Troy Smith is an economist at the RAND Corporation and professor of policy analysis at the Pardee RAND Graduate School. His research is in applied microeconomics focusing on education, entrepreneurship, development, and labor.
Smith researches productivity in environments where it is difficult to measure, and how the productivity of organizations interacts with the markets in which they operate. Previous research has focused on business in developing countries by examining the effects of private equity investment on Indian firms, and on education in the United States by examining the supply of private schooling and the effect of public-school policies on the private school market.
Before beginning his Ph.D., Smith worked as an economic consultant at Charles River Associates in Boston, as a research associate at Harvard Business School for the required first year M.B.A. strategy course, and as a researcher at the Small Enterprise Finance Center in the Institute for Financial Management and Research in Chennai, India. Smith holds a Ph.D. and M.S. in economics from Stanford University, and a B.S. in economics and international studies with minors in math and African studies from Brigham Young University.
Selected Publications
Hosek, James, Beth J. Asch, Michael G. Mattock, and Troy D. Smith, Military and Civilian Pay Levels, Trends, and Recruit Quality, RAND Corporation (RR-2396-OSD), 2018
Johnston, Trevor, Troy D. Smith, and J. Luke Irwin, Additive Manufacturing in 2040: Powerful Enabler, Disruptive Threat, RAND Corporation (PE-283-RC), 2018
Ries, Charles P., Marco Hafner, Troy D. Smith, Frances G. Burwell, Daniel Egel, Eugeniu Han, Martin Stepanek, and Howard J. Shatz, After Brexit: Alternate forms of Brexit and their implications for the United Kingdom, the European Union and the United States, RAND Corporation (RR-2200-RC), 2017
Miller, Benjamin M., David Metz, Troy D. Smith, Jesse Lastunen, Eric Landree, and Christopher Nelson, Understanding the Economic Benefit Associated with Research and Services at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health: An Approach and Three Case Studies, RAND Corporation (RR-2256-NIOSH), 2017
Joseph P. H. Fan, Jun Huang, Felix Oberholzer-Gee, Troy D. Smith, and Mengxin Zhao, "Diversification of Chinese Companies—An International Comparison," Chinese Management Studies, 2008
Troy D. Smith and Acou Sam Ogojoi "Poverty, AIDS, and Street Children in Uganda," in Donald E. Morisky, W. James Jacob, Yusuf K. Nsubuga, and Steven J. Hite (ed), Overcoming AIDS: Lessons Learned from Uganda, Information Age Publishing, 2006