Alan Krueger

Alan Krueger
Born	Alan Bennett Krueger September 17, 1960
Birthplace	Livingston, New Jersey, U.S.
Died	March 16, 2019 Princeton, New Jersey, U.S.
Nationality	American
Occupation	Economist, professor, government official
Title	James Madison Professor of Political Economy
Employer	Princeton University
Known for	Minimum wage research, labor economics, Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers
Education	Harvard University (PhD)
Spouse(s)	Lisa Simon
Children	2
Awards	Kershaw Prize (1997)

Alan Bennett Krueger (September 17, 1960 – March 16, 2019) was an American economist at Princeton University who also held a post as Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research. A scholar whose work changed how economists think about the labor market, Krueger made innovative use of natural experiments to study some of the most important questions in public policy. He looked at the effects of minimum wage on employment, the economics of education, and the roots of inequality. His research in the 1990s with David Card, which challenged the then-dominant view that raising the minimum wage necessarily reduces employment, became one of the most cited and debated contributions in modern labor economics.

Krueger served in two senior roles under President Barack Obama: as Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Economic Policy from 2009 to 2010, and as chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers from 2011 to 2013. He'd previously served as chief economist at the United States Department of Labor under President Bill Clinton. Research Papers in Economics ranked him among the world's 50 highest-ranked economists. He was a prolific scholar whose work spanned labor economics, macroeconomics, and public finance. He died on March 16, 2019, at age 58.

Early Life

Alan Bennett Krueger was born on September 17, 1960, in Livingston, New Jersey, a suburban community in Essex County. He grew up in New Jersey and developed an early interest in economics and public policy. Publicly available sources don't say much about his family background and childhood, but his later career showed a deep engagement with questions about the American workforce, education, and economic opportunity. Those themes would come to define his scholarly identity.

His upbringing in a middle-class New Jersey community probably shaped his lifelong interest in the economic lives of ordinary workers. That interest ran through decades of his research on wages, employment, and inequality. By college age, he'd set his sights on studying economics at one of the nation's leading universities.

Education

Krueger earned his Bachelor of Science from Cornell University, where he studied economics and industrial and labor relations. Then he pursued graduate studies at Harvard University and earned his doctorate in economics. His doctoral advisors were Lawrence Summers and Richard B. Freeman, both prominent economists whose work in labor economics and public policy influenced his own research trajectory. Under their guidance, Krueger developed the empirical and methodological skills that would become his trademark. He particularly emphasized natural experiments and quasi-experimental methods to study economic questions that theorists had traditionally approached through models alone.

Career

Academic Career at Princeton

After finishing his doctorate, Krueger joined Princeton University's faculty, where he'd spend most of his academic career. He held one of the university's most distinguished positions: the James Madison Professor of Political Economy, a title reflecting his dual engagement with economics and public affairs. His base was the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs (later renamed the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs) and the Department of Economics, where he mentored graduate students and taught labor economics, public finance, and economic policy.

At Princeton, he established himself as one of his generation's most productive and creative empirical economists. His primary fields were labor economics, macroeconomics, and public finance. He was a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research and contributed to wide-ranging scholarly debates. His publications appeared in the discipline's leading journals.

Krueger also stayed active in international academic work. He served on the Executive and Supervisory Committee of CERGE-EI, the Center for Economic Research and Graduate Education – Economics Institute in Prague. This is a joint workplace of Charles University and the Czech Academy of Sciences that trains economists from post-communist countries.

Minimum Wage Research

His most influential contribution to economics was research on minimum wage increases and employment. During the early and mid-1990s, working with David Card, Krueger challenged what economists widely believed: that raising the minimum wage would cause significant job losses, especially among low-wage workers.

The most famous study examined New Jersey's 1992 minimum wage increase from $4.25 to $5.05 per hour. What was the effect on fast-food employment? Card and Krueger surveyed fast-food restaurants in New Jersey and in neighboring eastern Pennsylvania, where the minimum wage hadn't changed. This created a natural experiment allowing them to compare outcomes in the two states. Their finding stunned the profession: employment in New Jersey's fast-food restaurants didn't decrease and may have actually increased following the wage hike. Standard economic models predicted otherwise, and the result ignited fierce debate.

Card and Krueger published their work as academic papers and later expanded it into the book Myth and Measurement: The New Economics of the Minimum Wage (1995). It became one of the most cited and debated works in modern labor economics. Some scholars praised the innovative methodology and policy relevance. Others criticized the data and conclusions. A subsequent study using Bureau of Labor Statistics payroll data largely confirmed their earlier findings.

The Card-Krueger research had lasting impact on academic literature and public policy. It shifted how people debated minimum wage legislation and influenced discussions at federal, state, and local levels in the United States and abroad. Their work is frequently cited in arguments for wage increases. It's been credited with helping to legitimize natural experiments as an economic research tool. That methodological innovation gained recognition when David Card won the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences in 2021 for his labor economics contributions, explicitly including the Card-Krueger minimum wage studies.

