Alan B. Krueger - Biography

Alan Bennett Krueger (born September 17, 1960) is an American economist, Bendheim Professor of Economics and Public Affairs at Princeton University and Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research. On March 7, 2009, he was nominated by President Barack Obama to be United States Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for economic policy. In October 2010, he announced his resignation from the Treasury Department, to return to Princeton University. He is among the 50 highest ranked economists in the world according to IDEAS/RePEc. On August 29, 2011, he was nominated by Obama to be chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, and on November 3, 2011, the Senate unanimously confirmed his nomination.

Early life

Krueger grew up in Livingston, New Jersey, and graduated from Livingston High School in 1979. He is of German descent.

Career

Krueger developed and applied the method of natural experiments 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 were later disputed.

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.

From 1994-95 he served as Chief Economist at the United States Department of Labor. He received the Kershaw Prize, Mahalanobis Prize, and IZA Prize (with David Card), and is 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 is a member of the Executive and Supervisory Committee (ESC) of CERGE-EI, an academic institution located in Prague, Czech Republic.

Krueger received his Bachelor's degree from Cornell University's School of Industrial & Labor Relations (with honors), and in 1987 he received his Ph.D. in Economics from Harvard University. He has also published many books on issues related to education, labor markets and income distribution. He is also known for his work on the Environmental Kuznets Curve. Between 2000 and 2006 he wrote for the New York Times Economic Scene column.

Books

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External links

• Home page
• New York Times Economic Scene Columns
• IDEAS/RePEc

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