Keith's research on the impact of pandemics on educational attainment, looking at the polio epidemic of 1916, has - in part due to the onset of the coronavirus - had a significant impact, both academically and in the wider public sphere. His work has been featured, most notably, on the popular Vox podcast 'The Weeds', received coverage in the Star Tribune and on the American Enterprise Institute, and is being published as a policy paper by the French Central Bank.