies of the 1990s on family and child well-being; the future of the workforce and workplace in the United States; and human capital, labor market, and demographic policies in the Middle East. From 1995 to 2003, Karoly served as director of RAND Labor and Population. Her professional service includes her current role as an associate editor for the Journal of Benefit-Cost Analysis and prior service as a coeditor for The Journal of Human Resources. Karoly received her B.A. in economics and mathematics from Claremont McKenna (Men's) College and her M.A., M.Phil., and Ph.D. in economics from Yale University.