Alan Bennett Krueger (September 17, 1960 – March 16, 2019) was an American

economist An economist is a professional and practitioner in the social science discipline of economics. The individual may also study, develop, and apply theories and concepts from economics and write about economic policy. Within this field there are ...

who was the

James Madison James Madison Jr. (March 16, 1751June 28, 1836) was an American statesman, diplomat, and Founding Father. He served as the fourth president of the United States from 1809 to 1817. Madison is hailed as the "Father of the Constitution" for h ...

Professor of Political Economy at

Princeton University Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the ...

and Research Associate at the

National Bureau of Economic Research The National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) is an American private nonprofit research organization "committed to undertaking and disseminating unbiased economic research among public policymakers, business professionals, and the academic c ...

. He served as Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Economic Policy, nominated by President

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the ...

, from May 2009 to October 2010, when he returned to Princeton. He was nominated in 2011 by Obama as chair of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, and served in that office from November 2011 to August 2013. He was among the 50 highest ranked economists in the world according to

Research Papers in Economics Research Papers in Economics (RePEc) is a collaborative effort of hundreds of volunteers in many countries to enhance the dissemination of research in economics. The heart of the project is a decentralized database of working papers, preprints, ...

Early life and education

Krueger grew up in a

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

family in

Livingston, New Jersey Livingston is a township in Essex County, New Jersey. As of the 2010 U.S. census, the township's population was 29,366, reflecting an increase of 1,975 (+7.2%) from the 27,391 counted in the 2000 Census. In 2019, the Population Estimates Prog ...

, and graduated from Livingston High School in 1979. Krueger received his

B.S. A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University ...

from the

Cornell University School of Industrial and Labor Relations The New York State School of Industrial and Labor Relations at Cornell University (ILR) is an industrial relations school and one of the four New York State contract colleges at Cornell University, located in Ithaca, New York, United States. The ...

(with honors), and he received his A.M. and

Ph.D. A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is ...

Economics Economics () is the social science that studies the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. Economics focuses on the behaviour and interactions of economic agents and how economies work. Microeconomics analyzes ...

from

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...

in 1985 and 1987, respectively.

Career

Krueger began teaching at Princeton University in 1987, and successively held the Bendheim Professorship in Economics and Public Affairs and the James Madison Professorship in Political Economy. Krueger developed and applied the method of

natural experiment A natural experiment is an empirical study in which individuals (or clusters of individuals) are exposed to the experimental and control conditions that are determined by nature or by other factors outside the control of the investigators. The pro ...

s to study the effect of education on earnings, the minimum wage on employment, and other issues. Krueger compared restaurant jobs in New Jersey, which raised its minimum wage, to restaurant jobs in Pennsylvania, which did not, and found that restaurant employment in New Jersey increased, while it decreased in Pennsylvania. The results reinvigorated the academic debate on the employment effects of minimum wages and spawned a large literature. His books, ''Education Matters: Selected Essays by Alan B. Krueger'' and (with

James Heckman James Joseph Heckman (born April 19, 1944) is a Nobel Prize-winning American economist at the University of Chicago, where he is The Henry Schultz Distinguished Service Professor in Economics and the College; Professor at the Harris School of Pu ...

) ''Inequality in America: What Role for Human Capital Policies?'' reviewed the available research relating to positive

externalities In economics, an externality or external cost is an indirect cost or benefit to an uninvolved third party that arises as an effect of another party's (or parties') activity. Externalities can be considered as unpriced goods involved in either co ...

accruing to society from increased government investment in educating the children of the poor. In ''Inequality in America'', he writes: In his book, ''What Makes a Terrorist: Economics and the Roots of Terrorism'' (2007), he wrote that in contrast to the assumption that terrorists come from impoverished, uneducated environments, terrorists often come from middle-class, college-educated backgrounds. In 1994–95, he served as Chief Economist at the

United States Department of Labor The United States Department of Labor (DOL) is one of the executive departments of the U.S. federal government. It is responsible for the administration of federal laws governing occupational safety and health, wage and hour standards, unemploy ...

. He received the Kershaw Prize, Mahalanobis Prize, and IZA Prize (with

David Card David Edward Card (born 1956) is a Canadian-American labour economist and professor of economics at the University of California, Berkeley. He was awarded half of the 2021 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences "for his empirical contributio ...

), and was a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Society of Labor Economists, Econometric Society and American Academy of Political and Social Science. He was a member of the Executive and Supervisory Committee (ESC) of

CERGE-EI The Center for Economic Research and Graduate Education – Economics Institute, known as CERGE-EI () is an academic institution in Prague, Czech Republic, specialised in economics. The institute is a partnership between the Center for Economi ...

, an academic institution located in

Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and List of cities in the Czech Republic, largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 milli ...

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, or simply Czechia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Historically known as Bohemia, it is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the southeast. The ...

. On March 7, 2009, he was nominated by President

to be Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Economic Policy. In October 2010, he announced his resignation from the Treasury Department, to return to Princeton University. On August 29, 2011, he was nominated by Obama to be chair of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, and on November 3, 2011, the Senate unanimously confirmed his nomination. He also published several books on issues related to education, labor markets and income distribution. He was also known for his work on the

Environmental Kuznets Curve The Kuznets curve () expresses a hypothesis advanced by economist Simon Kuznets in the 1950s and 1960s. According to this hypothesis, as an economy develops, market forces first increase and then decrease economic inequality. The Kuznets curve ...

. Between 2000 and 2006 he wrote for ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'' Economic Scene column.

Uber Uber Technologies, Inc. (Uber), based in San Francisco, provides mobility as a service, ride-hailing (allowing users to book a car and driver to transport them in a way similar to a taxi), food delivery (Uber Eats and Postmates), packa ...

paid Krueger about $100,000 in 2015 to write in support of its job-creation model. Krueger signed a 2018 ''amici curiae'' brief that expressed support for Harvard University in the '' Students for Fair Admissions v. President and Fellows of Harvard College'' lawsuit.

Personal life

Krueger was married to Lisa Simon and had two children.

Death and legacy

Krueger was found dead at his home in

Princeton Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the ni ...

on March 16, 2019. His family stated the cause of death was suicide. In a statement, former President Obama declared: "Alan was someone who was deeper than numbers on a screen and charts on a page," adding, "He saw economic policy not as a matter of abstract theories, but as a way to make people's lives better." His death was commemorated by ''

The Economist ''The Economist'' is a British weekly newspaper printed in demitab format and published digitally. It focuses on current affairs, international business, politics, technology, and culture. Based in London, the newspaper is owned by The Eco ...

'' with a full-page obituary running in their ''Free Exchange'' column.

, co-author with Krueger of their influential 1994 paper on the effect of raising the minimum wage, stated that it was "unambiguously clear" that if Krueger were still alive, he would have shared in Card's 2021

Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences The Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences, officially the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel ( sv, Sveriges riksbanks pris i ekonomisk vetenskap till Alfred Nobels minne), is an economics award administered ...

Books

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References

External links

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