Keith Vorkink

Keith Vorkink earned an undergraduate degree in economics at Brigham Young University in 1994. He then went on to the University of Rochester, where he earned an MA then and a PhD in 2000. After working for a year as an assistant professor at Bryant College, he returned to his alma mater. He has taught in the BYU Marriott School of Management since then, first as an assistant professor, then an associate professor, and, since 2011, as a full professor. He has also been a visiting professor for the MIT Sloan School of Management and associate dean in the Marriott School, where he held the Douglas and Effie Driggs Professorship in Finance. In 2020, he became BYU’s advancement vice president.

Vorkink focuses his research on behavioral economics and on asset pricing. More specifically, he studies how variance or skewness in a security’s payoff distribution and the preferences of investors affect asset pricing. His work has appeared in the Journal of Finance, Review of Financial Studies, Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Journal of Econometrics, and other top finance publications. He has also given more than forty presentations at universities and conferences across the nation and internationally, in countries such as Canada, England, and China. He is a member of the American Finance Association, the Western Finance Association, and the Econometric Society.

Vorkink and his wife, Marcie, have four children: Sarah, Eric, Elizabeth, and Annika. The Vorkinks have lived in New York, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts and now in Mapleton, Utah.

In his devotional address, Vorkink discussed the importance of drawing correct spiritual inferences through the help of the Holy Ghost—and knowing when and how not to draw those inferences. His economic experience with correlation and causation, as well as his personal experiences with the gospel, give insight and depth to his words and testimony.