Research on Education and Inequality

Beyond minimum wage work, Krueger made important contributions to education economics and the study of economic inequality. He researched class size and student achievement, the economic returns to education, and school quality's effects on the labor market. This work showed the same empirical rigor and innovative data use that defined his minimum wage research.

Krueger also studied inequality and coined the "Great Gatsby Curve." He used this term in a widely cited 2012 speech to describe the inverse relationship between income inequality and intergenerational economic mobility. The concept demonstrated that countries with higher income inequality tend to have lower social mobility rates. It became a key reference point in public discussions about inequality in the United States and internationally.

Later, Krueger turned to new research topics. He examined the economics of the music industry and the opioid crisis. His 2019 book Rockonomics: A Backstage Tour of What the Music Industry Can Teach Us About Economics and Life was published posthumously. It used the music industry as a lens to examine broader economic trends. Superstar economics. Technological disruption. Winner-take-all markets.

Research on Terrorism

Krueger also studied the economics of terrorism. His research explored the socioeconomic backgrounds of people who participate in terrorist activities, challenging the assumption that poverty and lack of education are terrorism's primary drivers. His book What Makes a Terrorist: Economics and the Roots of Terrorism (2007) presented evidence that many terrorists come from middle-class and educated backgrounds. The roots of terrorism, he argued, are more closely linked to political conditions and a lack of civil liberties than to economic deprivation.

Public Service

Krueger served in multiple senior government positions, bringing his academic expertise to real-world policy challenges. His first government role came in 1994–1995, when he served as chief economist at the United States Department of Labor under President Bill Clinton.

In May 2009, President Barack Obama nominated Krueger to serve as Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Economic Policy. He was confirmed and served from May 2009 to October 2010. The United States was grappling with the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis and the deepest recession since the Great Depression. Krueger advised Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner on a wide range of economic policy matters, including how the government would respond to the economic crisis. He returned to Princeton in October 2010.

In August 2011, Obama nominated Krueger to chair the White House Council of Economic Advisers (CEA), replacing Austan Goolsbee. As the 27th CEA chair, he served from November 7, 2011, to August 2, 2013. During this period of gradual recovery from the Great Recession, he advised the president on economic policy. His tenure focused on jobs, inequality, and the labor market. Those topics had been central to his academic work. Jason Furman succeeded him as CEA chair.

After leaving government service in 2013, Krueger returned to Princeton, where he continued research and teaching until his death in 2019.

Personal Life

Krueger was married to Lisa Simon. The couple had two children. They lived in Princeton, New Jersey, where Krueger spent most of his professional life.

On March 16, 2019, Krueger died at his home in Princeton. He was 58 years old. Princeton announced his death on March 18, 2019, describing him as a "brilliant and devoted economist" and noting his profound impact on scholarship and public policy. The New York Times reported that the cause was suicide, according to the police.

His death prompted tributes from colleagues, former students, and policymakers. Former President Barack Obama praised Krueger's contributions to economic policy and his commitment to public service. Numerous economists and commentators noted the significance of his scholarly work and the personal warmth he brought to his interactions with students and colleagues.

Recognition

Krueger received numerous awards over his career. In 1997, he won the Kershaw Prize from the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management. This prize recognizes distinguished contributions to public policy analysis and management by scholars under age 40.

Research Papers in Economics ranked him among the world's 50 highest-ranked economists, based on citation impact and scholarly output. His publications appeared in the discipline's most prominent journals. His books were widely read and debated both within and outside the academy. He was a fellow of the Econometric Society and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He served on editorial boards of several major economics journals. The New York Times maintained a dedicated topics page for Krueger, reflecting his prominence as a public intellectual and policy adviser.

Legacy

Alan Krueger's contributions to economics and public policy continued to influence scholarship and debate after his death. His minimum wage research with David Card remains among the most frequently cited works in labor economics. It played a central role in how empirical methods evolved in the social sciences. Natural experiments that Card and Krueger helped popularize became standard in the economist's toolkit. The approach gained recognition when David Card received the 2021 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences, with the Nobel committee explicitly citing the Card-Krueger minimum wage studies as foundational.

His "Great Gatsby Curve" entered the broader public vocabulary around inequality and social mobility. It's still referenced in academic and policy discussions. His research on education economics, terrorism, and the music industry showed the breadth of his intellectual curiosity. He could bring economic analysis to bear on diverse topics.

As a public servant, Krueger brought an unusual combination of scholarly rigor and practical engagement to his government roles. His work at the Department of Labor, Treasury Department, and Council of Economic Advisers was marked by a commitment to evidence-based policymaking. He believed economics could and should inform the public good.

David Leonhardt of The New York Times wrote that Krueger "devoted part of his career to showing that the economy could work better for most people." His work offered two lessons: the economy wasn't delivering for ordinary workers as well as it could, and well-designed government policies could make a difference.

Princeton University remembered Krueger as "an esteemed labor economist who advised Bill Clinton and Barack Obama during their presidencies." He had a "profound impact" on both the university and the broader world of economic research and policy.